10/30/77

Scripture: II Timothy 3: 14-17.

It was the 17th of April in the year of our Lord 1521, more than 456 years ago, that a German monk, Professor Martin Luther, stood before his accusers at the Diet of Worms. The examining official, Eck by name, pressing Father Martin with a charge of heresy, demanded that Luther answer candidly and “without horns, do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?” Luther replied to the assembly, “Since your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason --- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

Luther had long since decided, from his understanding of the Scriptures, that one is justified not by papal decree but by faith alone. His testimony at Worms was not a sudden act of defiance. Numerous responsible people had long criticized some of the beliefs and practices of the Roman church. The popes were so far intent upon building a splendid cathedral-type church and headquarters in Rome that they allowed some of their loyal supporters to stoop to shameful devices to raise money for Rome.

One of those whose proclamations most offended Luther was a Dominican named Tetzel. Tetzel and his cohorts were going among the faithful of the German parishes not far from Luther’s area offering “indulgence” for money. Acting on the belief that all souls, after death, enter purgatory for a long time in order to be absolved from their sins of a lifetime on earth before entering heaven, Tetzel assured those who prayed for loved ones in purgatory that, for the payment of money, an indulgence could be granted which would greatly shorten the stay of the departed in purgatory. It could probably shorten one’s own anticipated stay in purgatory. So “pay up now” and enjoy the benefit! But especially remember those who cry out to you from purgatory: “Will you let us lie here in flames --- we who bore you, nourished you, brought you up, left you our fortunes? Will you delay our promised glory when you could set us free for so little?” Remember that you are able to release them (this was the reminder from men like Tetzel); for

“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings

The soul from purgatory springs.”

The “sales pitch” would go something like this: “Will you not then, for a quarter of a florin, receive these letters of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and immortal soul into the fatherland of paradise?” Well, such harangues were not being delivered in Wittenberg, where Luther lived and taught and preached, because the ruling spirit of Frederick the Wise prohibited them. But Tetzel was just over the border, not too far away for Luther’s parishioners to make a short journey and return with the pardoning papers.

All of this was too much for Luther. He spoke out by writing up 95 theses for debate and nailing them up on the door of the Castle Church for everyone to see. That was on All Saints Eve, 1517, just 460 years ago this Hallowe’en. There was a lot to be debated, and Luther was not the only one to point out the errors and inconsistencies and evils which characterized too much of the Roman church leadership of that time. A century and a half before the German Luther faced his crisis, John Wyclif in England proclaimed his belief in the supreme authority of the Scriptures rather than the dictates of the Bishop of Rome. And that was a heresy in the eyes of the pope and his loyal followers. Somewhat later than Wyclif, John Hus, a Czech in Bohemia, held to the supreme authority of the Scriptures. Wyclif had to retire from his parish and died at the age of 56. John Hus was condemned as a “Wyclifite heretic” and was burned at the stake. I am told that our good neighbors, the Moravian churches, trace their spiritual ancestry back to John Hus, and thus lay claim to being the oldest of the Protestant denominations of our time. More than a decade ago they celebrated the 500th anniversary of their Moravian church denomination.

There are those who are inclined to date the Protestant Reformation from the time when Luther nailed up his 59 theses for debate on the Castle Church door. Probably that is the reason for us to celebrate Reformation Sunday nearest Hallowe’en, and to speak, now, as if the Reformation happened exactly 460 years ago. Actually, the Reformation is much more than an event. It is a continuing process of renewal. It had been going on for centuries; and it is still going on!

It was nearly two centuries after Wyclif before there came to be what we may call a Protestant church in England.

There was 3 1/2 years of debate and theological turmoil between the time when Luther nailed up his theses and the time when he stood up at the Diet of Worms to defend himself of the charge of heresy. There were decades --- there were centuries --- of effort to “Reform” the church. The debates over papal authority and theological doctrine cost the lives of many who were martyred.

