The Word is Everything: A Meditation on John 1, upon the Celebration of the 500th Year of the Reformation

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; 

and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; 

and the darkness comprehended it not.

On October 31st, 2017, it will have been 500 years since the German catholic priest, Augustinian monk, and Doctor of Holy Scripture at the University of Wittenberg posted his now infamous invitation to debate his 95 Theses.  As a priest, Martin Luther’s concern was for the souls of those people given to his care as he administered Jesus’ Word and Sacraments to them.  As an Augustinian, Luther was informed by the traditions which dated back a thousand years to the original St. Augustin, who had tirelessly worked to preserve biblical orthodoxy against the popular onslaughts of heretics like Pelagius.  As a Doctor of Holy Scripture, he was at the apex of the theological faculty of his university, and as a condition of his office, took a sacred oath of fidelity to Scripture.  Far from the caricatures made of him by either his devotees or detractors, Luther’s presentation of points worthy of debate were fully within the regular duties of his vocation, his theological formation, and his educational expertise.  Luther was doing what God, the Church, and his university had called him to do:  be a faithful steward of the mysteries of God.

The Reformation which ensued, from a Lutheran perspective, was centered on this idea of Scriptural primacy, because in the end, it was Scripture which affirmed that the Word of God was and would always be everything.  In the beginning, it was the Word of God which called forth the cosmos, setting all things in their order.  It was the Word of God which breathed life into every living thing, and which communicated His Law and Gospel upon which all of existence depended.  It was the Word of God which pursued and saved every fallen sinner from the dawn of time, who would respond to Him in faith and repentance.  It was the Word of God which became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth which the darkness of this fallen world could not overcome; who suffered and died for the reconciliation of humanity to God; who rose from the dead to declare His saving work complete, and to send forth His disciples as His witnesses; who ascended into heaven, sitting at the Father’s right hand of authority, interceding for His people for the sake of His own sacrifice on Calvary; who sent the Holy Spirit to enliven His people in every age, working through His Word and Sacraments to create faith, and raising dead sinners to eternal life; who promised to come again at the end of time, to put away all evil forever in the fiery prison of hell, to preserve His people in their final strife, and to restore all creation through the last, great, and total resurrection.  The Word of God, Jesus Christ, second Person of the Holy Trinity, has and shall always be the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.

This is the witness Luther sought to be— a faithful herald of the Eternal Word of God.  Luther knew, as so many other faithful heralds had known across the centuries, that no one could divide the sanctity of the Word Made Flesh from the Word made written, given by the Holy Spirit through the Prophets and Apostles.  Thus to be faithful to Christ in His Person was and shall always be coterminous with faithfulness to His Word in Holy Scripture.  Luther was not alone in his time, nor was he alone in the history of the Church.  Though the 95 Theses were never collected into the formal confessions of Lutheran Christians in the 16th century (they were really just debate points, after all,) the other official writings of Lutherans were replete with references to the Councils and Church Fathers which predated Luther by up to 1500 years, demonstrating their appeals to Scripture were not novel, but reflected the best of the common catholic tradition.  Bound together in the 1580 Book of Concord were the ancient Creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian,) the Augsburg Confession with its Apology, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Smalcald Articles and Catechisms of Luther, and Formula of Concord— each with their appeals to ancient Christian consensus in the Word of God, and how that Word had been appropriately understood across the ages.

The great sadness of the Lutheran Reformation’s drive toward the centrality of Christ and His Word to the people of God, is that the hearts of many men preferred schism and war so as to retain their own power and pride, shattering the outward unity of western Christendom.  500 years before the Reformation, those same human failings erupted in the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 AD— another schism not yet healed.  The Reformation itself eventually shattered into numerous other movements, until we reach today’s cacophonous and confused Christian landscape with dozens of varieties of Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, Calvinists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics, and Orthodox.  While Lutheran fellowships argue over who among them is more authentically Lutheran, so to do various Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestant communities.  Debates rage about the legitimacy of bishops, regions of authority, preeminence of people or nations or cultures or liturgies.  In the end, the Reformation is not unique in having prompted yet another schism, when the Bishop of Rome excommunicated Luther as he had excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople and all the East before him.  Perhaps unique with the Reformation was the resulting trend toward endless fracture, as the dark 16th century prophecy was fulfilled in every man thinking himself a pope, starting his own church in his own name, and selling his wares to anyone who would buy them.  But then, fracture, schism, and division is always a great sadness, and a scandalous sin against Christ which St. Paul goes at length to warn against in his epistles.

And so, on this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we can offer no glory to God for reveling in rebellion, selfish pride, schism, and division.  What moved Luther, and other servants of the Word of God in ages past and present, is a call to the unity of Christ.  Christ is not divided from the Father or the Spirit in the perfection of the Holy Trinity, nor is he divided in Himself according to both his divine and human natures.  Christ the Incarnate Word of God is likewise not divided from Word of God he caused to be written, nor are His people divided from Him when they abide in His Word.  The great call of the Reformation is not to schism and discord, but to harmony and fellowship in the Word of God, who Himself is our life, our hope, and our salvation.  As we ponder this solemn milestone in the history of the Church and the world, it is worth remembering that all the human divisions made by sinful men among the people of God are not the enduring truth of our existence; it is not how Roman or how Lutheran, how Anglican or how Calvinist, how Baptist or how Pentecostal we may be which determines our fellowship with God.  Rather it is our fellowship in the Word of Christ who alone creates, sustains, enlivens, redeems, and saves all creation.  There we find the call of the great Reformers from antiquity to the present day, that we find the totality of our fellowship and life in the Eternal Word of Jesus.

As it did to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Elijah, to Isaiah, to John, to Paul, to Ambrose, to Augustine, to Chrysostom, to Athanasius, to Anselm, and to Luther, the Word of God comes to you again this day, calling you to hear the living Word of Jesus which binds you forever to Him by grace through faith.  Hear that Word today, turn from the paths of darkness and division, and find in Jesus through His Word the whole household of faith gathered together in Him.  May the deeper call of the Reformation ring in your heart and mind, that Jesus has come to seek and to save every lost soul who will put their trust in Him, living and abiding in Him by the power of His Holy Spirit.  Let rebellion and schism cease, and the people of God find themselves once again united in the indivisible and everlasting Person and Word of Jesus.  Amen.