500 years ago on Tuesday, yes on Halloween, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, and started the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u201cThe hammer stroke of Luther\u201d that we sang about earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or at least that\u2019s the legend.\u00a0 The other version of the story is that he mailed his theses to the local archbishop, which isn\u2019t nearly so dramatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But however his statement was delivered, the impact was shattering.\u00a0 World changing.\u00a0 The previously monolithic Christian church broke apart.\u00a0 The Christian church had already split East and West about 500 years earlier.\u00a0 Now, the Roman church, called \u201ccatholic\u201d which means \u201cincludes everything\u201d found itself losing further grip on a lot of the Christians it had once embraced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther meant to \u201creform\u201d the Christian church not start a new church, so in a sense he failed.\u00a0 Soon, from Luther, and then Calvin, and then a host of others, dozens of separate Protestant churches were born, each finding something of their own to protest.\u00a0 Now there are dozens of Protestant denominations and thousands of independent churches comprising about one third of all Christians, worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what\u2019s the difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther proposed two major reforms.\u00a0 They go by the terms, \u201cSola Fide\u201d and \u201cSola Scriptura\u201d\u00a0 Or Faith Alone and Scripture Alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faith Alone is Luther\u2019s belief that a Christian is justified to God entirely through faith.\u00a0 Belief.\u00a0 \u201cAccepting Jesus as your personal savior\u201d as evangelicals put it.\u00a0 Christians don\u2019t need to do anything.\u00a0 Just believe.\u00a0 Only faith.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Christian theology, every human being is born in a state of sin, called Original Sin.\u00a0 Our sin must be forgiven to achieve salvation.\u00a0 We are \u201cjustified\u201d before God when our sins are forgiven.\u00a0 Forgiveness of sin must come from God, of course.\u00a0 But the Catholic Church also taught that a person could increase their favor in God\u2019s judgment by doing certain actions, such as going to Mass and giving to the church.\u00a0 In other words, the Catholic Church taught that human beings could influence God\u2019s decision.\u00a0 Justification was a combined effort of God\u2019s grace and a person\u2019s own effort, or \u201cworks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther called this theology \u201cworks righteousness\u201d and he thought it was ridiculous.\u00a0 He reasoned that God, being God, couldn\u2019t be manipulated, or persuaded, or ordered around by lowly humans.\u00a0 He concluded then, that if we are saved it must be entirely by God\u2019s entirely free decision.\u00a0 We are saved by God\u2019s grace, not by our effort.\u00a0 That\u2019s the meaning of the hymn, \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s grace that saves wretches like us, not our own work.\u00a0 We simply believe, and wait, and hope.\u00a0 That\u2019s all.\u00a0 Faith alone.\u00a0 Sola fide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In particular, Luther was incensed at the Catholic Church\u2019s practice of selling indulgences. For a fee, the church would issue a letter saying that a certain number of years had been subtracted from your time in Purgatory.\u00a0 Absurd, thought Luther.\u00a0 Eventually the Catholic Church agreed, by the way.\u00a0 They ended the practice of selling indulgences at the Council of Trent, 50 years after Luther\u2019s 95 Theses called them out on that practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the debate over whether we are saved by works or by grace continues. Is it really true that God doesn\u2019t care what we do?\u00a0 Does it really not matter that we do works, including works like giving to charity, or feeding the hungry or just trying to be nice?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The logical problem, as Luther saw it, is that God, being all-powerful, is the cause behind every action or decision you ever make.\u00a0 If you\u2019re \u201cgood\u201d it\u2019s only because God made you that way.\u00a0 It\u2019s no credit to you.\u00a0 And, because God is eternal, God knows what actions or decisions you\u2019re going to make long before you make them. That\u2019s part of the job of being the omnipotent and eternal ruler of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By this logic, it follows that human beings don\u2019t really have free will.\u00a0 Our wills are captive to a plan already set out by God since before creation.\u00a0 Luther called this, \u201cthe bondage of the will.\u201d\u00a0 Therefore, God having already decided what we will do, and knowing what we will do long before we do it, it makes logical sense that our actually doing the thing, eventually, won\u2019t make any difference to God.