Tag Archives: Martin Luther

Doctor of Ministry, Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

The Happy Exchange

Leave a comment

Doubtless, you will have heard me talk about Martin Luther’s concept of the Happy or Joyful Exchange at one time or another in the past few months. 

The Happy Exchange is the metaphor that Luther uses to describe how our sins are forgiven. In the exchange, we give to Jesus our sins. But what does that mean? Do we heap them on him like some kind of scapegoat who is then sent away? Do we mark him with them like bruises and wounds like the famous camp skit ‘The Ragman’?

Not exactly. In giving our sins to Christ, it is that he takes responsibility for what was our responsibility. Jesus takes our sins from us by claiming them as his own. In return, Jesus gives us his righteousness, blessing and life. 

You might call it an exchange of goods for bads. 

For the past few years, we have been using a Good Friday tradition of tying black strips of cloth to our rough-hewn cross on Good Friday. I will admit, the first year we did it, it felt a bit hokey. However, as we have come back to this tradition, it has taken on a more profound and deeper meaning. This year, while I watched as worshippers tied their black strips of cloth to the cross, I couldn’t help but think of the Happy Exchange. 

Here, we were putting our sins, suffering and death onto the cross⎯onto Christ. It didn’t matter if they were big or small, known or unknown. The moment that truly caught me, though, was the letting go. I noted that more than a few folks held onto their strips for a moment, and even more lingered after tying their cloth strip to the cross. It was an emotional act to make tangible our connection to Christ on the cross. 

Here is the thing about the Happy Exchange: it is not an easy trade. Giving up our sins is not easy. Our sins are not just rule infractions on a report card. Our sins make up a significant part of who we are; our failures, our hurts, and our sufferings, all contribute to shaping us as people. It is not easy to just hand big parts of ourselves over to God. 

There is a reason we confess our sins each week in worship. We need to practice the act of handing over our sins to Christ. Because once we do manage to let go, our sins are gone from us forever⎯we can no longer hold onto them!

On Easter Sunday morning, the image that we began on Good Friday was completed. The strips of black cloth were gone from the cross. In their place, were beautiful and colourful flowers⎯signifying the righteousness, the blessing and the life of Christ. 

It struck me this year more than it has before that, together in worship, we rehearsed and lived out the Happy or Joyful Exchange this Holy Week. A beautiful image of how our sins are forgiven and our lives are transformed by the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection. 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Doctor of Ministry, Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Accountable To & Responsible For: Kings, Rulers, Presidents and Martin Luther

Leave a comment

If you look back at my sermons from 2015 to 2020, more of them subtly point to a certain American President than I care to admit. It has been less than two weeks since January 20th, and in that time, the psychological and emotional turmoil that was Donald Trump’s first term in office has come back in full force. Following his election last November, it seemed like much of the world went into denial, pretending that those awful days of his first term were just a nightmare that we thought was over. 

Then January 20th arrived, and the psychological turmoil and chaos landed on us like a ton of bricks. 

This time around, I am committed to not starting my mornings wondering what the President has done or said that is more outrageous than the day before. I am still following the news but in measured amounts. I am not reading every article of breathless analysis designed to keep my cortisol spiked. I am falling for the trap that I need to read every article to stay apprised of things. I am trying to stay on top of what is happening rather than what might happen. 

Some perspective is important too, even if it is a little unsettling. 

The reality is, for a lot more of human history than not, kings, rulers, emperors, presidents and heads of state have been more Trump-like than not. Perhaps not in his particularities but in his appeal to popular moods and sentiments. It is easier to see why his followers follow him with this perspective. It is the same reason why many societies long endured under cruel and exploitative rulers. The leaders offer the promise of not having to be accountable and responsible ourselves. Leaders like Trump talk about fixes and solutions to all our problems while rarely delivering any. Conversely, they rarely put boundaries on their own words, feelings, behaviours and actions. They offer an intoxicating cult to follow. When a seemingly strong and populist leader promises to fix our problems and then lets loose with their behaviour, it feels oddly liberating. We feel free to express our base desires AND free from being responsible for them. The leader is taking on our responsibility for the problems of our lives and world. 

This kind of ruler is one that was common in 16th century (yes, I am turning again to Luther). In one of Martin Luther’s most important Reformation writings, The Freedom of Christian, he addresses what it means to live a Christian life in this kind of world. In the treatise, Luther asserts two basic theses:

The Christian individual is a completely free lord of all, subject to none.

    The Christian individual is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all.

