The Reformation - Why so important?

Recently we celebrated Reformation Sunday which commemorates the beginning of the Great Reformation in the Christian church a little more than 500 years ago. This day comes and goes for many without a lot of fanfare but it is an incredibly important movement in our faith. I didn’t want to let it pass without some commentary on it. There is a little bit of “heavy lifting” in this blog but it is necessary given the topic.

How could something that began 500 years ago be relevant to us today? In modern day culture, it’s easy to fall into the mindset of wanting to embrace only the new and the different. The past is not valued as a source of wisdom and guidance because the best is always yet to come. This can be true in the church as well if we constantly trying to repackage ourselves in a more attractive wrapper. However, the past can be a great teacher and the Reformation qualifies is a great example of something that we can constantly learn from.

The Reformation was a time when the church split right down the middle. The Catholic church was the Christian church at that time and the split developed when the Protestants (who “protested”) called out the Catholic church for reform. The Catholic Church had become more about culture, money and was very man-centered with church life. The “protesters” (Protestants) demanded reform and wanted to see the church move back to seeing Christ at the center of the church’s life and thought.

Man-centered church places man’s needs at the center of the church’s mission. They present a version of the gospel that is therapeutic in nature by focusing on “self-help” guidance. The Church of emotional therapy is very prevalent today and is the result of our desire to place our needs rather than God at the center of our theology. It follows a mindset of expecting heaven on earth here and now.

God-centered worship is exactly what is says it is - centered on God instead of on ourselves and solely our human experience. It’s living reflectively in the pursuit of holiness and that pursuit of holiness is what produces a better life for us. God centered vs. man centered lives simply come down to a matter of priorities.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of “living our best life” but it should come as a by-product of pursuing godliness not just in self-discovery.

As the founding father of the Reformation, Martin Luther was a monk who struggled mightily with his own sin. He never could consider himself worthy to stand in God’s presence because he never could figure out how to completely purge himself of all sin. His prayer and devotional life was legendary but he simple couldn’t achieve a life of righteousness on his own. Through these times of frustration Luther found that the gospel was not about looking inward to self in order to find a basis for God’s acceptance, but looking outward to the great saving act of God in Christ as the only way that the sinner might come to God. The Reformation was profoundly shaped by one brilliant insight – that God’s love is unconditional and total, that it brings salvation as a gift, and that, most amazing of all, we can know this salvation for certain for ourselves. This set the basis for Protestant thought.

Reformation in the church and in our individual lives continues on today. It is something that will never stop but that doesn’t mean that the answers are always out in the future. Sometimes we need to look back to find the answers that those that have come before us have already found. Maybe they have been forgotten or repackaged but the truth is:

The ultimate goal is not reformation but transformation. Reformation is simply a tool to get there.

Stay hungry,

Big E