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Sunday, March 06, 2005
I really enjoyed the movie "Luther." In fact, if you haven't seen it, it's well worth the time and effort to rent it and watch it. My friend Adam, a Lutheran youth minister, made a joke over coffee one day that the only people who saw it were Lutherans, and while that certainly is a joke, I think most Protestants would benefit from that little slice of our heritage...we tend to be a little deficient in our church history these days.
See, we live in a land where Bibles are plentiful. I do, anyway. I mean, there are 13 in my house, in various translations, and I have loads in my office. Our church even has a large stash of them for visitors to borrow or we'll give them away to people that need them.
This is in stark contrast to a scene in the movie. Martin Luther brings an early copy of the New Testament written in German for the founder of the university, Frederick the Wise. In that time, the Bible wasn't written in the common vernacular, and people depended on priests to tell them what was in it. The masses had never seen one.
When Luther tells Frederick what it is, Frederick then warns him of the dangers. He warns him about how Rome will react...that the Pope will view it as an act of treason, that they will respond in kind. Luther tells him he can't go against his conscience. Frederick then says, "Okay, just so you know. Can I have my present now?" Even knowing the societal upheaval it would cause, he wanted his own copy.
Frederick takes it with excited, yet trembling hands. Immediately he opens it. That was a bit over 500 years ago. Over 2,000 years of church history, and we've only had it in our hands for 25% of that!
Sometimes we lose sight of that reality. We have Bibles that gather dust on our shelves. We ho-hum opening them...we unzip the Bible cover that holds our pens and highlighters when the sermon starts and then zip it all back up when it's over. They stay in the back seats of our cars.
It's a special book. With special results for the reader.
One that people literally died so we could...
...have it in our own language.
...have our very own copy.
...have the ability to read it for ourselves and make our own interpretations.
...personally know the God of the universe.
So, for today, I'd like for us all to examine our attitudes toward the Bible. Do we take it for granted as teenagers in America in 2005? Do we view it as God's Word or as a book of rules? What practical steps can we take to appreciate it more than we do? How many Christians throughout history have ever had their own copy of the Bible? What thoughts does this reality cause in your brain?
Brent 11:15 PM
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