“What drunken German monk wrote these?” That was Pope Leo X’s response when he was shown a copy of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, posted on the door of the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517.
Perhaps those were your mental words about some of the songs we’ve sung so far this morning. “What drunken German monk wrote these?” I love these songs, but admittedly they can be an acquired taste. They come from a different time and place, and we cannot help but be affected by our own language and culture.
But liturgy is not about taste – or at least, liturgy should not be about taste. We live in a unique time, a tragic time when Christian worship has degenerated into shallow pop music driven largely by marketing by the worship music industry. In Lutheran circles, Luther’s liturgical reforms have often been invoked as an excuse for discarding Christian liturgy altogether.
Every year on the last Sunday in October we use a form of Luther’s Deutsche Messe, or German Mass. It’s in our hymnbook as Divine Service Setting Five, but we print it up because it would be very unpleasant trying to follow all the page turns. It’s not something we should do very often, because it’s very much a product of the sixteenth century, and doesn’t translate well into our context.
But translation was the whole point. Luther was thinking as a pastor, not about the people in the Schloßkirche, All Saints Church in Wittenberg where the nobility worshipped, but about St. Mary’s Church where the common people worshipped. That was where Luther’s heart was, and where he often preached and heard confessions. Those people didn’t know Latin; which meant that everything that happened in the Mass, or communion service, was unintelligible to them.
Now the marriage of a text and a tune is a difficult thing. You can’t just put a song from one language into another and sing it to the same tune, without a lot of work. So Luther took the parts of the Mass, like the Kyrie Eleison, “Lord, have mercy,” and added to it German that rhymed. Everything was designed to preach to people God’s love for them. These were words helping people learn who Jesus is and what He does: “Kyrie! O Christ, our king, Salvation for all You came to bring. O Lord Jesus, God’s own Son, our mediator at the heavenly throne; Hear our cry and grant our supplication!”
So what was Luther really up to with these reforms of the Liturgy? Just as you put money in your pocket, he envisions the liturgy and preaching to be giving people words, Bible passages to put into their pockets and carry them home, to school, and to work. We have two pouches, two pockets, two purses, one for faith and the other for love. So when you come here to Immanuel for Divine Service, or Matins, or Evening Prayer, or Bible Study, you are getting more treasures for your pockets, grabbing them up so you have treasure with you as you love your spouse, care for your children, work and struggle and laugh and cry. The toil and struggle of life keeps robbing us of our treasure, so we keep on coming back to receive the treasures, more of God’s goodness poured into our pockets.
In a more formal way, the Augsburg Confession puts it this way:
“We are unjustly accused of having abolished the Mass…. The Mass is observed among us with [great] devotion and earnestness…. Moreover, the people are instructed often and with great diligence concerning the holy sacrament, why it was instituted, and how it is to be used (namely, as a comfort for terrified consciences) in order that the people may be drawn to the Communion and Mass…. No conspicuous changes have been made in the public ceremonies of the Mass, except that in certain places German hymns are sung in addition to the Latin responses for the instruction and exercise of the people. After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ.”
So what do you need to know about Christ? This isn’t just a matter of learning some facts. We have to learn what God says about us, how God is minded toward us, what my life means, what my death means.
Our hearts tell us all the wrong things. We are glad when we should be ashamed, and we are sad when we should be filled with joy. Everything is backward, inside-out, upside down. Jesus says (in today’s Gospel, Matthew 11:12-19) we are like children who are sad when dancing music comes on, but not sad when funeral music plays: “We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.” In other words, John the Baptist came telling everyone to repent, and they didn’t do it; Jesus came and threw a party and people got angry.
What about you? The Word of God says to you, “You have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and how do you respond? “Okay; now keep it moving because lunch is coming up soon”; and then you hear that God justifies you, offers you resurrection of your dead body and eternal life, and you yawn, say, “That’s nice; I wonder what’s new on Facebook, and isn’t it terrible what happened in Canada?”
The Reformation is not an event from history. The Reformation church is not some new style of church that coexists or competes with other brands or flavors. The real Reformation is what goes on in our hearts when we respond the right way to the music of Scripture: mourning and lamenting our sins, and dancing not because our political party won the election or team won the game, but dancing because we hear the words of Jesus saying, “I forgive you all your sins. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.”
This is no teaching invented by a drunken German monk. It’s the teaching of Holy Scripture. Luther, the German monk who did enjoy the beer his wife Katie brewed – all Luther did was say, “It doesn’t matter what Pope or Council or Tradition says; if it goes against Scripture, then we follow Scripture.” Scripture Alone (Sola Scriptura) is our authority, and Scripture is a book that points us to Christ alone, who saves us only through faith in God’s grace, His loving kindness in Jesus.
Love your family. Do good and honest work. And keep coming to Divine Service to get your pockets filled with forgiveness from Jesus. Everything else is dust and vapor; it doesn’t last, so let it go. “Faith clings to Jesus’ cross alone and rests in Him unceasing.”