The Wild Boar in the Vineyard

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Martin Luther was born in Saxony in 1483. Schooled in Erfurt, he later fled to an Augustinian monastery.

Literally.

Caught in a thunderstorm, in terror before the lightening, he cried out, “Help, St. Anne, I will become a monk!”

Despite this less than auspicious beginning, from that point on Martin Luther was a man of the church. So much so that his passion for the church would spark one of the most defining moments in the history of the church—the Protestant Reformation. 

The Reformation was more than theological; it was ecclesiastical. It was a reformation of the church. Even the famed 95 Theses nailed onto the Wittenberg door say nothing about justification by faith, the authority of the Bible, the priesthood of all believers nor any of the other well-known Reformation doctrines. Instead, they look like a treatise on church practice.

Luther’s ultimate vision for reformation was for a church where each member could play an active and decisive part, the distinction between clergy and laity could be dissolved and every believer be seen as a priest, and thus be able to powerfully “espouse the cause of faith” to a lost and dying world.

As a result, Luther encouraged his fellow monks to break out of the monasteries and walk among those in the world. He encouraged those in the world to see their place in life as deeply “called” as those of the monks, and to take their place in the church’s enterprise as fellow ministers.

Luther translated Scripture into the native language of the German people so that they could read, hear and understand its plain meaning. “You have to ask the housewife, the children in the street and the ordinary man at the market, see how they respond, and then translate accordingly,” Luther maintained.

He believed that preaching should be crafted with the simple and the uneducated in mind. His working motto was, “Keep it simple for the simple.” He restored congregational singing; at the time, only priests and monastic choirs would sing during worship, in Latin. Luther wrote hymns that the people would actually enjoy and invited all to sing, such as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” crafting tunes that had much in common with what would have been heard in the taverns.

Historian Roland Bainton sees Luther’s greatest contribution to be in the renewal of the mission of the church.

Luther not only opened the doors of the church for those to whom it had been closed, but also cast a vision for how a life investment in the church could make a difference in the world.

Not all assessed Luther’s efforts in glowing terms. One treatise written against Luther during his own day and presented to the pope opened with the words, “A wild boar has invaded thy vineyard.”

Perhaps.

But by the time the boar had finished tearing through the field, a new wine had been cultivated, giving rise to a new wineskin that would spread renewal throughout Christendom.

James Emery White

Sources

Excerpt from Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day by James Emery White, order from Amazon.

Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand.

Graham Tomlin, Luther and His World.

Richard Marius, Martin Luther.