October 31st is a day that has become (sadly) best known as Halloween.  Even those who may know that it is Reformation Day may have little or no working knowledge of what the Reformation was and why it is still so important.  Instead of just packing on the calories in the midsection from raiding the left-over Trick or Treat candy, why not feed year heart, mind, and soul with something of substance?  Here’s a suggestion for this week.  Raid the kid’s Trick or Treat bag, make a bowl of popcorn and settle in for a movie about the biggest thing that ever happened on October 31st.  I’ll suggest a couple of really good ones here.

Martin Luther – If you like classic black and white movies, don’t miss this one.  This is a 1953 film biography of Martin Luther. It was directed by Irving Pichel, (who also plays a supporting role), and stars Niall MacGinnis as Luther. It was produced by Louis de Rochemont.

The National Board of Review named the film the fourth best of 1953. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) (Joseph C. Brun) and Art Direction/Set Decoration (Fritz Maurischat, Paul Markwitz).   The music was composed by Mark Lothar and performed by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. It was filmed in studios in Wiesbaden, West Germany.

A notice at the beginning of the film characterizes it as a careful and balanced presentation of Luther's story: "This dramatization of a decisive moment in human history is the result of careful research of facts and conditions in the 16th century as reported by historians of many faiths." The research was done by notable Reformation scholars Theodore G. Tappert and Jaroslav Pelikan who assisted Allan Sloane and Lothar Wolff.

Luther is a 2003 biopic about the life of Martin Luther (1483–1546) starring Joseph Fiennes. It is an independent film partially funded by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The film covers Luther's life from his becoming a monk in 1505 to the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.  This is a very engaging and watchable movie that both sets the historical context for the Reformation, and does a good job of highlighting the theological issues that were at the heart of this movement.  Sir Peter Ustinov is particularly enjoyable.  It’s rated PG-13, probably because of two hanging scenes (brief) and some rather realistic camera pans of the human casualties of the Peasants Revolt.  There is no nudity or foul language.

Enjoy!

One of the things that has sadly been lost in the caricature of “political correctness” that surrounds us, and something that has been drowned out by all the charges of hate speech, intolerance and (fill in the blank)phobias is honesty about disagreements.  Is it just me or does it seem that you cannot vigorously disagree with someone without the charge of hating or fearing being leveled?  That has led to a climate where too often people are not willing to be honest about their differences.  With the anniversary of the beginning of the Lutheran Reformation just a week away, and the 500th anniversary of it just a year away, let me share with you a case in point.

A few weeks ago, at a website called CRUX:  Taking the Catholic Pulse, there was an interesting interview with English bishop William Kenney, who is a key figure in the official Catholic-Lutheran dialogue.  Bishop Kenney will be with Pope Francis in Sweden at the end of the month. Kenney believes unity between Lutherans and Catholics is a matter of decades away, and he thinks it's possible that Francis may use the trip to make a gesture on inter-communion.

One observation in that interview really caught my eye.  The interviewer made this observation, to which Bishop Kenney agreed:  “The consensus of the 1999 [Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification] stated, if I’ve understood it correctly, that the reasons for the Catholics condemning the Protestant positions and vice-versa no longer hold, and if ever each Church did hold the position that the other said they did, what is now true is that neither Church no longer holds that position. In other words, the Reformation was all a big misunderstanding!”

The Reformation was all a big misunderstanding?  On the contrary, Luther and his fellow reformers on one hand and the theological authorities of the Roman Catholic Church on the other hand were very clear about where they stood on the doctrine of Justification, and they surely were not standing in the same place. 

Justification is the teaching of Scripture that explains how it is that God declares sinners to be forgiven and righteous in his sight.  Since this lies at the very heart of the Christian gospel, the reformers were very clear about what they believed and taught on the basis of Scripture.  In Article IV of the Augsburg Confession of 1530, Dr. Martin Luther and the reformers stated their position on the doctrine of Justification:  “Also they teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4.”  They believed that because that’s what the Scriptures say.  In Romans 3:20-24 the apostle Paul wrote:  “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  By faith alone, and not all by our works.  All Jesus’ doing, not at all our own.  Pretty clear, wouldn’t you say?  Luther and the Reformers read it that way.

