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Believe Love Remember

Lutherama

By Camille Lewis / October 30, 2008

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiSCnZ4wSMo[/youtube]

They say that you either love him or hate him.

Well, put me in the love column. I know that Martin Luther has his warts, his intense prejudices, and his blind-spots. I think that’s what makes him even more appealing. He’s fully human, and he acts in faith in spite of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5P7QkHCfaI[/youtube]

Thanks to Luther, none of us in the Western world will ever know what it’s like to stand so alone again. Imagine — he was the first cleric in his memory to be married! That’s why he looked at the so-called mundane but gracious gifts of God with such wonder.-

How can you not love a guy who could say this:

Although I know this [i.e., that I am to rejoice in the Lord and expect good of him], I am of a different mind ten times in the course of a day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, “Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?” When I say to him, “You have been put to shame,” he believes it, for he does not want to be despised.

Or who celebrated our humanity without the baggage of gnosticish pseudo-piety:

I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people happy; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.

He looked at simple things and saw God:

Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.

God writes the gospel, not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.

Sure, Luther was no Philip Melanchthon whom, he said, “stabs, too, but only with pins and needles. The pricks are hard to heal and they hurt. But when I stab I do it with a heavy pike used to hunt boars.” He takes no prisoners when it comes to religiousity:

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback; set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.

Sin doesn’t harm us as much as our own righteousness.

Nothing good comes of violence.

I think I need a bigger dose of Luther in my life. For me, his words cut right through religious aristocracy.

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9 thoughts on “Lutherama”

  3. Can you recommend a good “Luther book” to read? Something that is not too esoteric but will help me understand him and the effect of his faith better.
    Thanks.

  5. Thank you! Hope you and the family are well. I just have to tell you something…..my daughter came out of her Sunday School class last week, sat down beside me before the church service and said, “Mom, how come we weren’t taught about Jesus at Bob Jones?” It’s true. She spent four years there, (I spent over 40) and she heard more about Jesus in her Sunday School class at a CBF church than she ever heard at BJ. I guess it’s just because the “strong” Christian isn’t in need of any help from Jesus? I guess it’s just a “follow a bunch of rules and repeat after me” kind of mentality…….Sad, sad, sad. I’m so glad we’re finally out of there. The Academy is the worst, in my opinion, with the possible exception of being an employee. Ahhh….so much sadness, so much hardness, so many years wasted…….I just pray my children can recover from the arrogance and idolatry. How wonderful you left while your children are so young.

    God bless you.

    ATC

    P.S. Don’t forget to vote!!!

  6. I’m sorry to hear what ATC has to say about BJU. Didn’t graduate from there but from a Baptist (KJV only) college, and now I’m reformed …. unabashedly reformed. It is sad that people don’t want to talk about Jesus. I mean, the person and work of Jesus Christ is what Christianity is all about. Without Jesus, what do we have? He saves us and keeps us. It sounds like for some people it comes down to saved by grace; kept by works. How sad for them! I’d much rather rest in the finished work of Jesus than to work.

  7. I grew up Lutheran (LCMS) & went to a Lutheran school form 1st to 8th grade. I can remember being about 8 years old & watching an old Luther movie where he was lashing himself & then later seeing him nail the 95 theses to the church door. Even at that young age, I could see the immense impact he had & I have loved him ever since. Thanks for this post!

  8. he he, I saw that movie in the theater with my Sunday School class (Baptist church.:) Thought it was great.

  9. I love Luther and not just because I’m Lutheran (ALC to LCMS to WELS back to LCMS). 🙂

    Luther had a lot of warts like you said and that is why I like him–he was human and he knew it intimately.

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