68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
John 6:68
Next Sunday we remember the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He publicly called the dominant Catholic Church to debate certain foundational beliefs he disagreed with. The newly invented printing press was able to spread this public challenge for the ordinary person to read in the vernacular. As the Reformation unfolded, Luther became famous for Five Solae or “alone” statements that summarized the basics of his beliefs. This week we will look at those statements. So first was “Scripture Alone,” Sola Scriptura. Luther maintained that Scripture had more authority than church tradition.
In the Gospel of John, John shares an incident when Jesus offends the masses listening. Jesus makes one of his famous “I am” statements when he says, “I am the bread of life” and continues to talk about the manna that was given to the Jewish ancestors in the wilderness at the time of Moses. He compares himself to that manna and says his followers must eat his body and drink his blood to live. It sounded like cannibalism and many were offended and stopped following him. Even today Christians differ on their understanding of the sacrament or ritual they call Communion. At the time of the Reformation many of these splits originated as people sought to define church beliefs. In the Bible text, though, Jesus then turns to his disciples and asks if they too are going to leave him. Peter turns and says to Jesus, “To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Luther maintained that Scripture is foundational to any belief and not church traditions that have often disagreed and contradicted each other. We may not agree on exactly what Communion means but we do agree that Scripture is the basis. A rule of thumb is that a principle must be presented more than once in Scripture and not just a single verse.
Our reflection today is to ponder the role of Scripture in our lives. Are we content to eat spiritual food regurgitated by the pastor like a mother bird feeding her little ones or are we too reading and pondering and praying over the Word ourselves. Luther and many reformers fought for the Bible to be translated into common language so we can read it today. Luther translated it into German. William Tyndale translated it into English. Calvin preached in French. The Reformation deserves credit for the gift of having the Word of God to read. Thank you, Lord. Help me dust off any sloppy scripture reading habits I might have.
On the Way to Wonder 