Category: Commemoration

The commemoration on the 14th may have been a famous one to the secular world, but today’s is likely an equally familiar one to the Lutheran one (but probably not to the Catholics): Martin Luther, Doctor and Confessor.

Martin Luther died on February 18, 1546, at the age of 62. He wrote his last will and testament only a few years before, first dealing with his material possessions and his family, and then ending on this paragraph:

“Finally, I also ask of every man, since in this gift or endowment I am not using legal forms and terminology (for which I have good reasons), that he would allow me to be the person which I in truth am, namely, a public figure, known both in heaven and on earth, as well as in hell, having respect or authority enough that one can trust or believe more than any notary. For as God, the Father of all mercies, entrusted to me, a condemned, poor, unworthy, miserable sinner, the gospel of his dear Son and made me faithful and truthful, and has up to now preserved and grounded me in it, so that many in this world have accepted it through me and hold me to be a teacher of the truth, without regard for the pope’s ban, and the anger of the emperor, kings, princes, clerics, yes, of all the devils, one should surely believe me much more in these trifling matters; and especially since this is my very well-known handwriting, the hope is that it should suffice, when on can say and prove that it is Dr. Martin Luther’s (who is God’s notary and witness in his gospel) earnest and well considered opinion to confirm this with his own hand and seal. Executed and delivered on Epiphany Day, 1542.”

Before he died, it is reported that his friend Justus Jonas asked if Luther wanted to die standing firm on Christ and the doctrine he had taught. To which Luther answered: “Yes!”

From Dr. Mackenzie’s sermon this morning:

“Well, that’s the point of God’s No. ‘Listen up,’ it says, ‘you’re in big trouble. God condemns all of your thoughts, words, and deeds. You’re heading to hell.’ Only when that “No” at last penetrates our hard and stubborn hearts do we finally hear what God has been saying all the time in Jesus Christ: ‘Yes!’ Yes to forgiveness, yes to life, and yes to salvation.

“This was the Yes that Paul, Silas, and Timothy preached; this was the Yes that Luther preached right up until his end, and, in fact, the Yes that he confessed on his deathbed; and this is the Yes that by God’s grace you and I will also believe and confess at our last moment as well.”

If you look in the front of your LSB, on pages xii and xiii (before the Psalms), you will find a list of commemorations. Commemorations are days set aside in the church year to remember the saints God has given to His Church, partly as examples to imitate of faithful living (and dying), but most importantly as witnesses of God’s great mercy to His people across time and nations. Commemorations, like the more commonly celebrated feast days, ultimately point to Jesus Christ and His saving work.

Today’s commemoration is one of our more famous–or at least secularly-known–ones: Valentine, martyr. Saint Valentine of Rome ministered to the Christians persecuted in Rome in the third century as both a physician and a priest, and February 14th is the anniversary of his martyrdom. The particular charge against him is unclear, as is the mode of his passing; one thing people seem to agree on is that he died a martyr at the command of Emperor Claudius II and was buried the same day, on the Via Flaminia road between Rome and Rimini.

Legend has it that he wrote a note of encouragement to his jailer’s child on an irregularly-shaped piece of paper the day he died, signing it “from your Valentine.” Another very old, popular story claims that he was arrested for marrying Christian couples despite the emperor’s prohibitions against it, especially for those serving as soldiers. Valentine’s Day became associated with courtly love in the Middle Ages, and it is entirely possible that Valentine refers to two–or even three–different martyrs of the same name, their stories conflated over time.

Rev. Larry Wright, in his chapel sermon this morning, focused the commemoration precisely where it belongs:

“Christian martyrs do not confess themselves. Rather, they confess the one whom they believe, and that is Jesus Christ Himself…Valentine was not sainted because of the number of miracles he did or did not perform. No slight of hand or greeting card trick made him a saint. Rather, all saints are sainted in the same way: they are made holy, they are born again; not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God…

“Rejoice! You who are saints see the cloud of witnesses–their lives of faith encourage and surround us. We do look to witnesses, prophets, martyrs, and saints who stood in the faith, whose faces, some of which we will never see in this world, and some of those even tiny faces who we shall never forget. Yet even more we look to Him in whom they placed their faith, even Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made manifest in these last times, for our eternal sake. Amen.”

