Ecclesia semper reformanda.  "The church must always be reformed."
   

Martin Luther didn't say it; it was a medieval slogan.  As Heiko Oberman pointed out, reformation was "a medieval event".  It grew out of the experience of the monasteries, which were always growing lax with regard to the observance of its Rule, and which required calls for reform and renewal.  Sometimes this led to splits in monastic communities: for example, the Cistercians split off from the main body of the Benedictines.  Martin Luther belonged to the "observant" branch of the Augustinians rather than the "conventual" branch.  And, by the way, Luther was not, strictly speaking, a monk; he was a friar.  Monks are cloistered religious; the friars were out and about on the streets and highways.  So calls for reform were not new by the 16th century; and schism had been experienced-not only in religious communities, but in the papacy itself.  The Protestant-Catholic schism was not the first schism in church history; but it was a pretty major one.

"The church must always be reformed."  Once Luther's reform movement settled into being a church established by law in the cities, territories, and nations of central and northern Europe, it too needed reform.  Two major reform movements within Lutheranism were Pietism in   the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which set out to "convert the outward orthodox profession into a living theology of the heart."  And then, after the period of rationalism during the Age of Enlightenment, there was a confessional revival movement which sought to recover the confessional identity of Lutheranism.

Our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America came into existence on a wave of ideologically- based culture wars.  The idea was to transcend the differences between the merging church bodies by creating a "new" Lutheran Church which cut continuity with preceding traditions, sometimes in silly ways.  For example, when I receive a letter from the ELCA I am addressed as "rostered leader," not "pastor."  If you're trying to be relevant to the contemporary world, who in the world knows what a "rostered leader" is?   But there have been more serious issues raising the concern among many about whether "this Church" takes seriously the Scriptures, creeds, and confessions.

Not surprisingly, almost from the very beginning of the ELCA there has been agitation for reform.  In the early 1990s there were two "call to faithfulness" conferences sponsored by three independent Lutheran journals held at St. Olaf College, that attracted nearly a thousand participants paying their own way, people whom Presiding Bishop Chilstrom insinuated didn't love the Church.  Then the 9.5 Theses came out, claiming a crisis of faith" in the Church.  More than 800 pastors and lay people subscribed to them.  The leaders appealed to Presiding Bishop Anderson to at least have the Theses discussed in the Conference of Bishops, but he refused to put it on the agenda, saying that he would be proposing his own faith formation initiatives. I don't remember what those were.  Out of this intransigence, the Society of the Holy Trinity was born as an inter-Lutheran ministerium that  seeks to renew the ordained ministry, a Society I serve as leader (the title is Senior-that was Henry Melchior Muhlenberg's title, "senior of the ministerium") and which now numbers about 250 pastors in six different Lutheran church bodies in North America.  In the wake of the most recent ELCA Churchwide Assembly, a coalition of reform groups numbering 1200 people came together in Indianapolis a few weeks ago (at their own expense) to propose forming a free standing synod that will include ELCA congregations and non-ELCA congregations.  I think there is promise in this proposal, if groups that have quite different, and sometimes diametrically opposite views, can transcend those differences and organize an annual convocation in which congregations come together to do what the church needs to do: worship, study the Bible, discuss mission strategies and congregational life, and move beyond the culture wars that have dominated ELCA assemblies for twenty years.

In the 1530s there were a lot of ideas about reforming the Church.  Luther had been calling for a free synod under the presidency of the emperor rather than the pope, to deal with the differences in theology and proposals for reform.  He called for such a synod one last time in his 1539 treatise On the Councils and the Church.  People were confused about where the true church was found.  He said, "Not in Rome; not even in Wittenberg," but where the word of God is preached and the sacraments of Christ are administered.  In other words, not in the churchwide structure, and not even in the local judicatory, even if that local judicatory is more to your liking.  He expanded this to discuss seven marks of the Church, which my Society has spent the last three years studying.  Here is the basis of church reform and renewal, based not on human effort but on the divine means of grace.  In a time of crisis when reform is needed, you go back to the basics.  Here are the basics, said Luther, but in their catholic fullness, not just "word alone." 

 

He wrote: The Children's Catechism teaches us that a Christian holy people is to be and to remain on earth until the end of the world.  This is an article of faith that cannot be terminated until that which it believes comes, as Christ promises, "I am with you always, to the close of the age."  But how will or how can a poor confused person tell where such Christian holy people are to be found in this world?

