Tag: holy

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Pop. Culture & the Arts

Art Set Apart

art christian lutheran church

by Kelly Klages

As Lutheran Christians, we have a lot of freedom when it comes to using art in the church. You may have seen a wide variety of art forms in different churches you’ve encountered. But church art isn’t just a matter of style and personal preference. The way a church uses art communicates its beliefs. So whether your church is simply or ornately decorated, there are some common denominators in Lutheran art that paint a very distinctive picture of our faith.

Freedom to Use Art

We are free in Christ to adopt art forms that are beautiful, reverent and reflective of the truth of our faith. Lutherans aren’t iconoclastic (against pictures and statues), like some other Protestant churches. Paintings, statuary, wood carving, stained glass, and other kinds of art are welcomed in the church as a way of teaching the faith and beautifying our houses of worship. Because these things are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Scriptures, we are free to use them.

Art Confessing the Faith

The great, central teaching of the Lutheran faith is justification by grace through faith in Christ alone. Lutheran church art (like its sermons) will be very concerned with communicating, above all, the importance of Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins. This is portrayed in many ways. For example, you should never be surprised to see a crucifix in a Lutheran church or home, because it is such a clear and direct picture of the reality of our salvation.

Art Highlighting the Word and Sacraments

Also, Lutherans teach that this Gospel, that Jesus himself, comes to us in concrete ways through God’s Word and sacraments. So in a church sanctuary, your eyes will be drawn front-and-center to where those means are delivered to us: the pulpit, the altar, and the baptismal font. Many churches decorate these objects in a spectacular fashion so there is no doubt that what happens there is of great importance. Even in churches with simpler decoration, these things are usually placed in such a way that they are the most prominent things that you see in church.

Art Teaching Us What Worship is About

No matter how simple or elaborate the sanctuary is, it will be obvious that it is a set-apart place for a holy purpose (the word “sanctuary” comes from “sanctus” meaning “holy”). Because we believe that in the Divine Service, we actually encounter God in the flesh through His Word and gifts, church is distinct from everything else that happens in our Monday-to-Saturday lives. So your standard Lutheran church will look deliberately different from an entertainment center, movie theater, rec room, lecture hall, etc. This is not where we go to merely get information about God and life, or to seek thrills. It is a unique and holy place where we get to actually encounter the God of the universe to receive His blessings.

What Art Isn’t

Art itself isn’t a means of grace or a mystical portal into another spiritual dimension. No veneration of weeping Madonnas or praying “through” icons will happen in a Lutheran church, and of course the art itself is not an object of worship. Nor is it proper to use the arts to manipulate emotions to the extent that the feeling of tugged heartstrings is mistaken for the Holy Spirit. We 
look only to God’s Word and His Sacraments to receive God’s grace and forgiveness. Manmade means, no matter how attractively packaged, have no power of this sort. Art forms may adorn the means of grace, but they should not compete with them.

Art Reminds Us the Church is Bigger Than We Are

Not all forms of art must be exactly the same in all places (e.g., using only one painting style to depict Christ and the saints), but may vary according to Christian freedom. However, Lutherans also recognize the catholicity (or universality) of the Christian faith. That is, rather than reinvent the wheel for every generation, we acknowledge that we are part of the church of all times and places. This means that we use the best, most Christ-honoring traditions that have been handed down to us, and we continue to share them with other churches throughout the world.

For example, when you walk into any Lutheran church on Pentecost Sunday, odds are that everything will be decorated in red. At a different Lutheran church, you would probably also see many Christian symbols that you would recognize from the artwork at your own church. These are things that we hold in common from a long heritage together, and they help to communicate our unity. An emphasis on catholicity also means that the art forms used in church will seek to avoid a “dated” look that comes from mimicking pop culture trends. The artwork is more likely to be of a timeless quality that seeks to transcend one specific culture or era, since the body of Christ itself transcends one culture or era.

Artist is a Holy Calling

Another distinctive Lutheran teaching is that of vocation. Being an artist or craftsman is an honorable and God-pleasing calling when our neighbor is served by the good works that are done. As such, using art in the church is not categorically decried as a “waste of money.” Communicating truths about God through the arts, and doing it well, is a very important task for those creating church art. (And, of course, church art isn’t the only kind of artistic vocation honorable to God.) Doing art poorly can, perhaps inadvertently, communicate things about God or worship that aren’t true.

So, art isn’t an indifferent thing—it’s meant to tell you something. Next time your mind wanders at church, let your eyes rest on the art that you see, and ask yourself why it was put there. The answer is always the same—it’s meant to point your eyes, ears, and heart to Jesus.

Categories
Higher History

Who Was Martin Luther? Part 17

An Indulgence from Johan Tetzel

by Rev. Donavon Riley

Despite Martin Luther’s provocative teachings at Wittenberg University—and their influence on students, faculty, local monks and priests, and earthly rulers—the theology and practices of late Medieval Roman Catholicism continued relatively undisturbed.

