When the power of the Roman Catholic Church was challenged on so many fronts, the repercussions changed the world.
There were wars between nations and cities. Monarchies were brought down and republics were raised up. Nation state boundaries were stringently defined and enforced. Confusion reigned in the Church of England as Catholic and Protestant forces gained the ascendancy or were brought down by the reigning monarch. The Enlightenment rose as an alternative understanding of the world and nature, removing yet more power from the Roman Catholic Church which had controlled centres of learning.
The Church underwent ‘schism’ or separation into different ‘denominations’. The Bible was widely translated and distributed in the common tongue of Western nations, and slowly into other languages, thanks to the printing press. Tracts, books, music and propaganda followed thick and fast – and only slowed down as the internet has taken the production of material of all persuasions to hyper-speed.

The Uniting and Anglican Church traditions that make up the Strathfieldsaye Community Church are “protestant” traditions, direct descendants of the Reformation movements five hundred years ago. A generation ago and before, that may have meant an inability to worship with Roman Catholics, strong and even occasionally violent disagreement on some matters, and at the least, suspicion and distrust.
We praise God those days are over! However there are still real differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic understandings of how God reconciles us to Himself, and how God reveals Himself to the Church, and through whom.

Does this mean we fight? No!
Does this mean we can agree on some of these matters? Perhaps. Ongoing dialogue has been happening for a very long time towards this goal, and while there has been some progress, there are some matters that we cannot agree on.
What we can do is examine the Scriptures and test what is heard from positions of power and influence within the Church, in the pulpit, in the paper, on TV, on the internet.
The point is that we can do that. We do have the Bible in language that we can readily understand, in book, electronic, audio, webpage, searchable, study-able, commentary laden forms. We are free to read the Bible. That is a freedom that was hard-won, literally with the blood of many martyrs across history.
We have also been given the promised Holy Spirit to interpret and understand the Bible with us. Jesus promised that He would send His Spirit after He had gone, and did just that.
Never before has the Bible been so readily available. So what a tragedy it is that the Church is so Biblically illiterate, and too often lives off a diet of a few minutes a week of teaching from the pulpit to feed them for a week – when there is a banquet open to them each minute of each day. Sixty-six books of grace and truth are right there, all the time, equipped with the Holy Spirit to help us.

To honour the Reformers who are our spiritual ancestors, make the effort to freely read the words of Scripture they fought and died to release to the people. Of course it can be difficult to understand all of it, but the more often you read more of the Bible, God’s great plan of new life in Jesus Christ becomes clearer and clearer – and you will find your own life being reformed, slowly but surely, toward the person you were created to be in Christ Jesus, your Lord and God.

[Our readings for this Sunday were Acts 17:11-12 and John 16:5-16].

Preached on November 5 2017.

Actually, there were (at least) five streams of Reformation all happening in the extended period from 1450 to 1600, and even before and since then. “The Reformation” was not an ‘event’ rather than a series of awakenings, transformations of individuals, cities, nations and movements.

Here’s a very brief look at the five streams, with sincere apologies to historians and scholars:
German (Lutheran) Reformation: Martin Luther’s act of nailing 95 theses into the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral was not an unusual occurrence, indeed, it was actually a common practice of professors giving students their reading material for discussion in class. But the content was the spark that set off a bushfire. What did he write? You can read them here, but in short he challenged some profitable activity of the Church, some downright wicked activity, and some activity that was in conflict with what the Bible taught. Luther also translated the New Testament into the German language for the everyday person to hear and understand, earning him further wrath from Church hierarchy. Luther never intended to “bring the Church down”, but he clearly expected things to change.

Swiss Reformation: Under John Calvin and his contemporaries in Geneva the Swiss Reformation was as intellectual as Luther’s in Germany was passionate. Calvin systematically interpreted Scripture and made clear theological ideas and teaching that had been obscured by language (the Bible was only ‘officially’ available to clergy and only in Latin) and doctrine (the rule of the Pope was absolute). As the Swiss Reformation grew, city-states and regions resisted the power of the Roman Church and pursued Calvin’s interpretation and understanding of Scripture above Papal proclamation and force. Calvin and his co-workers were in communication with other Reformers, particularly those in England.