1. "The Holy Word of God"

First, the holy Christian people are recognized by their possession of the holy word of God....We are speaking of the external word, preached orally by men like you and me, for this is what Christ left behind as an external sign, by which his church, or his Christian people in the world, should be recognized....Now, wherever you hear or see this word preached, believed, professed, and lived, do not doubt that the true ecclesia sancta catholica, "a Christian holy people" must be there, even though their number is very small.   For God's word "shall not return empty" (Isaiah 55:11).

God's strong word is creative and accomplishes what it sets out to do.  The word which Martin Franzmann wrote cleaved the darkness and created light can create and sustain the church.

2. "The Holy Sacrament of Baptism"
   

Luther writes: Second, God's people or the Christian holy people are recognized by the holy sacrament of baptism, wherever it is taught, believed, and administered according to Christ's ordinance.  That too is a public sign and a precious holy possession by which God's people are sanctified.  It is the holy bath of regeneration through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), in which we bathe and with which we are washed of sin and death by the Holy Spirit, as in the innocent holy blood of the Lamb of God.
   

God claims us as his own people in Holy Baptism and places his Name on us.  In times of difficulty we affirm with St. Patrick, "I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity."

3. "The sacrament of the altar"
   

Luther writes: Third, God's people, or holy Christian people, are recognized by the sacrament of the altar, wherever it is rightly administered, believed, and received, according to Christ's institution.  This too is a public sign and a precious, holy possession left behind by Christ, by which his people are sanctified so that they also exercise themselves in faith and openly confess that they are Christian, just as they do with the word and with baptism.

 

The Eucharist has served as the glue that binds together in one fellowship the body of Christ on earth.  We are bound together not by our organizations, but by the body and blood of Christ.

4. "The office of the keys publicly exercised"
   

Luther writes: Fourth, God's people or holy Christians are recognized by the office of the keys exercised publicly.  That is, as Christ decrees in Matthew 18:15-20, if a Christian sins, he should be removed; and if he does not mend his ways, he should be bound in his sin and cast out.  If he does mend his ways, he should be absolved.  That is the office of the keys.  Now the use of the keys is two-fold, public and private....Now where you see sins forgiven or reproved in some persons, be it publicly or privately, you may know that God's people are there.

 

A real church, as Matthew's Gospel taught, has to deal with real forgiveness of real sins.

5. The office of the holy Ministry
   

Luther writes: Fifth, the church is recognized externally by the fact that it consecrates or calls ministers, or has offices that it is to administer.  There must be bishops, pastors, or preachers, who publicly and privately give, administer, and use the aforementioned four things or holy possessions in behalf of and in the name of the church, or rather by reason of their institution by Christ, as St. Paul states: "He gave gifts to men" (Eph. 4:8).

A public church has a public ministry which publicly preaches God's Word and publicly administers the sacraments of Christ. In other words, the public ministry does God's work, not just the work of human institutions.

6. "Prayer, public praise, and thanksgiving to God"

Luther writes: Sixth, the holy Christian people are externally recognized by prayers, public praise, and thanksgiving to God.  Wherever you see and hear the Lord's Prayer prayed and taught; or psalms or other spiritual songs sung, in accordance with the word of God and the true faith; also the creed, the Ten Commandments, and the catechism used in public, you may rest assured that a holy Christian people of God are present.  For prayer, too, is one of the precious holy possessions whereby everything is sanctified, as St. Paul says (1 Tim. 4:5).

 

The church is visible in public assemblies for worship and in its public catechizing of the people.

7. "The holy possession of the sacred cross"

Luther writes: Seventh, the holy Christian people are externally recognized by the holy possession of the sacred cross.  They must endure every misfortune and persecution, all kinds of trials and evil from the devil, the world, and the flesh (as the Lord's Prayer indicates) by inward sadness, timidity, fear, outward poverty, contempt, illness, and weakness, in order to become like their head, Christ. And the only reason they must suffer is that they steadfastly adhere to Christ and God's word, enduring this for the sake of Christ: "Blessed are you when men persecute you on my account" (Matt. 5:11). The true church will experience trials and tribulations and persecution for the faith. 

 

Finally, Luther writes: Now we know for certain what, where, and who the holy Christian Church is, that is, the holy Christian people of God; and we are quite certain that it cannot fail us.

The seven marks are signs of the true visible Church.  Where you see and experience these marks, you see and experience a real church.  But these marks may also serve as the basis for reform and renewal.  Renew the preaching of the Word, the practice of Baptism, Holy Communion, and Penance, the holy Ministry, and public prayer and worship, and experience the cross of Christ in our common life, and the church will be reformed.  Amen.

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