Reformation Thoughts

Perhaps what I will say below will be offensive to some. However, they were some thoughts that came to me last evening after I returned home from our Circuit Reformation Service we hosted here at Our Saviour.

The hymns we sang were great (By Grace I'm Saved, Salvation Unto Us Has Come, A Mighty Fortress). The sermon was a very good sermon which clearly expressed the Gospel and delivered well by Pastor Daryl Solie. I rejoiced in the Good News of the Gospel. I gave thanks to God for His mercy and forgiveness freely given to me for the sake of Christ. But I couldn't shake this feeling - this feeling of sadness. Why? This is not the way it should be.

The Church of Christ is divided. To a certain degree the Reformation represents a failure. It was not the intention to create a new church body. Yet it did. There was no choice of course - the Gospel needed to be given free reign and the church body of the day would not allow it. Nonetheless, it was not the intention of the Reformers and it is a sad reality to this day. It makes me wonder - is the Lutheran Church of today (and I mean those that are authentically Lutheran) an unfortunate necessity? While we ought to rejoice in the Gospel and the fact that we are able to believe, teach, and confess the pure Gospel - should we not also lament the fact that we must exist as a "Lutheran" church body?

I am in no way advocating a return to "Mother Church." Such thinking is folly for there is no such Church. The Church of Rome still teaches the same heresy it did in Luther's day. It must not be tolerated in the Christian Church. The reality is the Lutheran Church is catholic and orthodox. Any Lutheran must believe this. However, how is it that on such a day of joy and celebration brought about by the freedom to believe, teach, and confess the true Gospel - this sadness remains?