Semper Reformanda....and other good mottoes.
Happy Birthday! OK, maybe you really have a birthday in October, frankly there is a one in twelve chance of that being true. But, it is also the birthday of the Lutheran tradition. On October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther used the bulletin board-like doors of the local church to post ninety five theses and opened both a heated debate and a world changing influx of new ideas and new directions for God’s church here on earth. If anything the movement he started, the Reformation, was one of the foremost change agents in the period of time we call the Renaissance.
Luther liked a lot of things. He liked being married, he liked being a father, he liked his students and teaching the Bible, he like a pint of beer, and he liked using modern (for that age) technology to spread the Gospel message. He sure liked a good slogan too. The Reformation was full of mottos, creeds, slogans, and sayings. This month we are looking at the Five Solas (technically solae, but why split Latin hairs): only by grace, only by faith, only by scripture, only by Christ, and only to the glory of God. Though the reformers leaned heavily on these solas, Latin for “only”, they didn’t actually ever write them down as a definitive list, or print them on a bumper sticker but they appeared over and over in their writing. But there were lots of other sayings that got exactly that sort of treatment. The Smalkaldic League, a group of allied princes who defended the Lutherans against the armies of Holy Roman Empire, used the motto “Verbum Domini Manet en Aeternum” or “the word of the Lord endures forever” as their motto. They had VDMA etched into their armor, stitched on their clothes, painted on their houses, even branded onto their horses.
One phrase or slogan that can be seen as key in the reformation was, “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” or “The church is always reforming”. Luther did not write that either, it was first spoken by the founder of the monastic order Luther was a member of: the Augustinians. St. Augustine meant that humans, being what we are, will always fall short of the glory of God and this means that the earthly church we build will always need reformation. Luther and his contemporaries including his friend Philip Melanchthon, and other reformers like Calvin and Zwingli all understood the importance of “Semper Reformanda” and preached that the church was always in need of repair. Five hundred years may have passed but we are still the reforming church. We still are addressing things that need fixed, improved, and perfected. As we spend this month celebrating where we come from may we take one of the catchphrases of the the reformation and be reminded to also celebrate where we are going to as we continue to seek a better version of God’s church in our midst.
Semper Reformanda!
Luther liked a lot of things. He liked being married, he liked being a father, he liked his students and teaching the Bible, he like a pint of beer, and he liked using modern (for that age) technology to spread the Gospel message. He sure liked a good slogan too. The Reformation was full of mottos, creeds, slogans, and sayings. This month we are looking at the Five Solas (technically solae, but why split Latin hairs): only by grace, only by faith, only by scripture, only by Christ, and only to the glory of God. Though the reformers leaned heavily on these solas, Latin for “only”, they didn’t actually ever write them down as a definitive list, or print them on a bumper sticker but they appeared over and over in their writing. But there were lots of other sayings that got exactly that sort of treatment. The Smalkaldic League, a group of allied princes who defended the Lutherans against the armies of Holy Roman Empire, used the motto “Verbum Domini Manet en Aeternum” or “the word of the Lord endures forever” as their motto. They had VDMA etched into their armor, stitched on their clothes, painted on their houses, even branded onto their horses.
One phrase or slogan that can be seen as key in the reformation was, “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” or “The church is always reforming”. Luther did not write that either, it was first spoken by the founder of the monastic order Luther was a member of: the Augustinians. St. Augustine meant that humans, being what we are, will always fall short of the glory of God and this means that the earthly church we build will always need reformation. Luther and his contemporaries including his friend Philip Melanchthon, and other reformers like Calvin and Zwingli all understood the importance of “Semper Reformanda” and preached that the church was always in need of repair. Five hundred years may have passed but we are still the reforming church. We still are addressing things that need fixed, improved, and perfected. As we spend this month celebrating where we come from may we take one of the catchphrases of the the reformation and be reminded to also celebrate where we are going to as we continue to seek a better version of God’s church in our midst.
Semper Reformanda!
Comments
Post a Comment