Morning Prayer Friday, 30 October 2020

Good Morning to you all!

We come together to thank the Lord for grace on this new day in Milton Keynes, this almost-the-last-day of October.
If we were in Saxony today, in Germany, it would be holiday time.
31 October is celebrated as Reformation Day, so today is a good time to visit Martin Luther
and the ideas behind his 95 Discussion Points posted in Wittenberg in 1517.

Lord, on this day of opportunity we give thanks for Christians past and present
who point us to a deeper understanding of your love and grace,
who cause us to keep seeking, keep yearning, for a closer relationship with you.
May everything we do and say today grow out of the workings of your spirit deep within us.
Empower us to go about as people of your forgiveness,
open hearted, open handed, offering your hope to a world in fear.

Amen

Luther was an Augustinian friar and theologian. He was Professor of Biblical Studies at Wittenberg University and supervised eleven monasteries.
He was constantly troubled by God’s perfect righteousness, and was convinced that his life would be judged unworthy despite his priestly vocation.
Meanwhile, the Christian Church had been selling forgiveness (indulgences) with the promise that payment would mitigate guilt and speed the path to heaven.
Luther couldn’t find anything anywhere in the Bible describing how good deeds or money could buy salvation.
He concluded that it is absurd to strike a bargain with God:
if you can pay your way into heaven, why would God send his son as atonement?

Luther searched scripture for relief from his confusion. This is what he found:

The first and chief article of our faith is this – Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3: 24–25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29) and God has laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53: 6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23–25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us. Nothing of this foundation can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and all else fails (Mark 13: 31).

So, what was the impact of Luther’s scholarly discovery? In his own life, he finally found some certainty, some relief from confusion.
He was excommunicated and spent a long time hiding from church authorities.
In exile he translated the New Testament from Greek into German and created a modern language crafted from words understood by common people.
He gave poetry to the Old Testament when he translated that into German, too.
He wrote hymns for singing by congregations, not just choirs.
He described Christian husbands and wives, leading to the practise of Protestant clergy marrying.

Luther described all baptised people as a ‘holy priesthood’, the Saints of God. He saw no hurdle or barrier to full communion with God through Jesus and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

Lord as the world of work awakens to its busy-ness, help all who teach or mentor to face the coming month refreshed and renewed.
Give our leaders a full measure of insight and empathy to understand the needs of the people and the roots of those needs.
Bless the holders of resources with a commitment to equity of distribution. Bless the distributors with patience.
Keep us safe as we go about building a community, so that Milton Keynes may be known as a place of committed citizenship.

Amen

Martin Luther was born about the same time as the age of print.
He wrote leaflets and scholarly books, preached sermons and had many, many faults, not least his deep-seated anti-Semitism.
He didn’t set out to lead the Reformation; helped by the printing-press it just spread – charismatic, energetic, life-changing.
To people whose learning condemned them to a grey eternity unless they earned or bought something better,
Luther urged them to just believe and everything else would follow.
Their goodnesses would be compelled by faith, the two inseparable, just as heat and light cannot be separated from fire.

Lord, we face this day in the confidence of faith that you will see us through to evening. Keep us in the warmth of your love, the light of your grace and the fire of your inspiring word. Bless us all this Friday morning.

Amen

Cheryl Montgomery