The Ultimate Reformation

Last updated on: October 28, 2015 at 8:37 am by Michelle Van Loon

The Ultimate Reformation 2015-10-28T08:37:25-05:00 Michelle Van Loon

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Martin Luther had some serious chutzpah.

Though his well-documented anti-Semitism sowed some noxious weed-seed in both his theology and throughout the Protestant church culture that emerged from the Reformation, I’ve always admired the stories of Luther’s battles with unhealthy church culture. Luther was a monk, a Catholic church insider. He had every reason to support the status quo of the church at the time, which had grown into a bloated, powerful bureaucracy designed to benefit people in positions like his. Though history remembers Luther as a spiritually-intense, blunt, and brash man, he functioned in his day as a blustering German canary in a coal mine, alerting the Church to the noxious fumes smothering and distorting the gospel.

On October 31, 1517, Luther reportedly crawled up the steps of the church in Wittenberg and nailed his list of grievances to the door about the way the church had been conducting “salvation business”. Reading his 95 theses, it is obvious he is writing as a heartbroken insider, not a rabble-rousing agitator. I understand he never intended to start a new denomination. He simply wanted to call the church to return to who she was supposed to be.

Luther wasn’t the first reformer by a long shot. If you think about it, the Apostle Paul wrote almost all of his letters to infant churches already in need of reform. By the third century, the same reformer’s impulse at work in Luther drove the Desert Fathers and Mothers into the wilderness to seek God because the Church had gotten too comfy with the world. Throughout history, there have always been reform movements in the Church. These prophetic voices usually echo the call of John the Baptizer, then Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Now, almost 500 years after Luther’s viral blog post on the doors of the church in Wittenberg, reforming is so much a way of life for us in the big C church that its estimated there are more than 33,000 denominations in the world. This includes more than 200 groups situated within the Catholic church, nearly 800 within the Eastern Orthodox branch of the family tree, as well as thousands upon thousands of Protestant groups – the children of Luther, Calvin, Menno Simons, as well as Bill Hybels, John Wimber and maybe even your pastor, who may have decided to plant a church after falling into disagreement with someone over doctrine or paycheck or building program. We may not have mastered love for one another very well, but for better or for worse, by golly, we have gotten the hang of reformation.

Ecclesia semper reformanda est is a fancy way of saying that the Church is always in need of reforming because each one of us as individuals – we the members of his single Body here on earth – are always in need of reforming. We are not there yet; we are all of us on a pilgrim’s road trip. The Reformation has taught us how to divide. In some cases, the division has been a good and necessary pruning process. In other cases, it has been a loveless destruction of the unity for which Jesus prayed. It’s sowed seeds just as noxious as the seeds of Luther’s toxic anti-Semitism.

My most joyful moments as a believer have always, always come as I’ve learned and worshipped and gone on retreat with people who aren’t in my particular local church. This is how it will be at the end of days, and it is what Jesus prayed for us until the end arrives. I believe that true, Spirit-wrought unity is the mark of the kingdom, and is the ultimate reformation of them all.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

Your kingdom come, Lord Jesus. Your will be done among us on earth as it has already been done in heaven.

In your experience, has the Protestant Reformation been a boon or a bane to the Church? Why do you say so?

Previous Post

October 23, 2015

I Didn't Think I Had A Book In Me, But I Did

Next Post

November 2, 2015 Regret and Re-Formation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Baggage Books Calendar Church and Ministry CVID Ecclesiology Everyday Christian life Faith Falling Upward From The Margins Housing Jesus Movement's Unintended Consequences Midlife Midlife Survey #1 Midlife Survey #2 Moments and Days Out To The Margins Pilgrim's Road Trip Regret Seminary Spiritual Formation Uncategorized What's A Nice Jewish Grandmother Like You Doing In Seminary? When The Heart Waits Writing

Select a Month June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Mary's cousin?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Rachel Elizabeth Leah Sarah