by The Rev. Dr. Max Lynn
SCRIPTURE READINGS Ephesians 1:11-23, Luke 6:20-31
Transcribed from the sermon preached on NOVEMBER 6, 2022
Mother Teresa’s Anyway Poem
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
Over the last couple of years, we have seen several waves of iconoclasm, of tearing down statues. At first it was Confederate generals, but more recently statues of Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi have been vandalized.
Even though one established a democracy that has been a model for the whole world, and under which we have the freedom to criticize even him, another saved the world, and the other overturned a colonial power with non-violence, these guys weren’t perfect either.
If we cannot retain any of the wisdom of those who have come before us because they were also sinners, we will be left with no wisdom but our own, and only that when we pretend we are perfect. Progress is always partial. We learn and grow in some ways and not in others. We receive new insight on some important points in life, and remain ignorant and stubbornly non-repentant on others. We never arrive but always continue learning and coming to know God.
Take for instance Martin Luther, who, whether we want to credit him with it or not, was a tremendous influence on all people in western culture who value individual conscience and integrity, and those who refuse to bow down to religious and governmental authority when we think they are wrong. In the late 15th and early 16th century the Catholic Church was incredibly corrupt. One of the biggest issues to Luther was Indulgences. The idea was that your loved ones who had died were in purgatory until punishment for their sins had been paid for. Never mind that Scripture says nothing about purgatory. Indulgences became a profitable business for the Church, used to fund building campaigns and wars, as people were encouraged to ransom their loved ones out of God’s cosmic prison.
So, in 1517 Luther posts his 95 Thesis on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Among his theses is the notion that we have to test the theology of the clergy against the Bible. Because of that idea, that individual lay people shouldn’t just uncritically accept everything clergy said, both literacy and individual conscience became key elements of Protestant Christianity and Western culture in general. Another key notion is that Salvation is by grace through faith. That is, we do not have to, nor could we ever earn or pay our way into heaven. We are never perfect enough or rich enough. Eventually Luther is charged with heresy and put on trial.
After he has made his case, Charles V asked him again if he would retract his statement or stand by them.
He responded: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason (I do not accept the authority of popes and councils because they have contradicted each other), my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”
The emphasis on dialogue with scripture, the emphasis on salvation by grace, the emphasis on education and freedom of conscience, for all of these we owe a great dept to Martin Luther.
Now are we supposed to erase Martin Luther from history because he was anti-Semitic? Should we consider his impact on Christianity and western culture worse than useless because he chickened out and denounced the Peasant Revolt even though they used his teachings to call for economic justice? I think that Luther would say that we should take the lessons he taught and judge them against the teachings of Christ. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. So, we would admire and praise him for conscience and grace and recognize his sinful blindness on racism and the legitimate complaints of poor peasants. But one thing is for sure, Luther wouldn’t want a statue made of him.
Why? Because he was concerned about idolatry. Along with Calvinists, or Presbyterians, there was a strong push to denounce the veneration of Saints. There is one God and one Christ, all the rest of the Catholic saints, icons and art was at best a distraction and at worst idolatry. So, Protestant iconoclasts, sure of the sinful views of the past, and the sinful humanity of the Saints, went around Europe destroying art. In a single year 1566, says the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art: “1566, Protestant iconoclasts destroyed an estimated ninety percent of art in the Netherlands. It was the beginning of the Dutch revolt against Spanish Catholic Rule. Suddenly, public spaces once full of art were stripped bare.”
And so too our Protestant Churches are much more sparse than Catholic churches even today. All we have is the cross, the Bible, the pulpit, the communion table, and the baptismal font. One of the key phrases in our Presbyterian Book of Order warns us to “Shun ostentation.” This means, don’t be gaudy and show off. Stay simple and focus on substance over show. Our stained glass and the magnificent organ are pushing it.
Now with Vatican II, in the 1960s the Roman Catholic Church recognized that Luther was correct to emphasize Salvation by Grace and the centrality of scripture. And perhaps we too have begun to look back at all that destruction and denunciation of the Saints and art and temples and holy sites of indigenous people and think maybe we went a bit too far. Maybe we don’t worship saints, but maybe there is some good in seeing Mary, the mother of Jesus for instance, as a powerful hero of the faith. And we are cheering the effort to make Teresa and Romero saints.
Now part of the Protestant Reformation is a return to the notion that there is nothing superhuman about the saints. In fact, by grace through faith, we are all saints. Saints in this passage from Ecclesiastes this morning, are those faithful who have gone before us who lived lives in service to God.
Now given that I have more trouble from myself than any other person I know, and I can look back at the history of my own life and think, man, was I immature, or ignorant, stubborn, or sinful, I’m so glad I’m saved by grace. I’m so glad I have learned and grown. Perhaps we can hold onto our history, acknowledge the powerful and positive contributions people have made, even as we learn and recognize their mistakes and imperfections too, and work to move beyond them and include others. Like Romero and Teresa
Who knows how history will look back at us and say, why were they so blind? How could they have thought that way? They thought they were so righteous but their attempt to fix this problem failed miserably. And maybe you have someone in your life who can’t let your past mistakes go, and they want to tear you down for it, take down your picture, throw out your art? And maybe they are right about your faults. If the shoe fits, wear it. But here is the thing. God has been with you, loving you all along the way. And now, your job is the pray and ask God to help you see a little bit more truth today.
17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, the one who gave birth to all creation, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know her, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which she has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.
Luther’s collected works, issued later under his supervision, give the closing words as, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”