Here I Stand
Here I stand; I can do no other.
Tomorrow (Friday, February 18) is the commemoration of Martin Luther on the calendar of most protestant mainline churches. In The Episcopal Church, the liturgy for his commemoration is recorded in Lesser Feasts and Fasts and it begins with this collect:
O God, our refuge and our strength, who raised up your servant Martin Luther to reform and renew your church in the light of your word: Defend and purify the church in our own day and grant that, through faith, we may boldly proclaim the riches of your grace, which you have made known in Jesus Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
There are lots of interesting stories about Martin Luther out there, and I know our CCA Book Club just finished a recently-written biography. By most accounts, he never intended to leave the Roman Catholic Church and start a whole new branch of Christendom—his goal was always reform of the institution he loved and had vowed to serve.
Br. Martin (ever the wise and industrious monk) wrote scores of books, many of which we still read and discuss to this day. One of the things that made his writing so interesting and enduring, according to church historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, is that he loved to develop and probe the paradoxes of faith. For example, in The Freedom of a Christian, he wrote, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” The broader point Luther is making here is that true freedom in Christ means both individual liberty and the call to love and serve all simultaneously. No one can compel us to do anything, but our love for Christ should compel us to do all things because Christ gives us strength to continue his mission to the world (Philippians 4:13).
Part of the story of giving ourselves away is laying down our rights for the betterment of others. Jesus gets right at the heart of this in the Gospel lesson appointed for Sunday: Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. Give generously, even when the chance of repayment is low. When we’ve been wronged or injured or offended, we feel thatit is our right to demand (or exact) retribution. But Jesus points us to a different path, the path of love. Restrain your impulse to react or get even and seek a more just and peaceful solution instead.
This does not mean that Christians should be the world’s doormat, allowing everyone to take advantage of us and cause us harm. It is instead a call to examine ourselves, our motives, and our emotions as we seek something higher than mere revenge: Justice—God’s justice—the kind of justice that brings order and balance and offers both parties a path toward wholeness and reconciliation.
The work is not easy, and as Martin Luther would remind us, standing against injustice can be costly. But that’s precisely what he did. When asked to recant and withdraw his complaints about abuses perpetuated by both the Church and the pope, he uttered the famous line at the top of this post: “Here I stand; I can do no other.” Through faith, may we, like Martin, boldly proclaim the riches of God’s grace in our pursuit of justice.
The Rev. Dr. Perry M. Pauley
Associate Rector, Christ Church of the Ascension
Paradise Valley, Arizona