Luther scholar Paul R. Hinlicky argues that this is a frame of who we are accountable to and responsible for. 

We are free “lords of all” because we confess that there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Lord to whom we are accountable. There is no other human Lord that we fear or to whom we owe our allegiance. Thus we are free in the world from subjugating ourselves to human powers and principalities. 

Yet, this one Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we are accountable, first frees us in love and mercy. Then, the one Lord calls us in that same love to care for our neighbour. That accountability to God means we are responsible for our neighbour. This freedom is not easy, but it is hard work. Looking for how our neighbour needs care requires getting past our own needs and concerns. It is the work of seeing and attending to the other. The freedom to love our neighbour means exactly what Jesus reminds us is the greatest commandment: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. 

It is easy to see that this is the opposite of putting our trust in flawed human rulers and then absolving ourselves from living into our base desires. 

For me, in these past months of turmoil and chaos, returning to Luther’s theses of Christian Freedom has been a way to keep my sanity. I remind myself often, “Who am I accountable to? God. Not to any human power,” and “Who am I responsible for? For loving and caring for my neighbour.” I am not responsible for God (to my neighbour), or propping up any other systems and structures of human power and control. 

I am accountable TO the One Lord Jesus Christ and responsible FOR loving my neighbour. 

I hope that being reminded of this fundamental truth of faith can help you through the days, months, and years to come too. 

Photo: A community chest in Wittenberg, in which funds for those in need were kept. Accessible by two keys, one held by the mayor and the other by the pastor of the town church.

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

A Reformed Reformation Sunday?

Leave a comment

With October coming to an end, we prepare for that big occasion on October 31st… no, not the one with kids in costumes, candy and scary decorations in many front yards. That other occasion that is important to Lutherans and those who study 16th-century history – Reformation Day. 

This Reformation Day, it is hard to believe that we have been talking about Luther and thinking about his life for months now. Yes, I know it has been me coming back to his story and sharing photos from my trip to Reformation sites this year. When I started looking at and considering doctoral programs a few years ago, I looked at studying history with a focus on the Reformation. When I settled on the Doctor of Ministry program at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, I didn’t do so thinking that Luther would be central to my program of study. My research topic wondering what Lutherans think and believe about the role of clergy has morphed into what Martin Luther thought and wrote about the role of clergy in congregations and communities. 

Yet, here we are. I have travelled to Germany, walked where Luther lived and worked. I have read many, many books, written papers, lectured to a variety of groups and discovered a richness in knowing Luther’s life and work more now than I ever expected to. I was teased often in Seminary for caring about Luther too much; but now I remember the teasing from my classmates with pride. The place that Martin Luther occupies in our history as Lutherans, and among all Protestants, is hard to describe at times. 

With Martin Luther now a central part of my doctoral studies, and considering my research, Reformation Day arrives with a very different air about it. Even as someone who loved history, loved Lutheran history in particular and got teased for loving it too much, I always wanted to make sure that Reformation Sunday wasn’t a time to just celebrate Luther and forget about the Gospel. So I have been cautious on past Reformation Sundays not to talk about Luther too much. 

This year, I am less worried about that. Not because Luther should overshadow the Gospel we usually proclaim on Sunday mornings, but because when you dive into Luther’s life, his ideas and thoughts, his writing and story, it becomes clear that nearly everything he did was with the intention of focusing people on the Gospel. He was obsessed with making sure that the people around him would hear the Gospel. He spoke out when he saw the abuses of the church. He sought to encourage the people he served to live lives of faith, caring for one another rather than trying to earn salvation. And, he was pretty certain of his own flawed and infallible nature. 

As Lutherans, we do not worship Luther. We don’t believe that the things he did would save us from sin and death. But in hearing about the things that Luther did, the things he wrote, and his witness to the gospel, we can hear the Gospel of Christ in a new way and hope that we, too, can live lives of faith and service as Luther did.

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

Reformation: A Compelling Origin Story – Pastor Thoughts

Leave a comment

Last weekend, one of my colleagues invited me to come to a confirmation class to teach something about Martin Luther. 

Back in seminary, my classmates would often take to teasing me for quoting the Book of Concord or Augsburg Confession. They would roll their eyes when I answered professors’ questions with things like, “According to Luther…”

Lots of my colleagues still tease me for those kinds of things, and I am sure it doesn’t help to have started a Doctor of Ministry program with the intention of researching  Luther and Lutheran Confessions stuff. 

So I guess it made sense that I would get invited to teach a confirmation class about Martin Luther. I have taught many similar confirmation and adult-study classes about Luther and the Reformation before. But something about this particular group of kids struck me. 

