October 27, 2024. Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36.
A book was effectively banned from public access. It happened because religious leaders with strong influence in government thought the book was dangerous. It had been widely available for years and never fell off the list of best sellers because it had everything. Epic battles with violent scenes, explicit and illicit relationships, love songs, protest songs, witches, monsters, poetry, adventure, and betrayal.
But according to some people, only a mature and wise person could be trusted to safely contemplate the ideas expressed in the book. Its restriction was accomplished by forbidding it to be made available in any language except Latin, which only adult, educated people could read. That book was the bible. This was Western Civilization in the Middle Ages.
Many people say that the German Augustinian Catholic priest Martin Luther began the Protestant reformation in 1517. His main thesis was that people should not have to pay to have their sins forgiven. And they should not be told that their departed loved ones languished in spiritual travail or limbo until they could be forgiven – at a price to be named by the Church.
Luther loudly argued against the sale of God’s grace and forgiveness. He called for public access to the bible, He confronted many other heavy handed restrictions. Church and State typically vied for power against one another but they worked together when it came to freedom that would threaten people’s obedience to institutional authority. This, to them, was civilized society.
Luther put his freedom and his life on the line by translating the bible into German for the common people so they could encounter God’s Word for themselves. But he was not the first. Czech priest Jan Huss had translation the bible into his own language in 1488 with deadly consequences.
Many others pushed for reforms in the Church, including John Wycliffe, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, Philipp Melanchthon, Théodore de Bèze, and John Knox, Marguerite de Navarre, Marie Dentière, Argula von Grumbach, Olympia Morata , and Jeanne d’Albret. These reformers wanted people to know and love God.
All were spiritual leaders who challenged Church practices. They were appalled by the church’s vast wealth amid the poverty of the common people. They were angered by biblical and theological interpretations that served only the interests of people in power. The Church alone defined and described God. A very scary and unapproachable God.
In many ways both Church and State overplayed their authority. They took action against the Reformers in extremely uncivil ways. But they were up against a new technology in the form of the printing press. Which changed everything.
Luther and others used the press to their advantage to quickly get ideas out among people. People largely did not know what the Church and State were doing behind closed doors. The printing press also made bibles available to people to read in their mother tongue.
The Protestant reformers were seized by the conviction that God wants us to be free. The Holy Spirit’s activity sets us free. This is really where reformation always begins. When God’s Spirit inspires us to action for God’s sake. (For God’s sake!!)
The Holy Spirit appoints people to announce the ways that we have given up our freedom to believe, to know, to love, and because of that love, to serve God. The Spirit worked mightily in the people whose stories populate the bible. Through the Holy Spirit, God became uniquely and visibly present in the person and work of Jesus.
This is the heart of the argument in the gospel today. It’s between Jesus and some people who once believed and then came to doubt that he was God’s anointed One. They responded that they had never been enslaved to (followed) any deity but their own God. Jesus said that his word, his instruction was God’s word and way. To follow him was to be in relationship with God.
We forget so easily that relationship is what God desires. But they were afraid. For those people circumcision was the traditional sign of faithfulness to God. For Christians is it Baptism. But even with these things accomplished, we can still distance ourselves from God. We are free to do this also.
God does not desire to control us. Nor does God need our lip service or false piety. God wants to be in our hearts. The place of thoughtful deliberation. The place where our freedom is exercised.
Which means that however carefully anyone tries to guard and preserve inherited spiritual traditions those attempts are bound to fail. It’s why banning the bible from public access didn’t work either. Reformation is how the Holy Spirit rolls.
As Jesus said, nothing will not prevent God from setting people free. Free from sin, free from fear, free from the power of death. Free to know and love God. Forever and ever, Amen.