When the Roman Catholic Church met for the Council of Trent (December 13, 1545- December 14, 1563), they staked out their position on Justification clearly in Canons 9 and 12:  "If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema." ... "If any one shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ's sake, or that it is that confidence alone by which we are justified...let him be accursed."  By faith and works, by Jesus and by us.  They were quite clear about that.  They clearly disagreed with and condemned the Lutheran understanding, and the Lutherans clearly rejected the Roman Catholic understanding. 

They knew they disagreed, too.  Back then actual battles were fought over this issue.  But that was a long time ago.  What about now?  While it is certainly true that some Lutherans no longer hold the position stated in the Augsburg Confession, and while it is certainly true that some Roman Catholic theologians no longer hold to the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, the truth is that the Roman Catholic Church has never rejected its position on justification and confessional Lutherans have not rejected the Augsburg Confession.  What the interviewer and Kenney suggested was a “big misunderstanding” that no longer holds true is wrong on both counts.  We don’t burn each other’s churches down, and we don’t hate our Lutheran or Catholic neighbors.  But if membership in our respective churches means anything it means that we still don’t agree on this fundamental teaching of the Christian faith.

Let’s be honest about that.  Pretending it doesn’t matter is not only disrespectful to the Holy Scriptures, it disrespects honest people who honestly hold to the differing positions on this.  Saying that the Scriptures aren’t sufficiently clear on this subject for people to hold firm positions is to say that God is either a mumbling and incoherent author who could not speak clearly on such an important subject, or that he tried to be cleverly imprecise so that everybody could interpret his words in their own fashion.  Neither is true.

So what’s the big take away here?  Don’t hate on people; but also don’t patronize them by pretending there is agreement where there isn’t.  That’s insulting.  Be honest, and in your words and in your actions acknowledge those differences in a way that shows that what you believe matters, and that your neighbor matters enough for you to be gently but firmly honest. 

God created men to work, and to find fulfillment and joy in it.  How else do we understand Moses’ divinely inspired report:  “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  This is not to say that work is the only thing he created man for.  Most importantly, God created man to have a relationship with Him.  But it is certainly clear that God had purpose for man in the Garden of Eden:  work that honored God by taking care of His creation. 

Men are hardwired to find fulfillment and purpose in work.  One of the first questions men of working age will ask each other upon meeting is, “So, what do you do?”  Guys who can’t work because they can’t find a job or because they have a disability that prevents them working wish they could, and are often frustrated at the lack of opportunity to work or the physical inability to work.

Since Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, however, work isn’t all joy and purpose and fulfillment, is it?  Our world is subject to decay.  It, too, is frustrated because it can’t and doesn’t work perfectly as God intended when he created it new and without sin.  Just read Romans 8:18-25.  Want proof of that? - witness the recent hurricane/tropical storm that ravaged the South Atlantic coast and Haiti.  But even though work is now accomplished amidst such “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 2:17) and accomplishes results only “by the seat of your brow,” (Genesis 3:19) men still want to work.

Or do they?  A recent article I read indicates that that is by no means universally true.  According to the article the work rate for men has plunged 13% in the last 50 years.  Since 1948, the proportion of men 20 and older without paid work has more than doubled, to almost 32%.  Only about 15% of men 25-54 who did not work at all in 2014 said they were unemployed because they could not find work.  For 50 years, the number of men in that age group who are neither working nor looking for work has grown nearly four times faster than the number who are working or seeking work – and the pace of this has been almost totally uninfluenced by the business cycle.

I’m not going to go into all the political and economic reasons that are cited to account for this.  I’m just going to say that this is not a good trend and I will leave it to each individual man to look at this own situation.  Are you disabled and for that reason unable to work?  That’s hard, harder than anyone not in that situation can know.  It’s good to have a safety net to help in that situation, and God’s people do well to be the first people to help.  After all, Paul urges us, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  (Galatians 6:2)  Do you live in an area where there are just no jobs or too few jobs to be had?  That’s frustrating, and the decision to wait out the business cycle until things improve or uproot family to move where job prospects are better or find the mean and opportunity to retrain for some other kind of work is not easy.  May God you strength to work through that!