Today is the 1,676th (or possibly 1,675th, depending on your source) anniversary of the death of Saint Nicholas–better known on page xiii of the Lutheran Service Book as the commemoration of Nicholas of Myra, Pastor. Much of what we know about the original Santa Claus has to be attributed to legend, as research can only confirm that there was a bishop by the name of Nicholas in the city of Myra in Lycia (now a part of Turkey) and that there was a church of Saint Nicholas in Constantinople in the 6th century.

He is known in the Church for several things: his generosity (tradition says that his wealthy parents died young and that he spent his inheritance on the poor and needy; many stories have grown up around his charity, such as one in which he secretly threw bags of gold through the open windows of the house of a poor man who need it for his daughters’ dowries, the bags landing on the stockings and shoes drying in front of the fire), as a protector of children, and a rescuer of sailors.

We also associate him with the Council of Nicea, from which came the Nicene Creed, an answer to the early church heresy of Arianism that taught that Jesus was more than man but less than God (thus the creed’s very pointed and detailed language: “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father”). Legend has it that he struck either an Arian heretic or Arius himself at this council, though the fact that this story didn’t arise until the 14th century, nearly a thousand years later, and that Nicholas’ name doesn’t even show up in the historical lists of attendees makes the story likely just that: a story.

Regardless of the veracity of these and other tales, we remember Nicholas of Myra as an example of Christian generosity, praying that we may also give out of an abundance of joy and according to the grace given to us (2 Corinthians 8:2; Romans 12:6-8). And perhaps, even, taking the rest as an entertaining reminder that we are called to speak the truth in love and in gentleness, no matter how tempted we are to strike another’s cheek, thanking God that when we fail we too receive a gift that we haven’t earned: His beloved Son, in whom we have the forgiveness of sins.

“But as God is my iudge, and also my conscience, and all my wordes, and dedes, and all maner of my lyuynge, and conuersacion, I dyd neuer entende, to speake agaynst the byshops, or els any other man, further than theyr lyuyng, and conuersacion were agaynst the blessed worde of God, and the holy doctrine of Christes churche”

So wrote Robert Barnes in his supplication to King Henry VIII in 1531, posted today in honor of his commemoration. Translated from the Middle English: “But as God is my judge and also my conscience, and all my words and deeds and all manner of my living and conversation, I never intended to speak against the bishops or else any other man, further than their living and conversation were against the blessed Word of God and the holy doctrine of Christ’s Church.”
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An Englishman and prior at Cambridge, Barnes was a convert to Lutheranism who actually studied under Martin Luther after fleeing England at threat of execution (after two years of house arrest for heresy). Barnes returned to England to deliver a letter from Luther to Henry the Eighth, who had hoped that these new Protestants would give him permission to divorce his wife when the Catholics refused. They did not, and it kicked off a precariously dangerous relationship between Barnes and the King, who needed political ties to the German Lutheran princes and was thus willing to offer him the crown’s protection. Under this reluctant protection, Barnes was able to preach in his home country. He was eventually martyred in 1540, burned to death with two other Protestant preachers.
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For a more detailed rundown on Robert Barnes, written by 2011 Fort Wayne grad, Rev. Anthony Dodgers, CLICK HERE.
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And since Middle English is still largely accessible to English speakers, here is another excerpt from “A Supplication to King Henry VIII” (or “A Supplication Vnto the Most Gracyous Prince Kynge Henry The. VIIJ.”). Middle English is surprisingly easy to pick up, especially when you read it out loud and can then hear how familiar the words sound. Keep in mind that y = i, i = j, “v” is interchangeable with “u”, “e” is often left off or added to the end of words, and that there was no spelling or grammar standard at the time.

