Luther

 As our group has moved away from Wittenberg, the focus of our trip has shifted from the history of the Protestant Reformation into more modern times. I want to take a moment to take one last look at some of Luther’s thoughts, before I move onto other things. The life of Luther has impacted me a great deal, and I want to try and give a snapshot into some of his most heartfelt convictions. I know that this is a significant amount of writing, and I don’t expect that anyone should read it all. These are meant to be reflections on one of the most influential men that I have ever studied.

These are all quotes by Luther from Stephen J. Nichols book, Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought. They are taken from a discussion on Luther’s “Theology of the cross.” This is believed to be some of the most potent gateways into Luther’s heart. It is the way that he understood the grace of Jesus Christ his savior, and it is something that we need desperately in our time. Luther begins by talking about the nature of human sin.

“It enjoys only itself and uses everyone else, even God; it seeks itself and its own interests in everything: it brings it about that man is finally and ultimately concerned only for himself. This is the idolatry that determines all he does, feels, undertakes, thinks, and speaks. Good is only what is good for him and bad only what is bad for him.” 

This is the latin incurvitas. This is the idea that the self curves into the self. It means that any human attempt to be good or to be focused upon God in itself outside of Christ will only turn towards self. Even if the self thinks that it can advance towards God, it will only turn itself into itself. Luther wrote against the “Theology of glory”, trying to establish a correct nature of human sin and the role of Christ amidst our depravity.

The “Theology of glory” claims that mankind is not totally evil, and that man can actually chose God. This concept pervaded the theology of Luther’s world. He found that he was surrounded by people that wanted to deal with their individual sins as isolated from who they really were or what they truly wanted. They wanted to remain in their sins for comfort, while still feeling guiltless before God. He found himself in a world of pain where people sought answers that were selfish. He found in the “Theology of glory” that there was a tendency amongst men to ignore what Christ came to do, and only exemplified a desire to see Christ in glory. It was a theology that fundamentally ignored man’s sinful nature, wanting to use God and whatever means possible to satisfy their sinful state. This theology only emptied man of what they truly needed, and ultimately filled them with more of themselves: their own disease.

"He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is." 

Luther dared to ask the question that he saw in his own soul. That question was one of his own sinful heart. He knew that the church might momentarily relieve his guilty conscience, but he also knew that his sin was something that was deeply a part of who he was. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t change himself. Part of Luther’s discovery of Christ and his break away from the world of the Catholic Church was centered around his experience of his own sin. He knew that his sinfulness was deeply part of who he was, and he couldn’t shake the deep guilt he felt before a Holy God. And it was in that knowledge when Luther found true hope.

This is where we need to take a second to pause. In America, it is easy for us to say these things like “Lord I want you first”, or “I want you to be my joy and my satisfaction,” when in reality we have a hundred comforts that would block us from what that truly means. What does it truly mean to only have joy in Christ? We would mask joy with the excitement that God wants us to be prosperous, that he wants us to have perfect relationships and comfortable lives with an abundance of possessions. But this is not the world in which Luther lived. Luther lived in a world that was incredibly broken. He lived in a culture of death where a 3^rd of the European population was wiped out from the plague. The people in Luther’s day were no strangers to pain and loss, and they needed answers. People wanted a God who could stop their physical problems, and they were sure that they knew what they wanted. That sounds strangely reminiscent to the Jews in the time of Christ. Luther lived where people let their surroundings shape their theology, because they were afraid of what it might mean to truly give up what was closest to their hearts.

And it is in this world that Luther found the meaning of salvation. That salvation wasn’t in a series of sacraments that allowed him to feel licensed to have a sinful heart and live in a superficial world of external rituals for righteousness. Luther’s theology of the cross was where he found true life. It would seem that when the maker of heaven and earth is being crucified, that is where he is weakest. But in reality it is quite the opposite. Luther found that when Christ was on the cross, he was more powerful than ever. It is when Christ suffers that our greatest need is met. We deserve a cross because of our sin, but Christ takes our punishment. In Christ’s greatest suffering we find our hope.

"Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. ... For this reason true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ." 

And as I have been in Wittenberg, I have been able to touch the life of this man, and see the heartbeat behind all his theological reform. This was a brave man who refused to settle for a theology that was unbiblical and based on man’s conception of God. He saw that he had a condition of sin in his heart, and that no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t change who he was. And in looking upon Christ on the cross, he found that Christ offered him what he truly needed. He needed a change of his heart, not just external comfort. He needed a Christ who would suffer in his place. And He needed a Christ who could pay a penalty that he himself should have to pay. Martin Luther was willing to admit that Christ may not have come so that we as humans could have easy lives. Christ was crucified on a wretched cross! Life as a Christian may not be all that our sinful hearts desire, but Christ gives us what we truly need. Being a Christian for Luther wasn’t about external happiness. He was a man who refused to buy his salvation from the church while living in rebellion with God. He was truly a reformer.

