Five hundred years ago, in the early months of 1521, Martin Luther had just been excommunicated from the only church that existed in his part of the world. Why? There were theological differences, political factors, and personality clashes. Even so, Luther mostly just wanted to talk about faith in Jesus with an institutional church that wasn’t interested in having the conversation. Conflict is hard enough. Indifference can be just as painful.
In those first months of 1521, between his excommunication from Rome and his secular trial before Emperor Charles V, Luther tried to keep the conversation going. He published a defense of the teachings for which he had been declared a heretic. The second of those points was Luther’s teaching that sin stays with Christians all their lives as part of our fallen human condition. The Church of Rome said that this offended against Christ’s grace and salvation. Luther, however, replied that being a Christian is not about being in a state of grace as opposed to a state of sin. Instead, the Christian life is about being amazed at the grace that God continuously bestows upon broken vessels like us, transforming and renewing our actual imperfect lives one day at a time.
Luther turned to gospel parables to illustrate this idea, including the parable of a woman who adds a pinch of yeast to the lump of dough so that it will gradually rise. Sharing his meaning, he wrote:
The new leaven is the faith and grace of the Spirit. It does not leaven the whole lump at once but gently, and gradually, we become like this new leaven and eventually, a bread of God. This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed (LW 32:24).
As the church gives thanks for the life of Martin Luther, renewer of the church, on the anniversary of his death, these words remind us of Luther’s great ability to point not to himself or some esoteric doctrinal system but to Christ’s saving work in us.
We are not perfect, but in Christ we are being made whole. We have not arrived at some glorious destination, but in Christ we are on the right path. We are not immune to pain or sickness, but in Christ the healing presence of the Lord of Life is at work in us right now. We are not bright and shiny, but we can glimpse shimmers of light as often as we pay attention to what God is up to in us and around us.
Blessings on the journey.
Rev. Dr. Martin Lohrmann
Associate Professor of Lutheran Confessions and Heritage
Wartburg Theological Seminary