Taken from: "The Luther Legacy" by George Forell. Published in the publication: "Lutheran World Information." (Dr. Forell is a professor at the University of Iowa and a pastor of the Lutheran Church in America) (Written in 1983 for Luther's 500^th birthday.)

One of Martin Luther's most important teachings was his claim that God does not want you to leave your work in the home, on the farm, in the office, the factory, or the school, in order to find salvation some other more "religious" place. God can, and will, save you, where you live and work. This teaching contributed to the development of the so-called Protestant work ethic. It has had a profound influence in the western world, especially in Northern Europe and North America.

Doing his job as a teacher of the Bible, preparing lectures and participating in debates, Luther discovered the Gospel! Not by the strictest monastic discipline, not by fasting and self-mortification, but while doing his assigned task as Bible teacher he was given the insight that salvation is not a human achievement but a divine gift.

Luther knew the Bible. For years, he read it through twice each year. He compared it to a mighty tree and every word of it to little twigs and he claimed that he had knocked on every one of those twigs to discover what they might be able to teach him. People who heard his lectures and debates, commented on the fact that the entire Bible seemed always available to him when his position was questioned. Study of the Bible led him to the overwhelming conclusion that the righteousness of Christ, through which men and women are saved and become God's children, is not their achievement at all. Salvation is a divine gift, awarded by God out of His incomprehensible and unmerited grace, because of the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, and accepted by human beings by faith alone. This is the Gospel, the good news, which constitutes the only treasure entrusted to the church.

Luther discovered the Gospel and his responsibility for it, not by running away from the world - as he had once tried - but by doing his job as a teacher of Scripture. From this experience, he concluded that all women and men should wait for God, not in places of their choosing, but wherever they had been placed.

Luther scholar, Roland Bainton, has called indulgences the "bingo of the 16^th century." But the matter was really more serious. Most people, who play bingo in church today, do it for entertainment. Some greed may be involved, but none believe that their eternal welfare is promoted by playing bingo. Indulgences were different. Many believed that through letters of indulgence, they could secure their eternal salvation or the liberation of departed loved ones who were now thought to suffer in the prison of purgatory. The indulgence craze was promoted by high-pressure salesmen who used clever publicity, advertising jingles and scare tactics to boost their sales. Bainton quotes one such sales pitch, "Listen to the voice of your dear, dead relatives and friends, beseeching you and saying, 'Pity us, pity us. We are in dire torment from which you can redeem us for a pittance.'" The jingle that went with this plea was, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."

Luther heard of this promotion from parishioners during confessions, when they told him that since they had purchased indulgences, they no longer needed to worry about their relationship with God. (They were saved.) They had not been able to buy these letters in Wittenburg, since Luther's prince, Fredrick the Wise of Saxony, had prohibited their sale in his country. But in those days, Germans had only to walk a few miles to be in another state under different rulers, where indulgences were freely available. Luther took action against the indulgence sales because he considered them a fraud and a danger to the spiritual welfare of Christians. He wrote his 95 Theses, short sentences that he wanted to debate, to clarify the call the attention of the authorities to these abuses. They were widely circulated and caused heated debates everywhere.

These Theses opened with the assertion that repentance must be a new attitude towards God and the eternal life that He has given us. This new attitude cannot be replaced by paying money. Luther insisted that the pope could not possibly be responsible for the nonsense the indulgence peddlers promoted. All Christians, who are truly sorry for their sins, will receive God's forgiveness, for Christ's sake, without letters of indulgence. The pope, no more and no less than any other priest, declares God's forgiveness to those who repent.

Almost everyone who read these Theses were impressed. Overnight, Luther had become an important voice people were heeding. Those who needed the money collected through indulgences were worried. Indulgences involved big money, supporting all kinds of good causes - churches, hospitals, universities, even roads and bridges. With his attack against indulgences, Luther had kicked Humpty Dumpty off the wall and it soon became apparent that neither kings nor popes, nor emperors could put him back together again.