Over in Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin led the Protestant movement which spread over much of that nation and a great deal of France, Scotland, and the Low countries. Calvin was a truly great thinker, and a skillful organizer, who left his mark permanently on this changing world. Leader of the Reformation amongst the German-speaking people of Switzerland, was Zwingli. Though his greatest activity paralleled the time of Luther, Zwingli was not a disciple of Luther and professed to know little of Luther’s doctrine and activity. He developed his own convictions, and his own differences with the Church of Rome. Eventually, he was killed in a battle with Roman Catholic forces invading Zurich from Forest Cantons.

These giants of the Reformation are but a few of those who, in their day, led in the Reformation movement and whose influence brought about the beginnings of the Protestant churches. Many of them had no expectation of really leaving the Roman church --- the only church of their experience. They wanted it corrected, purified, spiritually renewed. And it must be said that some of this temperament has continued within that church. Within the last few decades of our own lifetime, especially since Pope John, there have been remarkable changes in Roman Catholic churches.

But there have been those who felt that they must finally be separated from that church, or were cut off from its communion, and whose leadership brought many of our present Protestant churches into being. The several Synods of the Lutheran communion look to Martin Luther as their founding father. Churches of the Presbyterian order trace their origin back to Calvin. Some Reformed churches sprang from the leadership of Zwingli, some from Calvin.

Back in the 16th century, there was enough restlessness in the Church of England so that King Henry VIII could make a daring political move. At his insistence, the authority of the pope was overthrown in England and the British king was made the “only supreme head of the Church of England.” Not much change in doctrine or liturgy or organization occurred, and it was hardly truly Protestant. But the Church in England definitely left the church of Rome by that act of the year 1534. There was growing in England a conviction, on the part of many, that it was the right of every person to come into direct relations with the heavenly Father, no priestly mediator being necessary. This conviction had grown among some, ever since the days of Wyclif. For many Englishmen had been reading the Bible, as most continental Europeans had not, since Scripture reading and interpretation was left to the scholarly priesthood.

By the time another quarter century had passed since the Church of England had become independent from Rome, there was a strong party of people who wished to “purify the Church of England, not only until it should be rid of all taint of papal authority, but also purged of those false doctrines which lay behind the immorality of the people.” These folk were not content with changes in church government. They were passionately united in a desire to accomplish a moral reformation. And from this fact, they became known as “Puritans.” The Puritans generally believed that the best way to proceed was to remain in the Church of England and there work steadily and patiently to purge it of its errors. However, there were sharp differences of opinion. A small and very radical segment of the Puritans held that the Church of England had become so corrupt that the only way that any reformation could occur was for them to be entirely separated from it. They felt that those who loved it, and wanted it Re formed, would have to work from outside the established church. This smaller party became known as “Separatists.”

These Separatists attempted to meet for a simply type of worship and to talk of their common faith. But they soon found that English law forbade them to hold any religious services not following the ritual prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. So their meetings were held to be illegal and bitter persecution resulted. The oppression against them only tended toward more intense convictions on their part. A group of Separatists became a small congregation in London about 1567, but was broken up and scattered. A talented man named Robert Browne outlined the first definite statement of church government principles later used by Congregationalists. But he never really worked them out, and, before his death, returned to the communion of the Church of England.

Some twenty years later, about 1587, there again appeared traces of Separatists meeting in London. Three of the leaders, Henry Barrowe, John Greenwood, and John Penry, suffered arrest for their Separatist doctrines. In 1593 those three men were hanged because they would not give up their convictions.

Sometime after 1603, the first permanent, successful church of the Separatist people of the Pilgrim faith was established in the little town of Scrooby in northern England. The members, most of them farmers, were a strong and stable kind of people in a region of high level as to religious life. They were fortunate to have excellent leadership. William Brewster was the Scrooby postmaster and he lived in a house big enough so that people could come together at his place for worship. William Bradford, later to be an outstanding colonial leader, came from a neighboring village. The pastor of the flock, the Rev. John Robinson, was learned, practical, and devoted.