\u00a0 Our salvation, or damnation, is already decided, a decision made by God, long ago entirely independent of us.\u00a0 That\u2019s called predestination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0 It\u2019s not our will that saves us, but God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 Will and Grace, the eternal theological debate, and also a TV sitcom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sola Scriptura, was the other part of Luther\u2019s critique of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther believed that God, being good, meant to communicate to us everything we needed to know about the salvation scheme.\u00a0 God wouldn\u2019t have kept necessary information secret.\u00a0 In fact, Luther believed, God put everything we needed to know in one, easy to find place: the Bible.\u00a0 Therefore, Luther wanted to make the Bible available to everyone.\u00a0 The Bible should be translated from Latin into the languages that regular people speak everyday.\u00a0 Copies of the Bible should be printed and read at home.\u00a0 And the focus of worship in the church should be a minister teaching from the Bible and explaining the meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Catholic Church saw no need for lay people to read the Bible.\u00a0 People are not saved by Biblical literacy but by the sacraments.\u00a0 They felt the focus of worship should be a Priest, performing the Mass and hearing confession, and so on.\u00a0 It was the sacraments that saved our souls.\u00a0 And furthermore, the Catholic Church, through the apostolic tradition, had access to special religious truth beyond what was written in the Bible.\u00a0 The Pope could have revelations.\u00a0 The saints could intervene.\u00a0 Peter had the keys to heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther said, no.\u00a0 Sola scriptura.\u00a0 Only scripture.\u00a0 That\u2019s all you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luther\u2019s reforms were a democratizing influence on the church.\u00a0 Luther moved power away from the ordained hierarchy of the Pope and the Cardinals and the Bishops, and down to the people themselves.\u00a0 Literally putting the Bible in their hands.\u00a0 Lay people in charge of their own spiritual lives served by a minister who acted as a companion and mentor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Luther\u2019s largest democratizing influence was simply in the act of protesting.\u00a0 Luther showed that it was possible for a single person, any person, to talk back to the authority of the church, to speak truth to power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So very quickly, a lot of people started speaking their minds about the Christian faith.\u00a0 And soon there were dozens, and then thousands of versions of Christianity, each slightly different from the others, or in many cases, pretty much the same as others but with different people in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, most of the new churches retained some sort of denominational structure.\u00a0 That means, like the Catholic church there is one central structure that oversees many local churches:\u00a0 like Wells Fargo has branches on every corner.\u00a0 The Lutheran church is like this, as is the Episcopal Church, and the Methodists and the Presbyterians.\u00a0 There is one main guy at the top, who keeps order, controls the corporate assets, and insures that all the local churches properly represent the faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this structure, too, could be protested.\u00a0 Why should it be that many churches must be yoked together?\u00a0 And why should that one guy, in Rome, or Geneva, or Canterbury, be in charge?\u00a0 Sola Fide.\u00a0 Sola Scriptura.\u00a0 All we need is faith, and a copy of the Bible, and we can be our own church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So people began to form small groups that read and studied the Bible on their own.\u00a0 If they wanted a minister, they called somebody up from their own community.\u00a0 If they wanted a church building, they raised the money together and built it.\u00a0 They answered to no one.\u00a0 They depended on no one.\u00a0 Instead of denominational polity, they organized under congregational polity:\u00a0 groups of lay people, making decisions as a congregation, or electing a board of elders from among their members to lead them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Puritan churches of colonial America were congregationalist.\u00a0 Later those churches split into a more conservative branch now called the United Church of Christ (which is actually quite liberal), and a more liberal branch called the Unitarians.\u00a0 The Universalists split off from the Baptist churches, which were also congregationalist in polity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here we are today, progeny of the Protestant Reformation, the 500 year old children of Luther.\u00a0 Far from the Catholic Church. Congregationalist.