February 2010 Archives

So I'm pretty sure most people know the basics of Luther's story. Wanted to be a lawyer, got scared of a little thunder storm, promised his life to God if St. Anne would spare his life, yada yada yada, Luther becomes the monk who nails 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg and starts this little thing called the Protestant Reformation. This history stuff is a no brainer. I mean, we've all seen the old black and white Luther movie every year around Reformation day in addition to the awesome newer version that came out about six years ago or so. But did you know that he was an awesome gardener, and did woodworking on the side to help support his family? Or that he possibly suffered from Meniere's Disease, along with high blood pressure? How about that his wife Katy was an ex-nun smuggled out of the nunnery in a fish barrel? Or that the pair were later engaged and married on the same day? Interesting guy, Luther was. 

Anyway, on to the writings for the week: The Gospel for the Early Christmas Service and Trade and Usury.

As exemplified by the above photo, Luther was a pretty radical dude for his day. Basically, a lot of people at this time thought that in order to really be a "good Christian" they had to become a monk or something. Luther didn't think this was the case. In the Christmas Service, he describes Christians as following (I'm going to insert this entire quote, because Luther says it so beautifully, and I could never adequately paraphrase the master):

Wow. Just wow. Awesome stuff, Luther.

Basically, he's saying that people are called by God to do any 

sort of job, not just being a monk or the Pope or whatever. Any job can be a calling, provided it's where God wants you. (Side note: This reminds me of a really funny camp story involving a misunderstanding and corn...but it's a long story, and I don't have time to recollect it here...moving on...)  According to Luther, a Christian is someone who believes with all their heart that they are saved through faith in the grace and blood of Jesus. That's it. No other nonsense about purgatory and indulgences and rosaries and the like. Granted, being a Christian can impact how you live your vocation, as Luther recounts in Trade and Usary. Basically, the whole point of that piece is: "Treat your neighbor fair and right as far as your business will allow, and in some cases, where it will not allow." While that is all meet, right, and salutary, the fact remains that a Christian is not determined by how we act, but by how we believe. It is by our love that everyone else knows we are Christians.

In this world, it is often hard to act in Christian love. American society is so wrapped up with the importance of the individual. From birth, we are taught to watch out for ourselves and to trust no one, because everyone else will only use you to get ahead. We can't wrap our heads around this concept of love without thought of reciprocation. I don't do the dishes when I'm at my house (or in my apartment, for that matter) because I'm going to get a pat on the back for it; I wash them because it will give my mom a rest or make the kitchen cleaner for my roommates to use. I have a really hard time excepting that; for example, I'm having a little get together thing for my birthday, and would have been quite content to do all of the preparations for myself...except for the fact that my friends insisted on baking my cake, and getting the food, and helping prepare everything. They're not getting anything out of the deal except for seeing me be happy on my birthday. What if everyone acted this way? What if we just all let down our barriers and started serving others all of the time instead of ourselves? Amazing things would happen, I could promise you that. I mean, even at EAG I've seen a little bit of that. No one is paid a salary; everything is done at the individual's expense or the gracious gifts of others. It's astonishing and wonderful to see. What would life be like if we let Jesus' love live through us?

One final thought: this reminds me of one of my current favorite songs - "What Life Would be Like" by Big Daddy Weave. I'll leave the link here. But I want to leave you guys with the chorus to the song...like Luther, it's pretty powerful stuff.

Yep. You read that right. It is one of the least favorite things I have read in my entire career, even surpassing my disdain for George Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Yan Martel's The Life of Pi. 

Anyway. I digress.

Tommy Aquinas was born into Italian nobility, and his family was horrified when he decided to join the ranks of the Dominican monks instead of the more prestigious Benedictines (kinda like how in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Hermey the Elf has 

dreams of being a world-famous dentist, but everyone else laughs at him and tells him he needs to be making toys like a respectable elf.) Anyway, the budding Dominican basically fell in love with Aristotle, and philosophy and stuff.  So he basically decided to become a philosopher himself, and wrote  whole bunch of philosophical stuff about Christianity. He used the question/answer form that every Lutheran knows was put into wide use by Martin Luther.

So, one of his questions is: Q. 186, a.4: Whether perpetual continence is required for religious perfection?  Basically, Aquinas responds by saying that in order to obtain religious perfection, one has to give up all earthy pleasures, including abstaining from sex, voluntarily enter a life of poverty. He seems to think that all this will equal a life of "religious perfection."

Basically, I think that's stupid.

See, there is no such thing as "religious perfection." As Martin Luther says, "I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him." Nothing we do on this earth can gain us salvation. It's all grace. Which includes not having to do anything to keep that salvation. IT"S ALL GRACE. To me, Aquinas is implying that in order to "be closer to God" we have to give up all earthly pleasures in order to keep salvation. That's not true. We can't BE any closer to God than we already are - that's what grace is all about. No barriers. Now, I"m not saying that Christians should purposefully go and live a life full of debauchery and decadence. After all, we are not of this world. We should just live our lives as forgiven children of God and reciprocate on others the same grace-filled love God showed us.

Joan d'Arc was born the daughter of a peasant farmer in the small French town of Domremy (originally located in the duchy of Bar and later became part of France known as Lorraine). She began hearing voices and having visions around age 12; these visions told her to and help the Dauphin (the not-yet-crowned-king-of-France) drive the English from France. Guess what. It worked. And she was only 16. Pretty impressive, I'd say. Unfortunately, during another campaign against the English, she was captured and tried for witchcraft and heresy. Although the English attempted to discover the source of her visions, she refused to tell them anything. She was found guilty and burned at the stake at the age of 19 (my current age, incidentally).

Callings presents two accounts of Joan: one from her trial by the English and one from when she was allowed to embark on her mission. The one from the trial presents her as an insolent young girl because the English had some sort of grudge against her or something, which is obvious, considering they were the ones who condemned her in the first place. In the account of the trial, Joan is a bit snarky at times, such as the following quote, which is one of my favorites:

This quote reminded me a little bit of my project; I didn't really learn anything new about my project, but rather an affirmation that I am on the right track. A bit part of EAG's Spring Boutique is encouraging these girls that they are WORTH our concern, our compassion. Everyone within a community needs to be treated with love and care, because they are children of God as well. This was a nice little note of encouragement from the strange German mystic.