Standing in his stead has been humbling indeed. Would I look upon Christ in the same fashion? What if my life doesn’t abound in material blessings because I chose to follow Christ? Do I want a Christ who is only glorified without having to suffer? Do I want a Christ who will give me happiness in this life or eternal joy in the next? If Christ is truly glorified in suffering, would I suffer my need for momentary bliss for a salvation that is worth eternity? These are hard questions. Questions that I don’t think anyone likes to ask. Luther asked these questions. And he was brave enough to point to a Christ on the cross, who confounds the wisdom of the ages for riches everlasting.

Luther’s theology of the cross finds Christ where he would seem to be weakest, but in fact he is doing the most. As 1 Corinthians says, “God destroys the wisdom of the wise.” Luther saw that it was not anything else in scripture that was central to Christianity, but Christ on the cross. He saw Christ in his suffering doing most for the Christian when so many were turning to a myriad of comforting half-truths and other evils. Luther found that because Christ suffered on the Cross and because he appeared weakest when he was doing most, for that reason the Christians life might look the same. A Christian is not a Christian because they have an easy life, but because they know that Christ's salvation is their ultimate joy. Luther realized that his true satisfaction did not come from self-promotion or external adornment, but through the redemption in his heart through Christ on the cross.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

-John 14:27

Wittenberg

 This week we have had the opportunity to stay in Wittenberg, Germany. This city was the home of the famous reformer Martin Luther, who effectively set into motion the Protestant Reformation. Luther was a monk who seriously struggled with the Catholic Church’s view of salvation. Although he labored tirelessly in the church, he couldn’t help to shake his feeling of extreme guilt before a Holy God. The Catholic Church essentially owned the right to issue salvation, and Luther knew that the Church couldn’t change his sinful heart. I will have more time to get into Luther’s theology in a later post, but it is necessary to understand that Luther grew more and more resistant to the Catholic Church’s apparent authority for salvation. Nothing angered Luther more than the Pope Leo’s selling of indulgences to fund the artwork in St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. In 1517 Luther posted his famous 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. These Theses were a rebuttal against the Catholic Church for the selling of indulgences. This act is seen as the start of the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century, because it started a firestorm of reform of the church in Germany. The original wooden doors of the church have been replaced with bronze doors with the 95 Theses in scripted on them.

This is a picture from the main street. Our hostile is located just on the left, which is literally a 10 second walk from the Castle Church. Around the steeple of the church is written the title of Luther’s famous hymn, “A Might Fortress is Our God” in German.

We also had the opportunity to visit the town Church St. Mary’s, which is where Luther would have preached most frequently. The artwork in the church was fascinating. The foundational art piece in the church depicts Luther preaching with Christ on the Cross in between him and his congregation. It is indicative of what Luther believed to be most important in the church: the preaching of the cross of Christ from God’s Word.

Probably the most interesting thing that we were able to see in Wittenberg was Luther’s house. This house was given to Luther by Frederick the Wise as a wedding present in 1525. What is ironic about the house is that it was formerly the monastery in which Luther spent over 10 years of his life.

What is little known about Luther’s life is his marriage to the escaped nun Katherine Von Bora. The house reveals how much work that this woman invested into Luther’s family. Without his wife, Luther’s life would have fallen apart. She raised the family, cooked, cleaned, gardened, kept the books for all of Luther’s endeavors, and raised their 10 children. She was a powerhouse. Reminds me of my mom. She also was gifted in making beer.

   

  This living room depicts the place where Luther would retire with his guests in the evenings to have theological discussions into the night. Fortunately for us, many of these conversations have been recorded in his work Table Talks.

The house was an excellent snapshot into Luther’s life. I will have an opportunity to share a little about Luther’s theology later, but he was definitely an extraordinary man. It has been incredible to find myself learning from this man’s life, a man who shook the course of the history of the church.

I also had the opportunity to have some good morning walks in the park just across from the Castle Church. It was stunning.

Being in this place has been especially moving. As I have studied Luther’s life, I have been humbled by this man’s bravery. This was a man who asked questions of himself and of God that were deeply honest. He paid the consequences of clinging to a precious salvation that only Christ could offer. These are the men who we need amongst us, who are willing to take the chance of being honest with God’s Word.