\u00a0 Each Unitarian Universalist church independent and only loosely linked to each other through a voluntary association called the Unitarian Universalist Association, not denomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our organizational structure, or \u201cpolity\u201d to use the religious term, is an expression of our theology.\u00a0 We follow our own paths.\u00a0 We are personally smart enough, strong enough and good enough to save ourselves.\u00a0 We disagree with Luther.\u00a0 We are sure we are saved by our works, not by God\u2019s grace.\u00a0 We follow our free will, not a pre-destined fate.\u00a0 We read the Bible that Luther put in our hands and find that it says, in the second chapter of the Book of James:\u00a0 \u201cShow me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we work hard.\u00a0 The church Board and the congregational meeting are cornerstones of how we do church.\u00a0 Every member is given a vote.\u00a0 You elect your leaders.\u00a0 We make our own decisions.\u00a0 Our congregations cherish the freedom to call their own minister, if you want one, rather than have a minister appointed over you by a Bishop or such.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like your minister you know you have the power to replace them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ministers also appreciate our freedom.\u00a0 We can say what we like from the pulpit, following our own conscience, knowing that our job is to serve the people in front of us, not answer to some ecclesiastical authority in Rome, or Boston as it were.\u00a0 We, ministers and congregations, are free, in all the ways that freedom is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we are free in all the difficult ways, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can decide how we want to spend our money, but we have to raise our own money, first.\u00a0 We can lead ourselves, but we have to train and nurture and respect our own leaders.\u00a0 If we\u2019re doing well, no one\u2019s going to stop us.\u00a0 But if we get in trouble, no one\u2019s going to come bail us out either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happens then, is that congregational polity works very well when churches are doing well.\u00a0 But congregationalism becomes a self-reinforcing disaster when congregations aren\u2019t doing well.\u00a0 A congregation that depends entirely on its own resources can enter a sickness trap, where a small slip into ill health can rapidly compound, a small sickness causing a descent into ever-increasing problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blessing of congregational polity is that we can do for ourselves.\u00a0 The curse of congregational polity is the answer to the question, “But what happens when we can\u2019t do for ourselves?”\u00a0 With no strong denominational structure there is nowhere to turn for help.\u00a0 There\u2019s no central pool of financial resources that we can lean on when we can\u2019t raise the money we need on our own.\u00a0 Even if the UUA had money to give they wouldn\u2019t hand it out without also insisting on having a say in how it\u2019s spent.\u00a0 The UUA has wise people we can ask for counsel, but the decisions we make, good or bad, are still up to us.\u00a0 No person outside our own congregation has the authority to make decisions for us, even if they see us clearly stepping off a cliff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what happens to a congregation when their own members lack the expertise required to make good decisions?\u00a0 And what happens to the resources built up in a congregation: property and endowments and history and the good name of Unitarian Universalism; when the local congregation loses the capacity to be capable stewards?\u00a0 Unfortunately the answer to that question is not good.\u00a0 Our Unitarian Universalism throughout the country is littered with examples of mis-used and under-used resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is especially severe for small congregations.\u00a0 The majority of Unitarian Universalist congregations are very small.\u00a0 And most Unitarian Universalists belong to small congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think of all of the skills and resources that a congregation needs in order to thrive.\u00a0 Preachers, teachers, healers, out-going social organizers, musicians, publicists, writers,\u00a0graphic designers, sound engineers, carpenters and plumbers, accountants, bookkeepers, attorneys, activists and advocates and parlimentarians.\u00a0 Luther is wrong.\u00a0 It takes a lot more than faith and a Bible to make a church.\u00a0 As we sang in our opening hymn, \u201cWe sing of the prophets, the teachers, the dreamers, designers, creators, and workers, and seers.\u201d\u00a0 A larger congregation can usually find the skills it needs among it\u2019s own members.\u00a0 But if a congregation only has 50 or 60 people, they would have to be very lucky to have all of those talents within their own small membership.\u00a0 And if they don\u2019t have enough money to hire the professionals they lack then those jobs simply won\u2019t get done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And congregations are not composed only of professionals eager to offer their skills.