Do we remember who we are?

Rome is sort of like a slow moving barge.  It does not get anywhere too quickly but it carries a lot of baggage along the way.  Lutheranism has become like a speedboat trying to get away from where it was as quickly as possible -- at least in the last half century or so.  We banter about characterizations of Lutheranism based on Luther, on Luther's critics, on Luther's interpreters, and on Luther's theologians.  All well and good except that we are not bound to Luther as tightly as Rome is bound to the particular Pope who might sit on the big chair (for now).  That is both blessing and bane of Lutheranism.  It means that we are not subject to the whims of an infallible voice claiming to speak for God but we are subject to millions of fallible voices claiming to speak for Luther on what is Lutheran and what is not.  It also means that what we are bound to believe, teach, and confess is too often judged not as compelling, interesting, or relevant as what we want to believe, teach, and confess.

Lutheranism is an ism with great promise foiled by Lutherans who have diluted the brand or defined it in ways that might be curious but are not all that relevant.  Today we should admit that Lutheranism's central confession is not what Luther wrote or said but what was penned by Philipp Melancthon and presented to the Emperor not by theologians but by civic officials who were willing to die rather than retract it.  And if we remember the history of this day, then perhaps we ought to at least remember what that Confession given at Augsburg on June 25, 1530 actually says.

Charles V had been frustrated by the Reformation and by the various Protestant movements it appeared to have given cover.  He was compromised by a couple of wars and by the fact that ducal rulers had given cover to the Reformation.  By 1530, Charles had either defeated or made temporary peace with enough of those distractions to turn his attention over to the Reformation which had been progressing since the Diet of Worms in 1521.  So in January of 1530, he called an imperial Diet for April in Augsburg.  The Lutheran princes were asked to present their faith.  Luther and his cohorts met in Torgau in March to write out a confession knowing he was still an outlaw and unable to present it.  Philipp Melancthon had the document in hand but revised it upon advice of political and theological leaders.  The draft completed on June 23 was then sent to Luther.  He approved and the Emperor finally agreed to have it read to him on June 25, 1530.

The goal was not to show how Protestant the Reformers were but rather how “catholic” Lutheran teaching was and is.  Melanchthon found support for the Lutheran positions in the theologians and councils of the ancient Church to suggest that reform did not mean rejection of what had always been believed everywhere.  Showing the catholicity of the Reformation Confession was not only expedient but it was the actual view of the Reformers themselves.  Though some of the confessions that followed might seem to betray this initial proposition, it must be remembered that every other statement made by the Lutherans must be read through the lens of the Augustana and not the other way around.  In many respects the Lutherans were objecting most of all to the changes to Church teaching and practice in the eleventh century by Pope Gregory the VII and his followers (later deemed the “Gregorian Revolution” by historians).

So if you are a Lutheran today and you find the Augsburg Confession too catholic for your taste, perhaps you may not know Lutheranism as well as you think.  Contrary to modern movements toward simplicity and a streamlined Protestant or Evangelical style church, the Augustana envisions a Church fully catholic in doctrine and practice, epitomizing the best that had been added so long as it was in accord with the apostolic and catholic faith, with the Scriptures as the only infallible norm.  This was not a compromise to secure a friendly reading by their opponents but the legitimate theological and confessional identity of those who are blamed or lauded as the founders of the Lutheran Church.  For the Lutheran Confessions claim them not as founders but as voices of reform and renewal to a faith and a Church they believe was established by God upon the firm foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone.

I do not know what it is that is taught and preached or what worship looks like in the Lutheran congregation where you might find yourself, but if it does not accord with this basic principle, then perhaps it is not as Lutheran as you might think.  Lutherans, by the way, have resisted the idea that doctrine develops and insist that what was yesterday confessed and today believed will be tomorrow normative for the Church that was and is and is to come.  That is because Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Body, the Church, must be the same as the head or else it is not Christ's body.  You can call me old fashioned but I find that my position is rather radical in an age in which people are more likely to judge their Lutheranness by what they were taught in Catechism class as a youth or experienced in worship growing up than by the documents that claim not only priority but the confessional standard of this Church.

Read it here or, if you want to know more, purchase Concordia, the Lutheran Confessions from Concordia Publishing House, or, if you an Amazon kind of person, here. Used and Kindle versions are less expensive.  Lutherans, prepare for a Diet of Worms moment when you read what you might not have read before, especially this:

Only those things have been recounted whereof we thought that it was necessary to speak, in order that it might be understood that in doctrine and ceremonies nothing has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic. For it is manifest that we have taken most diligent care that no new and ungodly doctrine should creep into our churches.