(Please note that I have also included a translation immediately following the Middle English, for those who don’t want to try deciphering the original wall of text.)
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Onely faythe iustifieth before God.
Nowe, yf your grace do not take vpon you, to here the disputacyon, and the probacyon of this artycle out of the grounde of holy scripture, my lordes the byshops wyll condempne it, afore they rede it, as theyr maner is to do with al thynges, that pleaseth them not, and whiche they vnderstande not: and than crye they heresy, heresy, an heretyke, an heretyke, he ought not to be herde, for his matters be condempned by the churche, and by holy fathers, and by all longe customes, and by all maner of lawes. Vnto whom, with your graces fauoure, I make this answere. I wolde know of them, yf all these thynges, that they haue here reckened can ouercome Christe, and his holy worde, or set the holy ghost to schole? And yf they can not, why shulde not I than be herde? that do requyre it in the name of Christ? and also bryng for me his holy worde, And the holy fathers, whiche haue vnderstande Gods worde as I do? Therfore thoughe they wyll no here me, yet muste they nedes here them. In holy scripture, Christe is nothynge elles, but a sauyour, a redemer, a iustifier, and a perfecte peace maker, betwene God, and man. this testimonye dyd the aungell gyue of hym in these wordes. He shal saue his people from theyre synnes. And also saynt Paule, Christe is made our ryghtwisnes, our satisfaction, and our redempcion. Moreouer, the prophete wytnesseth the same, sayinge, For the wretchednes of my people, haue I stryken hym. So that here haue we Christe with his propertyes. Nowe yf we wyll truely confesse Christ, than must we graunt with our hertes, that Christ is all our iustice, all our redemption, all our wysdome, all our holynes, all alonly the purchaser of grace, alonly the peace maker betwene God and man. Breuely all goodnes that we haue, that it is of hym, by hym, and for his sake onely. And that we haue nede of nothyng towardes our saluacyon, but of hym onely, and we desyre no nother saluacyon, nor no nother satisfaction, nor any helpe of any other creature, other heuenly or earhtly, but of hym onely, for as saynt Peter saythe, there is no nother name gyuen vnto men, wherin they muste be saued. And also saynt Paule saythe, by hym are all that beleue iustified from all thynges. Moreouer saynt Johnn wytnesseth the same, in these wordes. He it is, that hath optayned grace for our synnes. And in a nother place. He sente his sonne to make agrement, for our synnes.

TRANSLATION (with added paragraph breaks for readability):
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Now, if your grace does not take it upon yourself to hear the disputation and the probation of this article from the grounds of Holy Scripture, my lords the bishops will condemn it before they read it as their manner is to do with all things that do not please them and which they don’t understand: and then cry, “Heresy, heresy! A Heretic, a heretic! He ought not to be heard for his matters are condemned by the Church and by holy fathers and by all long customs and all manner of laws.” Unto whom, with your grace’s favor, I make this answer:
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I would know of them if all these things that they have here reckoned can overcome Christ and His holy Word, or set the Holy Ghost to school? And if they cannot, why should I not then be heard? That do require it in the name of Christ? And also bring for me his Holy Word, and the holy fathers, which have understood God’s Word as I do?
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Therefore, though they will not hear me, yet must they need hear them. In Holy Scripture, Christ is nothing else but a savior, a redeemer, a justifier, and perfect peacemaker between God and man. This testimony did the angel give of Him in these words: “He shall save His people from their sins.” And also Saint Paul: “Christ is made our righteousness, our satisfaction, and our redemption.” Moreover, the prophet witnesses the same, saying, “For the wretchedness of my people have I stricken him.” So that here have we Christ with his properties.
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Now if we will truly confess Christ, then must we grant with our hearts that Christ is all our justice, all our redemption, all our wisdom, all our holiness, all alone the purchaser of grace, alone the peacemaker between God and man. Truly all goodness that we have is of Him, by Him, and for His sake only. And that we have need of nothing towards our salvation but of Him only, and we deserve no other salvation nor another satisfaction nor any help of any other creature, either heavenly or earthly, but of Him only, for as Saint Peter says, “There is no other name given unto men, wherein they must be saved.” And also Saint Paul says, “By Him are all that believe justified from all things.” Moreover Saint John witnesses the same, in these words: “He it is, that has obtained grace for our sins.” And in another place: “He sent His Son to make agreement* for our sins.”
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*”atonement” could likely stand in for “agreement” here

Tomorrow is the commemoration of one of the Lutheran church’s most famous Kantors, Johann Sebastian Bach. Born in 1685, Bach was not only a musician but an excellent theologian, basing his text on Scripture and composing nearly all of his music for use in the church service, with most of his cantatas concluding with a chorale based on a Lutheran hymn. One of the most famous examples of this is “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” which was based on a hymn written by Martin Janus and a melody composed by Johann Schop. Bach wrote the harmonies and created the orchestration for the piece.

Jesu, joy of man’s desiring,
Holy wisdom, love most bright;
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light.