At the conclusion of perhaps his most famous work, On the Bondage of the Will, Luther writes, “We are beggars. That is true.” 

Geneva/Zurich

POST TENEBRAS LUX. This is the Latin phrase meaning “after darkness light,” or in its longer form “after darkness, I hope for light.” This phrase can be found on the reformers wall in the city of Geneva. The Latin phrase became the maxim for the protestant reformation, symbolizing how the protestant church broke away from the numerous encumbrances that the medieval church had adopted in the dark ages. Now that we are out of Italy, most of the history that we will see will be from the time of the reformation to the present day.

On our way out of Switzerland, we had the opportunity to visit a few of the key historical cities of the protestant reformation. The first city we visited was Geneva in Switzerland. This was one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever seen.

The city is most famous historically because the influence of the Protestant reformer Jean Calvin. We had the opportunity to visit the church where Calvin preached.

There were a number of notable things about this church that were much different than any of the other churches that we have visited so far. One of the key things that the reformers were trying to emphasize, is that a relationship with Jesus Christ does not come through an individuals works, but through faith alone in Christ’s finished work on the cross. The Catholic theology of salvation was that the church hierarchy and structure had the right to issue salvation. The catholic churches were incredibly ornate for a number of reasons, but mainly because they believed that every aspect of the church was central to a believers salvation experience. What is significant about the reformers is that had a firm conviction that a believers salvation lied in the authority of God’s Word, and not within the church. They sought to trim all the excess, and place the Bible as the central authority for the salvation of the believer. All that to say, Calvin’s church was indicative of the how the reformers thought about the function of the church. It was not nearly as ornate as any of the churches that we saw in Rome, and there was one thing that was central to the church.

The pulpit. The pulpit was the place where believers heard the word of God preached by Calvin on a weekly basis. The Word was the believers only authority, not and endless system of external obligations. It was in these very walls that believers were freed from having to rely on a set of duties to earn their acceptance before God. They would come and sit in these simple pews and hear that they didn’t need a laundry list of duties to impress God. They came and heard that their salvation was in Christ, once for all. They knew that they poor, but they knew that they had a rich savior. And they were free from the bondage of self, to look upon Christ’s beauty through his Word.

One of the lesser-known characteristics about Calvin’s life and Geneva is his incredible social reform. For Calvin, the purpose of the reformation was not to overthrow the existing social and governmental structures, but to merely reform them. He believed that God instituted government for the purpose of pointing mankind towards God. Calvin worked with the government in Geneva to bring social order, structure and stability in the city. He even designed the cities sewer system. Today Geneva is known as a peaceful center for worldwide negotiations, as well as the birthplace of the International Red-Cross Movement. Much of the cities wealth and prosperity can be traced back to Calvin and his willingness to honor the government’s authority and work alongside it for the good of the people. This is a picture of the reformers wall, dedicated to the reformers who ushered in not only religious freedom, but also social and economic prosperity.

The other city that we had the opportunity to visit was Zurich. This city was just as beautiful as Geneva, and probably one of the wealthiest cities in Europe.

The reformation history of the city is traced back to the reformer Ulrich Zwingli.

 Like Calvin, Zwingli had a radical devotion to the scripture as the sole authority. His church was similar to Calvin’s, with minimal focus on the church adornments, and a central focus on the authority of God’s word.

Zwingli also had a devotion to the government playing a central role in the reformation of the church and society. The majority of the reason that the reformation was so successful in cities like Geneva and Zurich was because the reform happened within in the bounds of government. They worked along side the magistrates and the civil structures to bring about the glory of God. 

Switzerland 3

Another day of swiss glory! After 2 days of intense hiking, we wanted to find a place with a great view and do some relaxing. We first went to see one of the famous waterfalls in the area. Pretty sweet!

Johnny and I within shot of the spray.

After the waterfall we took a gondola and a train to a petite little swiss town called Muren. The swiss are masters of the ridiculous. This little town was literally set up on the side of a mountain in the alps. It was incredible. Check out the view of the 3 peaks. Awesome!

After some time in Murren we were in a search for a sweet spot to set up our slackline with the mountains in the background. After some failed attempts, we made a spur of the moment decision to get off the train at a random spot. The problem is that we had left our slackline in someone else's bag, and they were on the train back home with the rest of the group! We were pretty discouraged, and after a little while we decided to explore the area. Literally 30 seconds later we found a restaurant with a slackline in their front lawn. It was unbelievable. Needless to say we had some good fun.

We got a little swiss crazy ourselves!

