Your 95 Theses > Marble Collegiate Church

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Your 95 Theses
By webmaster @ 2:23 PM :: 247 Views :: 2 Comments :: Rev. Peggy Funderburke

It was on this day in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany. This may sound odd to some of us – but the church’s doors in that day were like our bulletin boards. The church was centrally located so people walking on foot could stop and see what was going on. Luther wrote his 95 Theses in Latin which was the only accepted language of the church at that time. His action, nevertheless, caused a huge ruckus within the church since one of Luther’s main criticisms was the church’s practice of selling indulgences; he maintained that our salvation is by God’s Grace alone; there is no way for us to buy or merit our way to heaven. He also criticized a variety of other established church doctrines and practices as having no basis in Scripture.

Martin Luther was a Catholic priest who believed that the church had strayed from the original purposes as set forth in the New Testament. He did not intend to leave the church; he only wanted the church to clean-up its act. He was not the first to call for reform – there had been many before him but he was one of the first not to buckle under the power of the Pope or be killed immediately for his actions.

At the same time as Luther, there was another Reformer in Switzerland named Huldrych Zwingli (d. 1531). Zwingli also started out as a Catholic priest; he came, independently, to many of Luther’s conclusions.

Luther and Zwingli met in 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy to see if they could join forces. At the beginning of the conference they had 13 points of differences. By the end of the conference, they had found common ground on 11 – the two that they could not agree on dealt with the Eucharist or Communion. Luther said the bread and the wine had actual elements of Christ in them; Zwingli said, no, the supper is purely symbolic and memorial in nature. The next generation Reformer, John Calvin, led the thinking that Christ is present at Communion in spiritual form but not in the bread and wine - which how we understand Communion today.

It is amazing – I was in a meeting this past Wednesday night in which the topic of conversation boiled down to: What does the Scripture call us to be as a Church? Amazing, 490 years later we are still seeking reform from within; trying to see with new eyes and trying to understand the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Where do you see the church moving? What are the 95 Theses on your heart?

Comments

By Bflood27 @ Thursday, November 01, 2007 9:01 AM

I see the Church moving toward accepting all people. I see the Church as a whole (marble does this very well) getting active in solving homelessness. At least I hope this is where the Church is headed. It does seem in middle america the Church is trying to cast a smaller and smaller net, closing in ranks and excluding people. Exactly the opposite of what Christ was about.

By eyesonGod @ Friday, November 02, 2007 2:52 PM

Thank you for the timely history lesson. It would have been great to be a fly on the wall when those two got together.

For me it is particularly interesting inside the context of ourselves being the temple and how scripture calls us to be.

My inquiry into how to expand on the quality of life leads me to find broader understanding, in addition to new understanding, almost every time I read scripture.

This always fascinates me.

It has come to my understanding that who I am, and what's going on within that leads me to read scripture at any given moment, is also what allows scripture to occur newly to me.

Even if its 10th time I've read the same passage, what quality I'm lacking vs what quality I'm aspiring to alters the awareness brought to my reading, which I believe alters the capacity within me to receive the same text as a new and meaningful revelation in my own life.

This almost always shows up as a form of inspiration that displaces my doubt, freeing me to be in action with the new revelation and whatever brought me to read the scripture to begin with. Eventually this dissipates, but when riding that inspirational wave it gives me a flavor of on earth as it is in heaven. I'm touched by something higher and if I can get myself (my doubt) out of the way the quality I seek is presented to me in the most perfect way and I'm lifted towards it, this shift in quality I seek.

Perhaps this is what lead Martin Luther to the church steps despite the threat to himself and the doubts and fears that must have been there too?

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