But for those who are physically able to work and could, but choose not to, that’s not a good choice.  And there are spiritual reasons for saying so.  Paul had a couple of things to say about that:  “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  (1 Timothy 5:8)  Paul’s point is this:  In His good and wise plan, one of the ways God chooses to provide for our families is through work.  A guy who says, “I can and I could but I won’t” is rebelling against God’s plan.  That’s not just bad decision making, it’s sin.  That’s the negative reason Paul cites regarding those who can and could work but won’t.  He also cites a positive one:  “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”  (Ephesians 4:28)  Work is also the way that God enables us to share with those in need, thus showing love to our neighbor.

One thing has not changed since God introduced man to work before the fall into sin:  work is still a way we can honor God, no matter what work we do.  Paul put it this way:  “Obey them [that is, employers] not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.”  (Galatians 6:6).  I willingly give my employer my best and do my best at my job because it’s a way I serve Jesus who served me with his best work all during his life and on the cross.  The result of that excellent work is eternal life for me.  Men, working hard and working at it to the best of our ability is a way of thanking God for the eternal life we have.

There’s another reason for work that comes to mind, too.  The writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25)  God provides us with the opportunity to work, blesses our sweat, and brings us enjoyment through it.  Working as I can because I can is a way we show appreciation to God for blessings us with work.

The trend in the article I read can be turned around.  Perhaps the choice we make on November 8th will help.  But the real power to turn that trend around lies in the individual choices men make and God’s blessing on that choice.  

OK, that’s it.  I am weighing in on this presidential election thing.  It’s gotten out of control.  I just read a post on Facebook in which a person said that anyone who was planning to vote for a particular candidate (I won’t name which one here) should just unfriend him – even if they were family.  Wow.  We need to get a grip on this thing before worry about who sits in the oval office spins us off into whacky.

There’s no better way to do that than to turn to the Word of the One who always has things well in hand.  Almost at the end of the book of Psalms, an unnamed ancient Psalmist wrote something under God’s inspiration that can give us something to hold on to when it seems we’re about to slip over the edge.  Check this out: 

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. 2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 3  Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. 5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them — he remains faithful forever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations.  Praise the Lord.”  (Psalm 146, New International Translation) 

Now I will assume that if you are reading this you are probably a Christian.  If not, you are evidently interested enough in Christianity to be visiting the website of an overtly and unapologetically Christian church.  So as you read through Psalm 146 again, replace the words Jacob and Zion with the phrase Christian Church.  Now please read it that way again, and linger a bit over verses 5 and 10.

In verses 1 and 2 and the end of verse 10 the Psalmist is challenging us to be less rabid and testy in extolling the virtues and benefits of the presidential candidate we like and rather sing the praises of the Lord.  He gives us good reason for that.  Follow me here:

Human rulers cannot dispense eternal salvation, and one person can’t even bestow national salvation of the earthly geopolitical kind.  They are, after all, just human beings.  Whatever plans they have and whatever promises they make – even if they are able to carry them out – will come to an end when they die or leave office.  That’s not to say that political leaders don’t leave a political legacy that lives for a time; it just means that in the stuff that really matters, such as peace with God and forgiveness of sins and eternal life, they can’t give it or take it away.  To place all one’s hope in someone who’s just passing through the world or through the oval office is just, well, misplaced trust.

Instead, put that trust in the only One who doesn’t die, who with His own Word and Will created the universe and rules it, who can provide us with the daily blessings we need without running it by congress first, who helps us see a hope bigger than the temporal aspirations of a nation, who adopted us into his eternal family through the life and death of His own Son.  We have a pretty awesome military and some really smart people working in the intelligence community, but they have limitations, too.  God doesn’t.  He sees everything and according to his plan and purpose he can frustrate the plans of those who rebel against him.

Best part of this?  He doesn’t stand for election.  There are no term limits for him.  He has always been and will always be.  And as this Psalmist reminds us all, he will always reign for the good of his church – even when we can’t see how that’s happening.  The day after the votes are all counted in this upcoming presidential election, the Lord will still be sitting on the throne of heaven.  He will still be the King of kings.  He will still be forgiving our sins, declaring us righteous for Jesus’ sake, calling us his own, and still keeping all his promises.  That’s the truth that gives the Christian a settled and solid place to stand even in the midst of this presidential campaign.  So don’t panic; put your trust in the God of free and faithful grace.