Martin Luther had raised the question of whether the practice and beliefs of the church of his time, as illustrated by the sale of indulgences, were truly Christian. The immediate result was a series of debates.

Luther insisted that the law of God, good and true as it is, cannot make human beings good. Human works, although they might appear to be splendid, are sins as long as the person performing them is a sinner. Everything a sinner does is sin. You are a Christian, not because of your good works, but because you trust Christ, who alone can make you what you ought to be. Furthermore, in Luther's view, the love of God does not seek for loveable people. God, by loving people, makes the unlovely, loveable. Human beings act the other way around. We are always looking for people who are worthy of out love and constantly complain that our love is not appreciated.

Luther's Theses proved to be controversial, because they turned popular religion on its head. In Luther's time, or now people think of God as a judge - the great 'computer in the sky' - who keeps perfect track of what we are doing and rewards or punishes us, according to our record. When people blithely say, "All religions are the same," (Church is church and God is God, to use a local phrase) they refer to this element in all religions that makes God into a referee in the game of life, handing out medals to the winners and reprimands or penalties to the losers. In Heidelburg in 1518, Luther said that such a belief is the opposite of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaims. Good works do not make us good. Only people made good in Christ are able to do good deeds. Luther himself did not think that this was such a novel discovery. Jesus had often said that a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree evil fruit. People cannot make themselves into good trees by decorating themselves with good fruit. Only God can make a tree good and enable the person to do good works.

For Luther, 1520 was a crucial year. The pope and his lawyers and theologians in Rome had begun to take him seriously. On June 15^th, pope Leo X released an official statement, called a Bull (because of the 'bulla", or seal attached to it) condemning 41 of Luther's teachings and giving him 60 days to take them back or face excommunication. The pope, an avid hunter - people could not kiss his toe, as was the custom, since he was always wearing hunting boots - was staying at his hunting lodge. He himself added an introduction to the bull that reflected his obsession with wild animals, "Arise, O Lord and judge Thy cause. A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard."

Publication of the bull resulted in the burning of many of Luther's books. In Wittenburg, the "wild boar's" supporters responded by publicly burning the books of canon law and scholastic theology. Luther himself threw the papal bull into the fire. Later, he wrote, "Since they burned my books, I burn theirs." Those events proved only that paper is combustible. But what made 1520 so important, was Luther's use of paper to publish and spread his ideas. Three of his books were especially important.

Luther's Open Letter to the Christian Nobility was addressed to the emperor and the political leaders of Germany. Luther asked them, as baptised Christians, to take part in the reformation of the Christian Church. So far, he wrote, the task had been frustrated by three wall the papists had thrown up to prevent reform. The first was their claim that secular authorities had no right to pass laws affecting the church. For example, clergy were exempt from the judgements of the lay courts. The second wall was the claim that only the pope could interpret the Bible. The third wall was the claim that only the pope could call a universal Christian council, to reform the church. Luther rejected the distinction between laity and clergy. Only baptism, Gospel and faith make us Christians, and laity and clergy have equal access to those divine gifts. "There is really no difference between lay people and priest, . . . 'spirituals' and 'temporals' as they call them, except that of office and work."

Luther's second book, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, dealt with theological issues. It advocated reform of the Mass (the Lord's Supper). Luther said the bread and wine should be given to all communicants. At that time, the wine was withheld from the laity. (In certain cases, it still is.) Luther argued that the Mass is not a good work performed by human beings to appease God, but rather God's gift to His people. He said Christ is really present in the bread and wine, although their physical qualities are not changed. Luther wrote that baptism is God's promise of salvation and must be accepted in faith. Luther said that other Christian rites - such as confirmation, marriage, ordination and unction - are not sacraments at all. Said Luther, "Hence there are, strictly speaking, but two sacraments in the church of God - baptism and bread; for only these two do we find both the divinely instituted sign and the promise of forgiveness of sins."