It has been almost exclusively the case that no confirmation student has had a clue of who Martin Luther is when they arrived in my confirmation classes over the past 15 years. Thinking back, I doubt that I knew anything about him when I started confirmation either. Once in a while, an excited student will say that Martin Luther was a civil rights activist for African Americans when I ask students if they know anything about him – obviously, they are thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. 

Often, I have used the 2003 film Luther as a means of introducing him to confirmation students. I have always thought it was a good movie, with famous actors! Joseph Finnes, who was also in Shakespeare in Love. Alfred Molina who was in Spiderman.A real star-studded cast for 2003. I do an annotated version of the film where I stop the movie – almost annoyingly often – to explain who the people are, the historical background and setting, the veracity of the plot and so on. 

But it has been close to 6 or 7 years since I have last screened the movie with a group. So this past weekend, I was reminded again just how compelling the story of Martin Luther is. Four teenagers who didn’t know a thing about Reformation history were quickly caught up in the drama of the story where there are no explosions or sword fights or special effects. Just a monk getting upset with the abuses of the medieval church and deciding to do something about it by writing a list of 95 complaints. 

It was a good reminder for Reformation Day. There is a compelling origin story for our denomination (on top of the compelling origin story of our faith) that grounds us in God’s love and grace given for sinners like you and me. There is something to the idea that mercy isn’t for sale and that as people who follow in Martin Luther’s footsteps, we too are called to the work of proclaiming God’s grace. 

We are still called to preach God’s freely given mercy and grace to a world that often believes that such love could only come with a cost. A world that desperately needs to hear that we do not have to earn our way in this life or the next, but that God declares us beloved and forgiven right from the beginning. 

That the work that Martin Luther began in the Reformation, or really that he saw the church called to in scripture, is still the same calling that we share today. 

Pastor Thoughts, Theology & Culture

The Odd Observance of Reformation Sunday – Pastor Thoughts

1 Comment

A Mighty Fortress is our God…

I am in a Facebook group for young(er) Lutheran and Anglican clergy “born after 1973.” By the world’s standards we are decidedly middle aged. (I had to explain to my kids the story of Come From Away or 9/11 this week and it made me feel old). But in the Church we still seem like children to many colleagues and lay folk alike – so we still think of ourselves as young, despite the fact that many of us have been serving 10, 15 or even 20 years!

Anyway, each year right around Thanksgiving, one or another of the Anglicans will post a question about when All Saints Sunday is being observed. All Saints is always November 1st, and in years when it gets pushed back to November 6 or 7th, it can run into Remembrance Day observances. So the question is whether to have All Saints Sunday on the Sunday before November 1st or after. 

Since the group is about 10% Lutheran and 90% Anglican, I usually find myself chiming in with a reminder that for Lutherans, the Sunday before November 1st is Reformation Sunday and it is kind of a big deal for us. So All Saints is always on or after November 1st. Mostly my reminders go unheeded and probably sound like I am speaking Greek – or maybe German – to our Anglican siblings (whom I still love dearly).

It doesn’t help that Martin Luther chose to post his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31st, the first of a 3-day string of festival days – All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. 

It also doesn’t help that Reformation Sunday is an odd and difficult-to-observe day to begin with. Is it a celebration? Is it a commemoration? Are we happy to be Lutheran? Are we sad because of the wars and division caused? Are we bold to confess our faith? Are we humbled by our need of God’s mercy?

As is often the case with our historical observances, especially in recent years, things are more complicated then we always know how to handle. We know that Martin Luther stood up for the things that he believed were right: against injustices taking place at the hands of the Church, against the attempts to sell salvation by the Pope and the Church, against church leaders keeping control of the Word and the Sacraments. But there are also the hundreds of thousands of people who died in revolts and war directly inspired by Luther’s stand against Rome. There is the long-lasting division and splitting apart of churches who disagree with one another that it still going on today. 

The Reformation was a transformative moment for the Western world. The combination of the printing press and Luther’s writing made it one of the most significant events of the past 1000 years. But 505 years on from Martin Luther nailing his list of grievances to the door, what this all means for us today and how we move forward are still being unpacked. 

We are a Church born in a time of tumult and change, and we are still a Church in the midst of tumult and change. Yet, along the way the reminder that God’s faithfulness will lead us through is the same. And ultimately, Martin Luther’s reason for posting his 95 theses was to make sure that God’s faithfulness is the foundation and centre on which we stand. 

A mighty fortress indeed!