Their secret assembling, however, soon brought upon themselves the hostility of the government police. Meetings were broken up and members were arrested. They soon decided to move to the continent, and went to Leyden in Holland. There the congregation grew until it numbered nearly 300 souls. Their pastor, John Robinson, was accorded honorable position in the city and was recognized as a leader in the theological discussions of the time.

But there was little reasonable hope for permanent growth for an English-speaking church in a foreign land. And the children of these Pilgrims were being absorbed into Dutch life. At length, the decision was reached to move to the new land across the Atlantic ocean, provided they could get royal consent from England. After very difficult negotiations were completed, 102 of these people, most of them members of the Scrooby-Leyden church, set out for the new land as passengers on the Mayflower. And you know most of the story of their passage, their landing far to the north of their anticipated destination, their desperate struggle for survival through the New England winter of 1620-21, and their stubborn continuance in the new land. Brewster, Bradford, Carver, Fuller, and Myles Standish were leaders of the group which went to New England. Pastor John Robinson stayed behind with the rest of his flock and he never got to New England.

When Mrs. Kingdon and I were visiting that area for a few days in May of 1970, we visited the Peterskerke in Leiden and we saw the memorial tablet to the Pilgrims in that church.

As Pastor Robinson saw that traveling part of his flock ready to board ship at Delftshaven, he charged the departing Pilgrims to remember that they must not simply “stick where Luther and Calvin left them, but go on to receive any truth that God should reveal to them.” “For,” he said, “he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy word.” That statement of Pastor Robinson puts forth very clearly the attitude of Re formation and Renewal that has been brought into the life of the United Church of Christ through the contribution of the Congregational part of its being.

I must confess that, in the early stages of the conversations concerning merging of our main streams into the United Church of Christ, I was at first opposed to the idea of merging with the Evangelical and Reformed Church. It was only as we could agree on the continuing autonomy of each local church, and the assurance that each of our denominational fellowships would bring into the merged fellowship the full historical richness of each tradition, that I became a convinced supporter of the proposed union, a voting member of the Convening Synod in 1957, and moderator of the last session of the Wisconsin Congregational Conference of 1962 which contributed the Congregational vote to form the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ, almost exactly 15 years ago, October 15, 1962.

I am convinced that our denomination is a fellowship that continually finds more light breaking forth from God’s holy word and the leading of His holy spirit. I don’t always feel that everything new which crops up is necessarily the final gospel. But I rejoice in a fellowship wherein I don’t have to believe exactly as many others may believe, nor do they have to believe exactly as I do. I have long felt that there is ample room in the covenant membership of this local church for members of widely differing background and belief, so long as we bring ourselves, just as we are, as our contribution to the oneness of the whole church.

While I was active pastor of this congregation we received into church membership people of varying church backgrounds -- Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, various Evangelical, various Reformed, Quaker, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian and Universalist, and perhaps others. Each was welcomed to contribute his or her own convictions, and to receive the testimony of Congregational experience.

No two of us is exactly alike; none of us duplicates any other. There are four ministers in the covenant membership of this church now -- the present pastor, the pastor emeritus, our city librarian, and another retired minister. None of us is a copy of the other. Heaven forbid that I should try to be like Cal or that he should have any notion of being like Bob. But each of us ministers, like each member of the whole congregation, brings the abilities, the understandings, the convictions that we have, as our contribution to the Church of Jesus Christ. Our contributions are not uniformity; but we are one in dedication to the God who has spoken through ages of illumination, and who still has more light to break forth as fast, and as far, as we can receive it.

I have long found it helpful to realize that the word “Protestant,” as applied to all of our non-Roman Catholic churches, is not solely a negative word. The roots of the word Protestant include the Latin “pro” which means “for,” and “testari,” “to be a witness.” In other words, we Protestants are not only the spiritual descendants of those who protested against the demand for submission at the Diet of Worms and elsewhere; we are those who are to witness for the truth of the gospel as we have received it, and as we see it freshly illuminated in out time.