Two places besides Wittenburg will forever be associated with Luther: Wartburg Castle and the city of Worms. The diet of 1521, a congress of princes and bishops ruling the empire, took place at Worms. After complicated negotiations, Luther had been invited to present his views and be refuted or vindicated by the Scripture, as his friends saw it, or to recant his errors, as his enemies saw it.

Luther's appearance at Worms, led to a dramatic confrontation with Charles V, the emperor. Luther, the descendant of peasants and miners and now a monk, teaching at a small university in the backwater of European civilisation, dared to face the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, which stretched from Eastern Europe to Southern Italy, from the Netherlands to Spain, and even to the Americas. Charles believed that religious upheavals in Germany would weaken his empire by draining away economic and military resources. He wanted his empire to present a united front in his own political struggles with the pope. Charles came to Worms, therefore, with a hope of destroying Luther's influence and restoring unity. The date was the 17^th of April 1525; the time 4 p.m. For the first time the emperor laid eyes on the man who was to complicate his rule immeasurably. His immediate reaction was, "This fellow will never make a heretic out of me."

As the Diet began, Luther was asked if he was in fact the author of the stack of books piled on the table before him. Luther answered that he had indeed written those books and more besides. The questioner continued, "Do you defend all of them, or are you willing to reject a part?" The question offered Luther the chance to raise doubts about the authenticity of his more controversial writings and to divert attention to his attack on the pope's money raising schemes and political machinations. On the latter issue, he had wide support at the Diet. The emperor himself was no ally of the pope. The pope had opposed Charles when he was seeking the office. Even now, the pope was conspiring with the Muslim Turks against the emperor. So here was a golden opportunity for Luther to shift the focus away from the theological controversy and toward political questions. But Luther replied, "Because this is a question of faith and the salvation of souls, and because it concerns the divine Word, I might come under Christ's judgement when He said, 'Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10,33). I beseech your imperial majesty for time to think."

The strength of Luther's position was his unwillingness to play politics. In a very political meeting, he caught everyone off-guard by talking about loyalty to the Word of God. Reluctantly, he was given a day to think things over. When he appeared on the 18^th of April, he made a short speech describing the different kinds of books he had written. He concluded, "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason - I am bound to the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God - I cannot and will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."

Scholars have debated as to whether Luther actually said, "Here I stand." But that is a trivial matter, for whether he said those exact words, he lived them by standing before the most powerful people of his time without retreating an inch from his commitment to God's Word. When he later taught people to sing, "Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word," he knew exactly what the prayer meant. The emperor - who did not understand German - was not impressed. He allowed Luther to leave Worms, but then issued an edict in which he called Luther a 'devil in the habit of a monk' and banned him, thus allowing anyone to kill him on sight.

On the way from Worms to Wittenburg, Luther disappeared. Many people feared that he had been killed. The German artist, Albrecht Dürer, wrote in his diary, "O God, if Luther is dead, who will henceforth explain to us the Gospel?" Actually, he had been kidnapped by masked soldiers of Fredrick the Wise, and hidden at Wartburg Castle to await further developments. In the ancient fortress, separated from his friends, Luther had time to meditate. He grew a long, black beard, dressed as a knight, and was called 'Knight George'. And he kept writing. His most important work at the Wartburg was his translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into German. There had been earlier translations, but as translations of translations, they were unreliable.

What made Luther's Bible translation outstanding, was his ability to combine profundity with eloquence and his uncanny gift of finding the right German word for the original Greek term. Because his translation did much to unify the countless German dialects into a standard German, Luther has been called the creator of the German language. Luther stayed at the Wartburg for 10 months. Meanwhile the reformation continued without him. His isolation helped him clarify his position. Standing before the emperor at Worms had been important. Translating and meditating on the Word of God at the Wartburg proved equally important. The reformation needed a bold confessor at Worms. But also needed the thinker and the scholar at the Wartburg.

