The Madness of Luther

"The Madness of Luther"
The Rev. Dr. Fred G. Garry

Matthew 21.1-17

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, “It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself?” He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Like many movies, Field of Dreams, was based on a book.  The book, Shoeless Joe, is followed for the most part in the movie. There is a corn field in Iowa turned into a baseball diamond and the ghosts of legendary players come and compete.  There is a reconciliation with a father and a kidnapping of sorts so to ease his pain. In the book, it is J. D. Salinger who is kidnapped but not in the movie. I believe this was a good change to leave the reclusive author alone.

There is one scene in the book, a childhood memory of the main character, Ray, a moment that is not in the movie. Such omissions are common, but this one is so crucial and so symbolic, it was a mistake to leave out.  The childhood memory is when Ray gets an air gun, bb gun. Like most young children gifted with such a weapon, Ray starts shooting things.  Target practice then leads to hunting and Ray shoots a mockingbird.

Proud of his kill, Ray brings the bird to his mother. Like a cat, he brings the birds to his mother and shows her. Ray’s mother looks down at the lifeless bird and directs him to “bring it back to life.” The young boy is confused and says, “I can’t.”  To which the mother says, “until you can, don’t shoot anymore.”

Don’t you wish you were this smart as a parent?

I love this story. The moment of confusion. Bring it back to life. It’s madness. Bring it back to life. Crazy. We can’t do this. Well until you can, don’t kill anymore.  What a powerful idea.  Until you can restore , don’t take. Until you can heal, don’t hurt.  Until you can resurrect, don’t kill.  Until you have the power to build up, don’t tear down.

It is fair to say we do not see ourselves as possessing the power to resurrect birds, let alone people.  And truth be told, most people don’t see themselves as powerful, full of power.  We have some power, some control, some ability.  But power is often assigned to others, people who are tyrants or billionaires or people of great influence.  But us?  Not really.

Although we don’t see ourselves as very powerful, today is the moment when we are called to remember; we possess the power of the Kingdom of God.  We forget how powerful we really are and today is when we remember.  To help make this point, we hear the bagpipes.  Not a subtle instrument.  Powerful.  And we bring tartans and read our necrology: we have the power, the courage, to stand before death and to take our place in the fabric of tradition, to commingle our lives with Luther who said, “Here I stand.”  A courageous power.

But let’s be clear, this is also madness.  Luther was crazy.  He took on the Pope and won.  He led a revolution with ideas.  Great ideas, but madness all of them.

Martin Luther’s greatest idea, perhaps, is that power is with the people, with you.  Luther wasn’t the first to think of this, to see this.  This was though, the first time this idea was combined with the power of the printing press.  That the power is with you when combined with Bibles printed in German and English and French and Italian, Hungarian even, once this happened the idea of the power being with the people took off.

It is good to remember this today.  Luther believed, like Arnold told us, this is the word of God for the people of God.  This idea was the fuel of the Reformation, giving the Bible to people to read and decide for themselves.  This idea changed the world.  Basic parts of our life, from personal liberty to public education, were born in this dangerous act of madness.

We need to remember today that the idea of power to the people was not greeted with enthusiasm by those who held the power of governments, who held power in the church.  John Calvin was hunted as an outlaw, lived his life as a fugitive because he wrote a preface to a translation of the New Testament.  Olivetan translated the New Testament into French and Calvin wrote a kind of study aide or reading guide for it.  This was deemed so dangerous, so radical, Calvin lived in exile from France for the rest of his life.

That might seem crazy to us now, but in the 16^th century by those who held power this was fighting words.  To give such power, to let each person read the bible in their own language, give away control of the bible, take it from the priests and give it to the people was deemed as the work of a reckless, dangerous person.

Giving the bible away was madness.  But things got really crazy when Luther called for giving away the money of the church.  As you can imagine, it is one thing to give away the bible, but give away money, now that’s out of hand!  And truly, if the protestants had just given away the bible, we may not have had a real reformation, not on the scale of a revolution, which is what happened.  Things got really crazy, as they often do, once it came down to money.

The reformers gave away the riches of the church in two ways.  The first is that they divested the assets of the church in exchange for control of the cathedrals.  It was a deal.  The protestants gave the land, the farms, the holdings of the church in places like Geneva and Bern and Zurich in exchange for control of the places of worship.  The cities got the riches of Rome, and the protestants got the pulpit.  Yes, there was a century of warfare that followed, and it was madness, but it worked.