English Reformation: It is widely known that King Henry XIII wanted a divorce and the Pope would not grant him one – so as King of England he separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. And yet there were much greater movements at play before that, not least the work and writings of John Wycliffe (see post on ‘Pre-Reformation’). Thomas Cranmer was a key person in the English Reformation, creating the instruments and systems for the newly separated Church of England to function outside the authority (but not completely out of the control of) the Pope in Rome. Cranmer had worked hard to separate the English Church from the Roman Church throughout the sixteenth century.

Anabaptists: The Anabaptists were anti-institutional long before any Reformation movement. They opposed many Roman Catholic teaching and practices, and indeed were disliked by most other branches of the Church, and were often attacked and killed en masse, and being passionately pacifist, did not violently resist. The Anabaptists are the spiritual ancestors of the Salvation Army, Baptist, Church of Christ denominations, those that have minimal hierarchical leadership.

Counter-Reformation [Council of Trent]: Finally (in this terribly brief summary) was the Roman Catholic Church’s response in the mid-sixteenth century. Primarily hoped to find reconciliation with the Lutheran Reformation, common ground was sought and concessions made by the Roman Church. Change was achieved and many of the deeply wicked, and un-Biblical, practices were abolished. Yet agreement was not found, and the Reformed Church and Catholic Church drifted further apart.

Volumes have been written on this era in the history of the Church, including lessons from it. In our service we encouraged those who strongly disagree with Church behaviour to not reactively act without seeking answers, and positive action. Arguably Luther, Calvin and Cranmer wanted keep their beloved Church as one, and none desired to create all new “denominations”.

Note: if ‘strongly disagree with Church behaviour’ and believe such behaviour is illegal in nature we encourage you to contact legal authorities in the first instance.

[Our readings for this Sunday were Romans 3:9-31 and Luke 17:1-10].
Preached on October 29 2017.

‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ (Lord Acton, 1899).

By the sixteenth century, the Western Church was almost completely under the authority of the papacy in Rome. There had been civil war within the Roman Catholic Church at various times with rival popes claiming authority and nations under the authority of the Church jostling for power, sovereignty and favour.
However there were a small number of men and women who worked not to bring the Church down nor for outright revolution, but to see change within the Church reflecting Biblical principles. These people were in different places and worked across a century and a half to wrestle the Bible out of an ancient language only known to clergy and the elite (Latin), and able to be understood by the peasant and merchant, child and mother, villager and traveller alike.
While the Church controlled the language of the Bible, it controlled power, tax, nations, kings and queens, law, learning and trade. Lord Acton’s quote above may have been said four centuries later, but may well have been a reflection on the Church at that time.

In our sermon on this, we heard the account of John Wycliffe, a learned Englishman in the fifteenth century who had studied Hebrew and Greek languages, and could read the Bible not just in the Latin Vulgate (official) version, but also the increasing number of manuscripts being found and copied out by scholars.
Wycliffe was passionate about opening up the Bible to his English-speaking compatriots, and translated the Bible into common English. He was arrested, tried and killed by the State, under authority of the Church, for this act of ‘treason’.
Wycliffe’s work, including numerous writings on the contrast between what the Bible said and what the Church did, was picked up by a young man from the Continent named Jan Huss. Huss distributed Wycliffe’s ideas in Europe, where they were subsequently found by Martin Luther in Germany in the early sixteenth century. It was Martin Luther’s actions later that is claimed to have been the ‘start’ of the Reformation (nailing 95 theses to the wooden door of Wittenberg Cathedral on October 31 1517), but it can be argued the reforming of God’s Church (not the Pope’s!) was already well-under way in numerous places.

Sadly there is still Reformation to be begun and completed within the Church universal, which like any other human institution falls prey to pride and power. We understand that when the Bible is read and understood in our congregations and in our personal life, we are convicted, refined and transformed by the work of God the Holy Spirit. Finally on the Last Day Jesus will return and make all things new. Come, Lord Jesus!

[Our readings for this Sunday were the explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13:36-43, and the warning of and to false teachers in 2 Peter 2:1-3; 17-22).
Preached on October 22 2017.