Luther, under attack by the conservative supporters of the papacy, as well as the radical foes of all tradition, claimed that the Christian life depends entirely on God's gifts of grace. The two gifts that create and constantly renew God's people, are Word and Sacrament. Luther's hymns show the importance of God's Word for his faith. In 'A Mighty Fortress is our God' he sings, "God's Word forever shall abide, no thanks they for it merit." Likewise, "Lord, keep us Steadfast in Thy Word." Luther saw the course of the incarnate Christ as the 'Word incarnate'. Luther was convinced that long before there was a Bible, the eternal Christ, God's Word, created heaven and earth. This same Word guided the saints and the sages of the Old Testament. At Christmas, this Word was born a human baby. Wherever and whenever Christ is proclaimed to men and women, they hear and meet the Word of God.

For Luther, preaching is the most important activity of the church, because it exposes people to God's living Word. Luther describes the work of the preacher in the most glowing terms, "Each day, through him, many souls are taught and converted, baptised and brought to Christ and saved and redeemed from sin, death, hell and the devil." We meet the living God today when we hear God's Word proclaimed, because the Holy Spirit makes the Word alive to us, that we become as fully Christ's disciples today, as those women and men who walked the earth with Him 2000 years ago. But the Holy Scriptures, the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation, also are the Word of God. Luther called the Bible, the manger in which we find Christ, and the swaddling clothes in which He was wrapped. But this means that we must take care to worship Christ, and not the swaddling clothes or the manger. For Luther, this meant that the Bible must always be read and interpreted with Christ in mind, if it is to be properly understood. Christ is the very key to the Scriptures. Luther wrote, "What does not teach Christ is not apostolic, even though St. Peter and St. Paul taught it; again, what preaches Christ would be apostolic, even though Judas, Annas, Pilate or Herod said it." True apostolicity is faithfulness to Christ. And Luther applied this notion to the Old Testament as well as the New.

(In our day and age, there is a distinct danger that the Bible is being turned into an idol by certain evangelical and non-conformist circles. Especially those claiming to be 'Bible Believing Christians' - as if others are not! Where is the faith of these people anchored, in Christ, or in a Book, the manger and the swaddling clothes? What would the effect be on their faith, if it were suddenly proved to them what James wrote in pert of his epistle was wrong? Could such a possibility be accepted, or would it upset their faith. If it does upset their faith, then that faith is anchored in the Bible, and not in Him to whom the Bible bears witness. The Bible itself has become an IDOL. After all, a mistake by one of the authors of the Bible would be nothing other than a dirty mark on the swaddling clothes. The combined witness of the Bible, however, is Christ, and on that score there are no mistakes. That witness is reliable. Why? Because at its centre there is Christ. As the manger and swaddling clothes in Bethlehem held the entire Christ-Child, so also with the Bible, it holds Him and reveals Him.)

Martin Luther is remembered for many reasons. His work has changed the Western Christian church fundamentally and irreversibly. Some of the changes, such as the use of the language of the people in worship and the singing of hymns by the congregation have been universally adopted. Indeed, some of the descendants of the people who resisted Luther fiercely in the 16^th century, are singing his hymns joyfully in the 20^th. Many of his ideas have proved fruitful, not only for theologians, but also for historians, philosophers and psychologists. His translation of the Bible did as much for the German language as the King James Version did for English. But above all, his courage at Worms, in the face of the church and empire, so impressed Christians, that hundreds of years later, parents in the United States were naming their children Martin Luther to honour and to perpetuate this courage.

The effect worldwide on the church, is probably the most important element of Luther's legacy. The medieval monk from the small village in Eastern Germany eventually became a symbol for the entire Christian fellowship. What does he symbolise today? Luther symbolises the importance to continuing reformation for the Christian movement. Reformation must be a permanent element in the life of the church, to be taken seriously and implemented by every generation. Only a church that is willing to be reformed today can honestly claim Luther as it's reformer.