We may not always see the same ray of light at the same time. We may have differences that can even be sharp. But if we do not allow the differences to become fractures, we can find strength in our differences because we are resolved to be one in Christ and are willing to bring ourselves and our ideas as our contribution to the whole body. The Re Formation, the Renewal, of the Church is not the business of “those people” (particularly those with whom one might disagree.) It is the continuing business of all of us, and each of us, to witness according to our understanding and ability.

Some years back, one youth from our state Pilgrim Fellowship felt impelled to witness for racial desegregation in our country. He went south to ride a bus in a demonstration for desegregation. Jim Zwerg was so severely beaten that he will probably bear the physical marks of it for the rest of his life. But he acted out his testimony in a way that helped to bring about a moral change in our nation.

One Hebrew prophet, Elijah, stood against a multitude and change their idolatry to a living faith.

One member of this congregation, not a teacher by training or practice, nevertheless consented to come into a Sunday School class of young boys to demonstrate a truth. Skilled as he was with carpenter’s tools, the late Herman Sonnenberg taught those boys that day the difference between making a slovenly, crooked door, and making an “honest” Door.

Albert Schweitzer, confronted with a young admirer’s compliments on his immeasurable contribution to Africa and the world, replied, “A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day, he can sleep at night, and do it again the next day, even though he is throwing himself against a continent.”

One man, Saint Paul, did what one mortal can do. If we live in anxious days, we can read what this man had the serenity to accept. “I have learned,” he said, “to be content whatever the circumstances may be. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” [Philippians 4: 11-13].

Our church, and the Church Universal, can be re formed by the thinking, the dedication, the effort of each one of us, man or woman, youth or aged, working, sometimes alone, more often together, for the renewal of the Body of Christ.

Amen.

Prayer

O Thou God of our Fathers, their Guide in searching and wandering, their strength in conflict and struggling, their deep resource and constant hope, we worship Thee. Be Thou to us what our forebears have found Thee to be to them --- a fortress, a firm rock --- the one great truth upon which we can depend if all else should become uncertain. We long for things that endure. We would build peace and righteousness. We need strength that is greater than our own.

Our ancestors in the spirit found Thee to be as a guiding pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night in their wilderness. Thou hast given them Thy Word as a lamp to their feet and a light upon their path. Be that to us. We, too, launch out on daily ventures which may take us through unforeseen storms. Do Thou lead us in paths of rightness for Thy name’s sake.

In the storm of struggle for the right, our fathers in the spirit have found Thee to be their friend, the companion of their pilgrimage. Be that to us, that we may know in Whom to confide.

Blessed be Thy name for our friends and families here in this world, who by their love make our lives beautiful. And blessed be Thou who dost surround us with lasting care, and who stands with us as Father and Friend.

God of our Fathers, we pray Thee today for this church, that those who went before us have founded in Christ’s name. We praise Thee for the heritage with which Thou hast blessed us -- the apostles, the martyrs, strong prophets, faithful disciples; those who contributed consecrated and trained leadership, responsible men and women who honored Thy name and sought to perform Thy will --- for so great a heritage given to us, we thank Thee. Give us gladness of heart as we remember our fellowship with saintly people, heroes who have feared Thee and loved Thee and obeyed Thee.

Give us a great pride in the church as Thou has intended it to be. Give us grace to pour our lives into helping to make the church what Thou hast purposed. As we bring our own individual ideas, talents and abilities to Thine own altar, beget in us a unity of spirit with Christian folk, here and everywhere, working for the establishment of Thy Kingdom. Let the church, and churches, become the conscience of our corporate life in community and nation and in the world.

So bless each of us who wait before Thee and all of us who seek Thy grace this day. For we lift our prayer before Thee in Christ’s name.

Amen.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, October 30, 1977.