June 2019 – What Does This Mean?

Grace Alone and Scripture alone at Leipzig

It really was not about indulgences. The Ninety-Five Theses were a spark that ignited a debate about the place of the Pope and other church authorities. Luther’s opponents noticed the Reformer had challenged their authority when he criticized the abuse of indulgences. Luther had given German princes the excuse they needed to forbid the sale of forgiveness. Luther pleased Renaissance thinkers, who lived by the motto Ad Fontes (to the source) and put the allies of the papacy on the defensive. That is why the attack on an obscure monk consumed all of Europe and why Johann Eck led the charge.

Eck challenged Luther’s friend Andreas Karlstadt to a disputation about free will and grace. He did this hoping the Reformer would join the debate. His goal was to get the Reformer to admit he was attacking the Pope and his power. Duke George “the Beard” of Saxony offered to host the disputation in Leipzig. He pressured the University of Leipzig into organize the event. On 27 June 1519, the disputation opened with a mass at St. Thomas Church (where two centuries later Johann Sebastian Bach would be a Church musician and composer) The event itself was held in the great hall of Duke George’s castle.

Karlstadt and Eck began the debate by discussing the role of free will and grace in the salvation of sinners. Karlstadt argued that a sinner had nothing to contribute to his own salvation, but was completely dependent on the grace of God. He defended this doctrine on the basis of the Scriptures. Eck responded that the Pope and Church tradition taught that grace was necessary, but there was something in a person that worked with it to save him. Karlstadt countered that Scripture is the final word on such matters. The Wittenberg professor was a good scholar, but Eck was a brilliant debater and had set the table for Luther to enter the discussion.

Luther and Eck covered a wide range of topics. In the end, the debate turned on the authority of the Pope and Church Councils. Eck accused Luther of promoting the teachings of Jan Hus, who was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constance one hundred years earlier. Hus was burned at the stake when the Holy Roman Emperor at the time went back on his promise to Hus of safe conduct. It was a powerful slander. With that, Eck labeled Luther and his followers Lutheran, implying they followed Luther and not Christ. This forced Luther to admit that both Popes and Councils could make mistakes and that there was some truth to the charge.

Later Eck would admit that Luther had proved twelve of his thirteen theses. The last one, and in his eyes, the most important, Eck believed he had won. The result was to make clear the brake between the teachings of Luther, and the Scriptures, and the Pope. There would be no turning back. It was only a matter of time before the church would excommunicate Luther.

Meet Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (known as Karlstadt) was a professor of theology at Wittenberg when Martin Luther arrived at the university. Born in the village of Karlstadt not far from Frankfort on the Main River. He attended the University of Erfurt at the same time Luther was studying for a law degree. From there he studied at Cologne and Wittenberg, was ordained a priest and served at the Elector‘s Castle Church. After becoming a Doctor of Theology, he briefly studied canon law in Rome.

In any other time or place, Karlstadt would have been a significant figure. He was learned, insightful and committed to what he believed. Yet he lived in the shadow of a genius who changed the world and ended up more of footnote in the history of the Reformation. Like St. Peter, he lived life governed by his heart, with all the subtlety of a loaded freight train. At the beginning of the Reformation, he was a loyal friend and ally of Luther’s, one of the first to be convinced of the truth of the Reformer’s insights. When Martin Luther received his Doctor of Theology degree, it was Karlstadt who conferred it.

In 1517, he lectured on Saint Augustine’s book, On the Spirit and the Letter, a work on Law and Gospel. When Johann Eck’s criticisms of the Ninety-Five theses were published, Karlstadt waded into the debate to defend his friend and his university. In May 1518, Karlstadt published his book Apologeticae conclusiones, which directly challenged Eck. He argued that man could not of his own free will do anything to earn God’s grace, but only receive it as a gift. He insisted, as did Luther, that Scripture is the final authority in matters of theology.

Johann Eck responded in August 1518 with theses on the relationship between grace, free will, penance and indulgences. He challenged Karlstadt to debate them. In the following months, he added theses, that on the surface appeared to attack the professor, but were really aimed at Martin Luther. Luther, who had been trying to bring the two together felt betrayed and entered the war of words.

Unlike the Ninety-Five theses, which were never publicly debated, the theses flying back and forth between Eck, Karlstadt and Luther were explored in the Leipzig Disputation, five hundred years ago today. This conference made it clear to everyone, including Martin Luther, that the reformers would accept no authority but the Holy Scriptures in faith and the teachings of the church — not even the pope or church councils. The breach between Rome and Wittenberg was not able to be closed.

Meet Johann Eck

Johann Maier von Eck (known as Eck) was born the son of a judge in the little town of Eck, a Swabian village between Stuttgart and Augsburg. A child prodigy like Philip Melanchthon, he enrolled at Heidelberg University at age eleven and earned his Doctor of Theology degree by age twenty-four from the University of Freiburg. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1508. In 1510, he moved to the university at Ingolstadt where he earned a second doctoral degree and joined the faculty.

