February 18, 2008
Hookerans
Today’s liturgical time remembers Martin Luther. But I’m not sure whether anything is being made of it around the altars and in the pews, coming on a day after we’ve already offered God our weekly Much-obliged.I suppose Martin Luther is where MLK got the name he gave MLKJr. And I suppose the two of them get more credit for more people hearing about him than does the calendar. But that’s probably due to us churchers more than anything else.
A Lutheran friend of mine told me that Martin Luther was too humble to want any church or especially any denomination named after him, especially some of the LutherSplits that have come to pass over the years. I understand that. Just think how Richard (or we) might feel were we called Hookerans.
I don’t know much about him, have wondered in off moments why he limited his theses to ninety-five and didn’t round them off to some biblical multiple of seven. And I’m wondering today where he really is when we need him most, not more than they did in the mid-16th century, but a lot more than some of the archpurple lesser satraps telling us what we ought to be about in these times. I’d settle for a few theses being nailed on the front door of Lambeth Palace or its Nigerian equivalent, for that matter. For I wonder what Martin Luther might think about the Windsor Report or the periodic restoration of the Anglican Covenant’s hardware.
My bias suggests he’d be almost as proud of the other Covenant, the one we use for baptising and for repeating ever so often when the Spirit moves us, as he clearly was of the Old and the New. I’d present him for Confirmation any time, even let him skip enquirer’s class, or maybe elect him bishop if he’d accept.
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