Reformation Day (Observed)
October 29, 2023
Text:
John 8:31-36
The Year of Our Lord, 1523, five
hundred years ago… The Reformation was in full swing. Momentous events had already occured. The 95 Theses, Heidelberg, Leipzig, the Diet
of Worms and Luther’s “Here I Stand” speech.
Junker George in the Wartburg.
The return to Wittenberg and the Ivocavit sermons. Watershed writings flowed from Dr. Luther’s
quill. To the Christian Nobility. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The Freedom of a Christian. And in 1522, the September Testament,
Luther’s translation of the New Testament into German, the beginning of his
translation of the whole Bible into the vernacular. The Gospel had been preached. The evangelical fervor was spreading. (God unleashed Guttenberg’s printing press at
just the right moment!)
But none of this without
suffering. And in 1523, evangelical
Christians were vividly reminded that the price of faithful confession must be
paid in blood. Johann Esch and Heinrich
Voes, Augustinian monks who had adopted Luther’s teaching as their own, were
arrested, imprisoned, and brought to Brussels to be burned at the stake. They were given one last opportunity to
recant before the flames were lit. But
they responded, “We will die as Christians and for the truth of the Gospel.” “As the fire rose around them, they confessed
their faith again and again in the words of the Apostle’s Creed. Then they sang
the Te Deum until, as one author puts it, ‘at last the fire choked their
voices, and there remained of them nothing but ashes.’”[1] And so, on July 1, 1523, the first Lutheran
martyrs were murdered for Christ. As
with so many faithful Christians before them, theirs was a Baptism in blood.
When Dr. Luther heard of their
sacrifice, he received the news with tears, and yet, praise for his Lord. For he knew their martyrdom would bear
fruit. And, as it happens, this is the
event that spurred Dr. Luther to begin writing hymns, the first hymn of the
Reformation. In this case, it was a
ballad (in the old sense of that word, a song that tells the story), twelve
verses. Sadly, you won’t find it in our
hymnal. But here is the first verse
(search this on YouTube, you can listen to it, it’s wonderful)[2]: “A new song here shall be
begun,/ Lord, help us raise the banner/ Of praise for all that God has done,/
For which we give Him honor./ At Brussels in the Netherlands/ God proved
Himself most truthful/ And poured His gifts from open hands/ On two lads,
martyrs youthful/ Through whom He showed His power."[3]
Now, how about this, verses 5 and 6
of the hymn: “Their cloister-garments off they tore,/ Took off their
consecrations;/ All this the youths were ready for/ They said Amen with
patience./ They gave to God the Father thanks/ That He would them deliver/ From
Satan’s scoffing and the pranks/ That make men quake and shiver/ When he comes
masked and raging./ The God they worshiped granted them/ A priesthood in
Christ’s order./ They offered up themselves to Him/ And crossed His kingdom’s
border/ By dying to the world outright,/ With ev’ry falsehood breaking./ They
came to heaven pure and white;/ All monkery forsaking,/ They turned away from
evil.”[4] Why did they do it? How could they sacrifice themselves so
willingly? They knew the truth. And the truth had set them free. They were abiding in the Word of Jesus
Christ, which is to abide in Jesus Christ Himself. The Son had set them free. And they were free, indeed! Free to give themselves into death for Jesus’
sake, knowing that they would not, in fact, die, but live eternally in Christ,
who died for them, and who is risen from the dead. Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes, the first
Lutheran martyrs.
Meanwhile, back in Wittenberg,
Luther was working on his “Baptismal Booklet,” an evangelical revision of the
baptismal rite, along with some baptismal instruction. It was included in all editions of the Small
Catechism published in Wittenberg during Luther’s lifetime, beginning with
the second, and in many editions of the 1580 Book of Concord, so this is
kinda-sorta a Confessional document. What
was new about it? Among other things,
Luther’s baptismal rite was in German rather than Latin, so the
people could hear and understand what was being done and said, and thus
value “the high, holy, and comforting sacrament of baptism.”[5] That, and that the priests, sponsors, and
people in the congregation would all take their participation in this rebirth
seriously. Understand what is
happening here, Luther says, essentially.