One such practice was the sale of indulgences. Indulgence sales were the medieval equivalent of a modern “big tent revival meeting.” An indulgence salesman would roll into town with a theater troupe, clowns, public orators, musicians, and the like. It was quite the scene when everything was set up and the show began, like a circus and stage play and concert combined!

And even though indulgence sales were a spectacle to see, their purpose was very serious. Theologians of the church had concluded that although baptism washed away the stain and penalty of original sin, Christians still had to “do what was in them” in order to be saved at the Last Judgment. However, if a Christian lived a life that was neither too wicked or too holy, they died they were sent to purgatory when they died. As a consequence, any sin that remained on their record had to be worked off (or paid off, thus the sale of indulgences) before they could be set free to enter into heavenly peace (after presenting themselves to St. Peter and Jesus at the gates of heaven). So an “indulgence” was simply how the church “indulged” a sin by absolving it of all penalty. All that was necessary to procure an indulgence was proof that the Christian was sincerely repentant over his sin. Or, if he was dead, his family or friends had to provide proof in his place.

In purgatory, the dead could not do anything to work off their sin. On the other hand, since they were in purgatory they could not commit any more sin. So, if someone could purchase an indulgence in their name, for them specifically, showing that the dead truly was repentant over the sin committed after baptism, the dead could escape purgatory. If no one came forward on their behalf, they were essentially doomed to remain in purgatory, because they could not square accounts with God.

When one did buy an indulgence, the money that exchanged hands was proof of penitence, because this was another example of self-sacrifice on the part of the one seeking an indulgence, whether while they were still alive or on behalf of the dead. And, as always, it was said by every indulgence salesman that the money which purchased an indulgence was for “the work of the church.”

In the end, indulgence sales were held in the same esteem by the church as confession, penance, and other spiritual exercises that demonstrated a Christian was truly committed to “doing what was in him” to faithfully guarantee God was pleased with him.

Next week, we will turn our attention to John Tetzel, who became the target of Luther’s anger when the young professor finally broke from his support of the Church’s practice of selling indulgences.

Rev. Donavon Riley is the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Webster, Minnesota.

Categories
Higher History

Who Was Martin Luther? Part 16

Boy at baptismal font

by Rev. Donavon Riley

When Luther moved to correct the long-held teaching that a Christian was partly sinner and partly righteous (and this in varying degrees depending on his humility, penance, charity, and so on) he attacked head-on the medieval teaching about holiness.

Luther taught that a Christian is totally sinful in himself, but totally righteous in Christ through faith, and this was constant throughout life. That meant holiness was not something to be sought after on a progressive scale of works, but something to be enjoyed through faith in Christ. In fact, for Luther, especially based on his reading of the Old Testament, wherever God is He makes sinners holy by His presence among them. God is holy and those whom He calls into relationship with Him are thereby holy, by virtue of His coming near to them. Personal experience, spirituality, success or failure at living a god-pleasing life were irrelevant regarding holiness. One was either “in Christ” or not. And, in Christ, a Christian is totally holy, because God declares him righteous for Christ’s sake.

Luther knew that his teaching was theological dynamite. But he pushed on preaching and teaching that only someone who’d given up trying to achieve holiness for himself was prepared to receive God’s grace, which came from being in Christ Jesus.

As Luther wrote, “it cannot be that a soul filled with its own righteousness can be replenished with the righteousness of God, who fills up only those who hunger and are thirsty. Therefore, whoever is full of his own truth and wisdom is not capable of the truth and wisdom of God, which cannot be received save by those who are empty and destitute.”

Luther denied that a Christian can become better in the presence of God. All his works and doings are exposed as sinful and damned in relation to a holy God. Only the righteousness of God in Christ makes a Christian “holy.” Therefore, faith empties a person of his own desire to become holy and instead focuses him more and more on Christ Jesus. This is a Christian’s one sure and certain hope in life.

“The wounds of Jesus,” Luther wrote, “are safe enough for us…This, if anyone is too much afraid that he is not one of the elect…let him give thanks for such fear, and rejoice to be afraid, knowing with confidence that the God who says, ‘the sacrifice of God is a broken, that is a desperate, heart’ cannot lie.”

Not a single work we call “holy” impresses God in the least. Only Christ makes Christians holy. Likewise, then, only Christ can make a person “whole in hope,” as Luther noted.

Luther followed Scripture where it led him, where his questions were answered by God’s solid words about Jesus. But Luther’s whole world was populated by people who’d been taught that faith and good works led to salvation, not faith alone in Christ alone. The push back against Luther’s teaching, especially as he wrapped up his Romans lectures, was about to escalate. When Luther had taken his vows as a professor he’d sworn to uphold the truth and condemn false teaching.

By 1518, there were many who’d become convinced by what they heard coming out of Wittenberg that Martin Luther may have become confused about true and false teaching. They felt that young Luther was in need of severe correction before he misled too many priests, professors, students, and laity into damnable unbelief.

Next time we will examine the explosion that occurred when Luther publicly opposed the sale of indulgences.

Rev. Donavon Riley is the pastor of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Webster, Minnesota.