The real give away was not divesting but getting out of the business of selling grace.  Luther put forward a radical idea, the priesthood of all believers, which basically means if I forgive you, you are healed; if you forgive me, I am healed.  No priest, no sacrifice, no decree of the church.  Just you and me a grace.  The priesthood of all believers.  This is when things got ugly.

You would think this a lovely idea.  My compassion for you is healing and your compassion for me is healing.  This is great and true and how could this be a problem?  Well, the church made a lot of dough by saying just the opposite and monetizing it.  You can say you’re sorry and I can say I forgive you, but unless a priest blesses this and unless you pay for it, then you are still on the hook with God.  Forgive each other all you want, but you will still go to hell.  For a price, we can fix that.  This was the structure of the doctrine of indulgences and the power of sacramental penance for a price determined and doled out by a priest.  Church got crazy rich with this teaching and practice.

Luther came along and said, Jesus reconciles us to God.  Only he can do this, and he did it.  But you and I, our misdeeds and our darkness, well, we can take care of that with each other. We can forgive each other, heal each other, bring the bird back to life for each other.  We are still on the hook with God, that’s Jesus’ job.  And the good news is that Jesus did his job and offers us the grace of his life and resurrection without cost, without payment.  It’s a gift.

It didn’t take Rome long to see this madness would have a deep impact on the bottom line.  There was a lot of money made by the selling of grace, by the church being the middleman of mercy.  All those monks who took a vow of poverty were living in extravagant wealth by selling forgiveness.  Luther said, it’s not for sale anymore and what is more, everyone has the power to forgive, you are the priesthood of all believers.  The printing press was printing forgiveness.

I was so happy that the Palm Sunday entry of Jesus was the reading that fell to today.  This reading which is read each year as the beginning of Holy Week is the most radical event of Jesus’ life.  We can see this if we interpret it through the Kirkin’, the power of the people, the madness of Luther.

The king comes humble and riding on a donkey.  The king is a peasant.  The wandering healer is now the high priest.  The prophet of Galilee enters Jerusalem.  Well, up is down, down is up.  The power of the few is cast to the many.  That’s why the Pharisees were angry.  Jesus was turning everything upside down.  He drives out the money changers, he cures the people, children call him king.  The economy of grace is about to be free for all.  Palm Sunday is revolution.  Soon the curtain of the temple will be torn, the dead will rise and walk the streets.  There will be a new cornerstone for the temple which was torn down and rebuilt in three days.  Madness!

On this Sunday it is right to remember this.  We are protestants, we are the protesters, we gave the power of the church away to the people.  We were the Palm Sunday of the Church.  Children make kings and justice is now longer for sale.

We can forget that we have been protesting for 500 years.  We started by protesting the Pope and the Mass and we never looked back.  We protest injustice, racism, classism, sexism.  When things get slow, we even protest ourselves.

At the core of all this protesting is the principal, the belief, the power is with the people.

We believe the power is with each believer.  So, we form committees and vote; we have classes and Sunday school, so our voting is decent and in order.  We translated the bible into every language on the planet so all the people could read for themselves, decide for themselves.  And, if they can’t read, then we open schools.

This is madness.  That the people are in power is not an easy thing.  It’s easier to concentrate power into a few, or into one.  Somebody must be in charge, right?  If everyone is in charge of themselves, there is anarchy.  This was what Rome said of Luther.  The bible needs to be interpreted and offered only by the priest.  If everyone reads, then heresy will run wild.  I am looking around here, and I don’t see a lot of wild runners.

But remember this is only half of the madness of Luther.  This only gets really crazy if you add money.  Not money as a debt or money as threat or extortion.  But money as a gift, as freedom.  At the heart of the Reformation was not only a freedom to believe but also a freedom to give.  To give your life, give your forgiveness and give your heart.  The Priesthood of all Believers is the crazy idea that what we give frees us and frees others.  That and that alone is why I give.  I believe the more I give, the freer I become.  Crazy.  Madness.  And that is why I like it.

When the king came humble and riding on a donkey. . . madness.  When Jesus said you must be born again. . . crazy talk.  You only save your life if you lose it.  To be first is to be last.  To be great is to be the least.  The gospel is filled with crazy ideas like these.  On Palm Sunday, the Pharisees were angry because Jesus was turning the world upside down.  He was giving away the kingdom, the power, the glory, to the people.  He taught them to pray this kingdom comes, into our heart.  That’s madness.  So it is:  the more you give, the freer you become.  Amen.