\u00a0 Churches are for everyone.\u00a0 Some people join a church because they have something to give.\u00a0 But churches are also places where people come because they have something they need to receive.\u00a0 People come to church seeking spiritual transcendence or education, or healing, or friends.\u00a0 They come wanting to get away from work, not do more of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we sang this morning, \u201cFor needs which others serve, for services we give,\u00a0for work and its rewards, for hours of rest and love; we come with praise and thanks.\u201d\u00a0 We come to church as givers and receivers.\u00a0 And everyone is a mix of both in various ways and at various times in their lives.\u00a0 But that means that half of a congregation at any one time, are there to receive.\u00a0 Some have nothing to give.\u00a0 And some are tired of giving.\u00a0 Givers need times to rest and receive also.\u00a0 The constant pressure to give and give more can lead a congregation\u2019s strongest members to burn out and give up.\u00a0 That puts even more pressure on the remainder of the congregation and the downward spiral continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the bargain we accept with congregational polity.\u00a0 Freedom.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Local control.\u00a0 Great.\u00a0 But we also then face the tempting danger of imagining that we can flourish entirely separate from other churches and self-sufficient among ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UUA has attempted in many ways to solve this structural flaw within our congregational polity.\u00a0 We are encouraged to embrace our covenantal theology, going back to the Puritans and the system of mutual aid and admonition they outlined in the Cambridge Platform.\u00a0 More recently, the UUA is encouraging churches to find ways to link together, to share resources so that single small congregations aren\u2019t required to provide every diverse skill and program they need from within their own abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But these efforts are insufficient.\u00a0 As long as the models they suggest are voluntary, healthy congregations will have little incentive to share their resources with unhealthy congregations.\u00a0 Like insurance or taxes, these systems only work if everyone participates.\u00a0 As long as the UUA lacks an enforcement authority we will continue to take their advice only when it suits us, and ignore their admonitions when they inconvenience us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t imagine our congregational polity is going away any time soon.\u00a0 So as long as voluntary connections of mutual aid and admonition are all we have I urge us as a movement to take our covenantal connections between our congregations seriously.\u00a0 And not just when we have something we need, but when we have something to give.\u00a0 We, who are smart, and strong, and good, and in charge of our own destinies, let\u2019s do this, for the good of us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s called for then, is humility among Unitarian Universalism.\u00a0 Sometimes we aren\u2019t the ones who know best.\u00a0 Sometimes we don\u2019t have the answer.\u00a0 Sometimes we don\u2019t have the vision, or the solution.\u00a0 Or sometimes we have the vision but not the strategy to make it real.\u00a0 Sometimes we know we aren\u2019t strong enough but are too ashamed to ask for help.\u00a0 Other times we don\u2019t recognize our weakness.\u00a0 Sometimes we are blinded by personal desire, or fear or our ignorance, and cannot make out the good path we are called to walk.\u00a0 Sometimes we are called to step forward as leaders, but often, too, we should humbly step aside, and permit the ones with more skill and passion and commitment take over for a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t imagine our congregational polity is going away any time soon.\u00a0 But who knows, Luther didn\u2019t know the nail that attached his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenbergy Cathedral would also be the first nail in the new Protestant Church.\u00a0 So maybe we could reform our loose association of congregations into a stronger, better resourced, and more powerful denomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s called for then is a reformation, not of theology but of polity. A reformation where we forego some individual freedom, in order to gain some communal security. A reformation that takes seriously the truth that we exist in interdependent relationships and rejects the lie that we are self-created and self-sustaining. A reformation that sees that the future of our faith is at stake and that creating a strong future is worth the sacrifice of the present. A reformation that acknowledges that our freedom to do what we will, will not alone save us, because even Unitarian Universalists require graceful gifts from time to time, from something larger than ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"