Good Ol’ Marty Luther

At Concordia University Chicago (or River Forest to us old-timers), we used to sing this silly little rhyme about Luther:

Good ol’ Marty Luther,
Good ol’ Marty Luther,
I think the Reformation’s grand!
With his five and ninety theses,
He tore the Pope to pieces,
And made me who I am! LCMS!

In looking for the lyrics online, I found a different version that reads similar:

I love Martin Luther,
Good old Martin Luther,
I think the Reformation’s grand!
His five and ninety theses,
They tore the Pope to pieces,
Now on the solid rock I stand!

At the time, it was a silly joke to us about being Lutheran.  I was Lutheran because that’s what I grew up, not because I cared about what they taught more than any other church.  As I’ve spent more time in ministry, I’ve come to appreciate the gifts that Luther brought to the Christian church while not falling into the sometimes cultic celebration of Luther that happens in our greater church body.

Today we celebrate the Reformation as a whole on the date that Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg.  The primary gift to the church from this was a return to the Word of God as the rule and norm for our faith.  Closely connected with that was Luther’s division of Law and Gospel.  C. F. W. Walther wrote about how to distinguish Law and Gospel, a quick read and helpful for understanding the topic.  Luther even made it to #3 on the list of 1000 most influential people of the 2nd Millenium.  The ranking methodology is interesting and Luther’s entry is a fun read.  I have the book somewhere, but can’t seem to find it right now…

So we celebrate Luther’s gift to the church today and continue to remind ourselves about the importance of God’s Word over Man’s as we continue to reach the world, mindful not to repeat the mistakes of the church at Luther’s time.