Eck quickly became a leading figure in the German Humanist movement. As a true Renaissance man, in wrote works in many fields, especially philosophy and theology. One of his major works, called Chrysopassus explored the doctrine of predestination. He argued that God predestined people because he could see in advance the sins and good works they would perform. He and Martin Luther struck up a friendship over their shared interest in reforming university education based upon the insights of the Renaissance. He earned a reputation as a skilled debater, not exactly known for his subtlety — just like Luther.

When the Indulgence Controversy broke out, the Bishop of Eichstätt requested Eck’s opinion on the 95 Theses. He wrote what were more or less footnotes on them. Someone leaked this private opinion to the printers and soon the criticisms were published with the title Obelisks. Luther soon fired off a response entitled Asterisks. The friendship came to an end as Eck assumed the role of Luther’s chief and most skilled opponent.

Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt (known as Karlstadt), a colleague of Luther at Wittenberg, rose to the reformer’s defense. Soon Eck and Karlstadt agreed to meet in a disputation (a debate). Under the sponsorship of George “The Beard,” Duke of Saxony, cousin of Luther’s prince, the conference convened five hundred years ago tomorrow in Leipzig. It became know as the Leipzig Disputation and was the event that set in motion Luther’s excommunication.

God’s Delight

We should know Who Wisdom is. God the Father did not create alone; this act of creation was Trinitarian in nature. We know the Spirit was there from Genesis, as the Spirit hovered over the waters. But Wisdom, the eternal Son of God was there and played a critical role. John says in his prologue.

Jesus is Wisdom, the master workman who is the with the Father before the world was created and in whom the Father delights. And Jesus rejoiced before the Father. It was in this joy that the world was created. Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together to bring all things into being and after working those 6 days, on the seventh God called his work very good and rested.

Wisdom is seen rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of men. They are his inheritance after all. Jesus delighted in the children of men prior to the fall. And even in that great fall into sin, joy would be a driving force for God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to bring about man’s redemption and his salvation.

It is sad to consider how many people think God is a momentary fix for a horrifically bad moment in life. A divorce, a flood, whatever it may be. God is only needed when things get extremely bad. That makes God into a very small God. In so doing we make God in our own image, breaking that first commandment, making God fit our own fleeting needs. That is not who God is at all. He is the one who created, redeemed and keeps holy. And you now wish to form Him?

God the Father delights in his Son. Even after the creation fell into sin and was cursed to die for our sins, the Father still loved the Son, because Jesus chose to come, to die for you many sins, and rise for your justification. The author to the Hebrews talks about Jesus this way: “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Joy was driving force. Jesus delights in saving you, that you might be reconciled to His Father in Heaven.

Now, Wisdom has built the Church, calling us to table. Delight in what our Lord delights to give to us: Salvation.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Holy Trinity

Today we enter the second half of the church calendar. We have spent about six months in what is called the Festival Half of the year. We experience from a distance our Lord’s life as we move through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost. Throughout the festivals, we see the hand of God working out all that was necessary for man to become his own and be what God had intended us to be in time and in eternity.

This morning we celebrate The Holy Trinity. In it, we are not commemorating and remembering some act of God for our salvation. Rather we consider and marvel the great doctrine and truth that our God is a mysterious God: Three distinct Persons in one Divine Essence. This doctrine is at the center of our faith. It is the foundation of Christianity. We do not confess ‘a god’ or ‘one god in multiple modes.’ No, we confess that we ‘believe in God the Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.’ ‘One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.’

In the Festival Half of the year, we have seen our Triune God at work. The Holy Spirit overshadows the Virgin Mary at the Incarnation of Jesus as the Father sends our Savior into the world. At the Baptism of Jesus, we hear the Father speak as the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. At the Transfiguration, we again hear the Father when he tells Peter, James, and John that Jesus is his beloved son and to “listen to him.” On the cross, Jesus cries out and hands over the Spirit. And at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes in power to convict those who hear the preached word of God of their sins. And the people who believe are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit into the forgiveness of sins and so that they, too, would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So today we enter the Non-Festival half of the church year. The half that tells the story of the Church which our Triune God has called to himself. We see the kingdom as the Kingdom of Grace. We hear of his kingdom’s righteousness. We come to know what New Life in the kingdom is like. Finally, we are prepared for the Last Day and entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom.

And then? Then we get to do it again and again. Year after year. Hearing, believing, and rejoicing in what our gracious God has done for us: Redeeming us and making on his own beloved children.

Rev. Brent Keller
Peace Lutheran Church
Alcester, SD

New Contributor Coming: Rev. Brent Keller

Please welcome to the blog Rev. Brent Keller. He will be contributing posts to our blog beginning Sunday. Here is his introduction:

I am a Confessional Lutheran Pastor, a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. I am from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro Area, attended Concordia Theological Seminary-Fort Wayne, and now serve Peace Lutheran Church, a wonderful rural congregation in Alcester, SD. I was ordained at Peace on July 18, 2018. I have a wonderful wife, Hanne, and a nearly three-year-old daughter, Annalise. We are expecting our next child, believed to be a girl, in December of 2019.

Program Note: Blog Post Series Page Updated

Dear regular readers:

I had some time to update the Blog Post Series. If you are looking for a post you want to read again, this page should help.

Thanks!

Pastor Bob Smith