Overall Switzerland has been amazing. This is truly the most beautiful place that I have ever been. Even now after a week I am still blown away that I am even here. This has definitely the break from school we needed. I have just started my next class on the european reformations. Its gonna be pretty interesting! We are off to Geneva, Zurich and then Wittenburg. Stay tuned!

Switzerland 2

 Yesterday we had an opportunity to see some of the most spectacular views that I have ever seen in my whole life. We all got up early, took a train, and got on board a gondola to do some epic hiking.  Right when we got off the gondola, we were met with some amazing views.

The higher up that we went, the more beautiful the spectacle became. We made our way up to a glacier lake where we all just sat there. Minds blown.  

Dustin, Johnny and I broke away from the group to hike up to the Faulhorn peak. These pictures are just above the glacier lake.

The Faulhorn is a peak just opposite the 3 famous peaks of the alps. The view from the top of the peak was remarkable. We sat and ate our lunches on a helipad with a full 360 degree panorama.

Incredible!!

Switzerland

Well folks the madness continues. This week we finished up our first class and headed out of Italy into Switzerland. They have designed the trip so that we get a few days off while we are in Switzerland so that we can just hike around the Alps. I don’t think that we would get much done if we did have class. This place is absolutely stunning. We are staying in this Christian Youth Hostile called Credo, which is just outside of Interlaken. The place looks like something straight out of a movie.

Here is the view right from our front window. Insane.

What I didn’t realize is that we are staying at the base of some of the most famous mountains in the world. There are 3 famous peaks called the Eiger, the Monch, and the Jungfrau. 100 years ago they built a train system that goes inside the Eiger mountain all the way up to an observatory on the top.  The observatory is the tallest lookout point in Europe is at 11,333 feet. On the way up the train, you have a few stops where you can get off the train and look out through glass from inside the mountain!

Once we got to the top, we walked about a mile to a little hut for mountaineers. Our group stopped their to eat lunch and enjoy some hot coffee and hot chocolate.

The view from the top was absolutely incredible.

This is a few guys from the trip. Dustin, Johnny and I

Our group also got to take a hike right under the north face of the Eiger Mountain. The north face of the Eiger is famous as a treacherous mountaineering destination, and it has claimed many lives. The north face of the mountain is away from the sun and holds much of the weather, making it a sheer 1800-meter wall of ice and rock. This picture is taken from the side. You can see how the face just holds the clouds. 

We got to hike just under the face of the mountain and experience the immensity of this monster!

The view out over the valley from the Eiger was equally impressive.

This place is absolutely unbelievable. Pictures just don’t do justice to how awesome this place truly is. We will be hiking for the next few days so I will be putting lots of pictures up. More to come!

Tights are necessary in the alps. Larry Gough has inspired me

Florence/Milan

Here are a few pictures from some day trips that we took to two major cities. The first city that we visited was Florence. This city is known for its artwork, and is one of the most beautiful cities that we have seen thus far. This is the huge Cathedral at the center of the city.

One of the other definitive things about Florence is that is it contains Michelangelo’s famous statue The David. While we did not go into the museum where the original sculpture is, we did get to see this copy in the courtyard.

This lion was also in the courtyard. Its expression was just too funny to pass up.

We also got to spend a day touring the city of Milan. These huge cities have so much history that you could spend months in each one and not even get close to seeing everything. Milan is presently known as one of the fashion capitals in the world, however the city has a rich history as well. The city was made one of the capitals of the Roman Empire by the emperor Constantine in the 4^th century. We were able to visit the ruins of the imperial palace in the city. This would have been the place where Constantine penned the famous Edict of Milan in 313, which legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Additionally we were able to visit the famous Duomo Cathedral. This cathedral is definitely the coolest one that we have yet to see. It is one of the largest Cathedrals in the world. It took about 500 years to be fully completed.

The architecture of this cathedral is actually quite fascinating. The cathedral was built in 1386, right during the time when gothic style architecture was becoming popular. The cathedral is built in such a way that the large pillars take the majority of the weight of the ceiling, leaving the walls open for the huge stain glass windows.

The last and most fascinating thing that we were able to see was the original baptistery underneath the Duormo Cathedral. It is here that the church father Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in 387 AD. The story goes that Augustine came to Milan to study rhetoric. When he heard Ambrose preach he was cut the heart, and underwent a dramatic conversion experience in the gardens of Milan. That same year he was baptized in this very place. It was pretty breathtaking to be standing right there in the stead of such a influential man of God.

I also had some time to befriend a family of pigeons. I like pigeons.