We are robbing the devil of his possession, or better, Christ
is robbing him. And we are hanging
around the child’s neck a mighty, lifelong enemy. So we ought to listen closely during the
Baptism, join our hearts to the prayers spoken by the priest, and continue
praying for the child, or the person being baptized, their whole life long. Luther says, “I fear that people turn out so
badly after baptism because we have dealt with them in such a cold and casual
way and have prayed for them at their baptism without any zeal at all.”[6] Never mind our half-hearted efforts to
instill a robust faith and Christian life in our children. Beloved, you’re going to be hearing this from
me a lot in the coming days. We cannot
expect that our children will accidentally stay in the Church and remain in the
faith. The world and Satan are too
strong, now. The world is explicitly
anti-Christian. It’s true, only God can
keep your children in the faith. But He
has entrusted you with the responsibility to be His voice and hands in doing
it. You must do everything possible, so
far as it lies with you… give your children every opportunity to be in the
saving presence of Jesus, living in their Baptism, hearing and learning His
Word, praying in His Name, and after instruction, joining us at the Supper. Teach them.
Nurture them. Pray for them. The days are evil. You know it.
Bring your children to Christ. Bring them to Church.
Baptism is the way Jesus, the Son,
sets us free. It is the portal to
freedom, opening up for us all the other gifts of the Lord that set us free,
the Word, repentance and faith, Absolution, the Supper. Again Luther: “[God] himself calls [Baptism]
a ‘new birth,’ through which we, being freed from the devil’s tyranny and
loosed from sin, death, and hell, become children of life, heirs of all God’s
possessions, God’s own children, and brothers and sisters in Christ. Ah, dear Christians, let us not value or treat
this unspeakable gift so half-heartedly.
For baptism is our only comfort and doorway to all of God’s possessions
and to the communion of all the saints.
To this end may God help us.
Amen.”[7]
Now, not much will surprise you in
Dr. Luther’s baptismal rite. Our rite is
very similar to, and based on, that of Luther.
But one thing that will get you (and I delight in the fact
that it will get you)… Luther includes an explicit exorcism! Well, think about what Baptism is. It is the casting out of every evil
spirit, that the Holy Spirit may take up residence in the Christian,
ever bringing the Christian to the Lord Jesus Christ, and so, to the
Father. “Depart, you unclean spirit, and
make room for the Holy Spirit,” we say in Luther’s rite.[8] And again, “I adjure you, you unclean spirit,
in the name of the Father (+) and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit (+),
that you come out of and depart from this servant of Jesus Christ...
Amen."[9] We’re not so sure we like it, because we
don’t like to imagine that these precious, cute, innocent (a
denial of original sin!) little babies have anything to do with evil
spirits. But that’s how deeply we’ve
been deceived. As Luther would say, we
don’t take Baptism, or demons, or our sins, or the salvation our God
accomplishes for us in Christ, and gives us here in the baptismal waters,
seriously enough. We’ve got to get
over ourselves. Every Baptism is an
exorcism. That’s how badly we need
Baptism. If you are ever tied to
a stake in the midst of the flames, as was the case for Johann Esch and
Heinrich Voes, you’ll be thankful the devil was cast away from you in your
Baptism (exorcised, whether the exorcistic words were said, or not), and that
the Holy Spirit has made Himself at home in your mind and heart, your body, and
your soul. You can be thankful, anyway,
because no matter what you are now suffering, or will suffer in the future…
whatever the temptation, whatever the trial or cross… you do not belong to the
devil, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to His Father, and to the Spirit of
the living God. You are baptized into
Christ! The Son has set you free. And you are free, indeed!
By the way, also in 1523, a number
of escaped nuns from Nimbschen arrived in Wittenberg, reportedly smuggled in a
cart full of herring barrels (“What is that intoxicating scent?!”). But it would take a couple years for Luther
to realize he should marry one of them.
Or, perhaps we should say, for Katharina von Bora to convince him. Thank God for devout and wise women. Our Lord’s grace abounds. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Matthew Block, https://www.canadianlutheran.ca/the-martyrs-esch-and-voes/
[3] Martin Luther: Hymns,
Ballads, Chants, Truth (4-CD Set) (St. Louis: Concordia, 2004) p. 8 of
accompanying booklet.
[4] Ibid, p. 10.
[5] The Book of Concord:
The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Robert Kolb and Timothy
J. Wengert, Eds. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000) p. 371.
[6] Ibid., p. 372.
[7] Ibid, p. 373.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid, p. 374.
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