Much of what Luther said in 1521 has to be said in new ways in 1983. He changed Christian worship in his time so that people would be able to understand and to participate. A Lutheran church, where worship has become a spectator sport, is not properly celebrating Luther's birthday. He made theology something to be debated and appreciated by politicians, farmers and artisans. When the church makes theology a secret science, only understandable to an intellectual elite, it has betrayed the heritage of Luther. Luther knew that the church depends entirely on God's Word.

He wrote, "The entire life and the substance of the church, is the Word of God." This Word, he said, is Jesus Christ. It is the living proclamation of Christ to all people in Word and Sacrament. This Word is also the Holy Scriptures. Without the Word, in this inclusive and many-sided sense, the church is nothing but a social club, a museum or a concert hall.

What ultimately reformed the church, therefore, was not Luther, but the Word of God, that Luther was explaining in his sermons, commentaries, pamphlets and letters. Luther knew that a saint is a sinner saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The church is holy because Christ, the head is holy, although the members of the body remain sinners in constant need of forgiveness. Luther wanted an inclusive church, where the sick are healed, the poor fed, the sad comforted, the ignorant taught and the sinner saved.

A church that is socially, racially, intellectually or even morally exclusive does not take Luther seriously. If, at the birthday party of Martin Luther, only 'our kind of people' are welcome, we have not understood Luther. He claimed that the church of his time erred by not accepting Greeks, Bohemians and Russians as members of the same body. One of the objections to the Catholic Church of his time was that it was not catholic enough. (Catholic meaning Universal.) Too many people were excluded. The legacy of Luther lives most faithfully wherever God's Word is proclaimed, regardless of race or social class, nationality or sex. Luther would be grateful to God to hear people singing his 'A Mighty Fortress is our God,' in Telegu in India and Zulu in South Africa, in Swahili in Tanzania and Chinese in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan and Slovak and Hungarian in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, not because he wrote the hymn, but because it proclaims the eternal power of God's Word.

Taken from "Lutheran World Information" "Luther Reformed View of 16^th Century Family," by Lani Olson.

Luther is known for beginning the Protestant church, but the 16^th century reformer, Martin Luther, is also getting credit for beginning the model family. When the ex-monk, whose 500^th birthday is being celebrated this year, married ex-nun, Katherine von Bora, in 1525, they gave family life a legitimacy it had never before had, in Christian history, says Dr. Clarissa Atkinson, an Episcopalian (Anglican) and a professor of the history of Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. "During the long centuries of the Middle Ages, Christians accorded to celibacy, even more to virginity, the highest possible rung of the ladder in holiness. In the life of the religious elite, marriage and family had no part," Atkinson noted. Luther denounced monastic vows of celibacy as part of the obnoxious 'good works' that could never merit salvation. And came to view the real saints, 'as those who put up with squabbling babies and shrewish wives and drunken husbands. Their work was God's work, instituted when the Lord brought Eve to Adam.

The Luthers were very important because they came first, and the attention they received, made them an important model. Everyone noticed what they did, and so many people wrote about them. The Luthers had six children. Their family life was observed by constant visitors from throughout Europe. Luther believed that one of the great achievements of the reform, was the sanctification of the married state. Motherhood, Luther thought, is the 'woman's outstanding glory'. This was true of Eve, and true of his own wife, Katie. Katie is one of the first women, talked and written about by a Christian theologian, who is virtuous and holy because she is a mother, not because she is a virgin. That is a tremendous change.

Parenthood was the calling ordained by God, instead of celibacy, Luther said. He saw the work of a parent as something like a vocation. All Christians are called to be parents, and to work and care for their children, just as all Christians are called to be ministers. There is no special class either. And Luther believed the vocation of parenthood was a shared task. "Katie and Martin do seem to have had the idea that they were partners in an enterprise," Atkinson said. She quoted Luther's writing on fatherhood in 'The Estate of Marriage', "When a father goes ahead and washes the nappies or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool - you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling - not because the father is washing the nappies, but because he is doing so in Christian Faith."