Through a glass darkly...

"For now we see through a glass, darkly…” (1 Cor. 13:12)

The thoughts below come from an email to my father, concerning a discussion we were having on Martin Luther's " "Against the murderous and Rapacious Hordes of Peasants" that is often charged as Luther's highest literary crime in the sparking or fueling of so much bloodshed in "The Peasant War". After reading over the thoughts, I figured maybe the ideas or ramblings might resonate with other travelers. I offer these, in their rough hewn state, not a theological treatise; but as witness to the challenge of navigating our way through the many rough water streams of Christian thought that tumultuously rush together around the honest seeker of truth:

"Yes, some of the words in that treatise were horrible. Though, the historical events surrounding the writing of them, are subject to more misuse and revisionism than my mind can grasp or sort through. This site alone has such a mountain of answers and in depth treatment of the countless historical realities that should be honestly examined and the towers of anti-Martin Luther myths that abound:

http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Luther

As we read on the internet, we soon come to realize that it's plagued with "quote and misquote" disease...you find out that a lot of the sites posting various quotes and statements that are evil, derogatory, anti-Jewish, perverse or whatever from Luther are most often linked to Catholic apologists that are in varying degree either sure Luther was born of the devil (literally according to some) or was mislead, or mental, or just caught in a historically challenging time. The verdict is still out in my opinion on whether Luther was solely guilty of sparking the bloodshed of the P.W.

It appears to be that it was made up of various issues (economic, political, cultural, theological) that were ignited at the same time...maybe one led to deepening or igniting more of this or that in regards to for example the Peasant uprising. The whole subject is wrought with deep ravines that I'm not sure one can truly come to a complete conclusion upon. At least from my limited understanding...kind of like figuring ones way out of the labyrinth of predestination and free will; a subject that most would agree is essential and necessary in figuring out some key issues within ones understanding of God, salvation and the place of works.. But can we truly unweave the scriptures in a way that doesn't ruin the garment of Christian experience...I've not succeeded.

I'm growing more and more unable to stand on one bank of Christian tradition...I find myself wading and sometimes swimming in various incoming or undercurrents of christian histories streams of thought, belief, teaching or influence. At times, Ive gotten farther down the river pushed by this or that movement or voice. I've felt the Spirit including certain aspects or points from this vine or that, and found refreshed, revived or helped with some element that my spiritual constitution was lacking.

I'm growing more and more free to eat of all the trees of the garden. I find life in the eating from a mindset that seems to be easily followed by the Spirit I follow and am sustained by. Narrowness, selectivism, isolationism and all the other religiously bigoted means of lifting one fruit of one tree above the other seems in the end to be silly. Have you the life of God? Does love and compassion stream like heavenly juices from your dinning? Does light break in on your understanding of Christ and does a love for Him warm the furnace of your devotion from the fires you sit at? Or does the sparks of illumination spread a fire that consumes, destroys, smokes more than lights, clouds more than sheds light on the paths of those that journey?

Truth has turned into a treacherous mountain side that can only be ascended with the ropes, and tricks of the trade provided by the mountaineers of theology. Children of Jesus who simply desire to walk on the holy road are despondent by the books of the learned that have been stacked to impassable heights. The way of Christ that supposedly was going to be straightened, uncrooked, lifted up out of the depths of obscurity, and brought down low to once again be accessible to the ignorant, little and simple; is made more difficult and unpleasant than it should be.

It wearies me and worries me.

A serious spiritual reductionism is deeply needed today...coming back to love again. A love that maybe is more blind to the misty futures, the gloomy pasts and more wide eyed to what is right in the moment.

God knows, I need that more.

Song to listen to after this post: "The cure for the pain"