Forefathers: Our Big/Small Gift

On this day many years ago God did something very big. Actually it was very small. By His providence a little baby boy was born to a miner and his wife, and he was to change the world in so many ways even history professors (not known for conciseness) have trouble enumerating the benefits of his legacy. I am not a history prof. Our child’s most important gift to us is theology, which as the eternal queen of sciences influences every other area of life. Let us be transported to a land long ago and observe our man before we label or name him.

First we see our boy, after some growing up, enter law school at age 13 and earn his bachelor’s and master’s degree at the fastest pace allowed. His skills in debate become legend.

Then fear descends. Our boy, now a man, is caught in danger and dedicates his life to God. Radical change follows. Our man’s father is unhappy with his son’s about-face; he was supposed to be a lawyer after all. Nevertheless, our man is resolute. He enters the cloister.

Our man throws himself wholeheartedly into his new life. But something is missing. “I should love the Lord,” he reflects, “but sometimes I hate him.” Despite these internal ravings, our man is compelled to pursue a doctorate in theology.

Now a theologian, our man’s struggles have not passed away. “How can I love a righteous God who judges me?” Our man reads Romans; chapter 1, verse 17 confuses him. “If the righteous will live by faith, how can the unrighteous live?”

He pauses.

He meditates.

Epiphany; post tenebras, lux. Romans 1:17 really means that “the one who by faith is righteous shall live.” The gates of heaven have opened for our theologian, and he enters in. He knows that all is changed. In all of Scripture once-known-but-never-understood he now sees the glorious gospel of Christ. The condemnation is gone.

Our man becomes a true preacher.

Another preacher comes around. He is teaching that God’s pardon can be bought with money; the merits of Christ go to those with coin to spare.

Our preacher is furious. Christ gives grace to the humble and poor, not to the rich consumer. He writes a treatise, hoping to spark a formal debate on the matter. Our preacher wishes to be a renewer. With hammer and nails our preacher unwittingly sets in motion an avalanche God planned long ago. The time has come.

Our man is a pebble in the Lord’s hands. His ripples our still in our pond.

Years have come and gone. Our preacher is in trouble, external this time. He stands accuse of heresy and stands before his emperor to answer for his ripples. “Do you repent?” Our man wavers. God strengthens him; he refuses to buckle. “I cannot deny what the Bible clearly says. Its strong hold is over me. It must correct me.”

Our preacher is now an outlaw. He hides; really he is hidden. A work is begun. “I want everyone to read God’s Word.”

It is finished. Our outlaw reveals himself. No one can stop him because no one can stop God. The outlaw becomes our Reformer.

He is Martin Luther, our Martin Luther. Our man, our theologian, our preacher, and our reformer because God has given him to us as a gift, a gift that points to the ultimate Gift who is Christ. Luther is proof that God’s righteousness and steadfast love endure forever. He is God’s big and small thing. O the gracious love of God in such paradoxes! Glory be to God for all things, even big/small ones.

Glory be to God for our Luther.

Thomas Cranmer: Reformer, Coward, Martyr

This day marks the anniversary of the death of Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. He is a hugely important figure in the development of Anglicanism, and I believe he should also share the gratitude of any who ventures to call themselves Protestant; especially if one is an English-speaking Protestant.

Thomas Cranmer came from a rather humble beginning. He was born in Nottinghamshire in 1489 and at the age of 14 he started attending Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1510 he was ordained a priest. Cambridge become the focal point in England of discussion about the Reformation and in 1520 Cranmer joined a group that would meet to discuss Luther's ideas.

It was an accident (or act of Providence) that set Cranmer on the course of becoming the genius behind the English Reformation. He happened to meet the King in a neighborhood he was visiting and spoke with Henry about his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a devout Spanish woman who had "failed" to produce a male heir for King Henry. (She did, however, have a daughter; the future Queen Mary who would be known to the Protestants as "Bloody Mary.") Henry was impressed with Cranmer's reasoning on how he could best divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. Cranmer was quickly appointed as an ambassador and charged with writing a treatise arguing in favor of the divorce.

In 1533 Cranmer was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest ecclesiastical position in England. Interestingly enough, the Pope actually signed off on the appointment thinking it would placate Henry after the Vatican had refused to annul the King's marriage to Catherine. This backfired. Immediately the new Archbishop declared Henry's marriage to the Queen null and void, and on top of that, validated the King's secret marriage to Anne Boleyn that had already taken place.

Over and over, as King Henry VIII changed wives only slightly less often than codpieces, Archbishop Cranmer would back the King's wishes and grant yet another annulment. In all this he was a coward, refusing to hold Henry accountable to sacred Scripture and its views on divorce and remarriage.

Where Thomas Cranmer's better colors shine however is in the reforms he undertook under Henry's son, King Edward VI. The monarch was a boy when his father died, and so much of the power was in the hands of decidedly pro-Reformation advisers, including the Archbishop. Cranmer was therefore able to take the Church of England in a staunchly Protestant direction during Edward's reign. Until....

Edward died six years after taking the throne and despite a nine-day rule by Lady Jane Grey, the Catholic Mary (daughter of Catherine) entered London and assumed the throne. She made short work of weeding out the Protestants and taking England back into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church. Cranmer was among the victims.

In 1556, after a three year trial, Thomas Cranmer was convicted of treason and sentenced to burn at the stake. He was humiliatingly defrocked in a ceremony stripping him of his episcopal and priestly vestments. In an effort to save his life, he signed a recantation of his Reformed views and submitted himself to the Pope as supreme head of the church. Mary decided to burn him anyway.

Supposed to read his recantation in church the day of his execution, Cranmer instead shouted out, "All such bills which I have written or signed with my own hand [are] untrue." He continued, "As for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine. As for the sacrament..."

Dragged off before he could finish his speech. When the fire was lit, he put out his right hand directly into the flame and declared, "This hand has offended."

Though Thomas Cranmer died as a martyr, when Elizabeth came to the throne two years later her reforms of the Anglican Church were really Cranmer's, with a few compromises. His forty-two points of doctrine were reduced and became The Thrity-Nine Articles of Religion, still the foundational doctrinal statement for Anglicans worldwide. His Book of Common Prayer is still the liturgical guide used in Anglican worship services, and parts of it have seeped into other Protestant churches' worship. For example, the traditional wedding ceremony that most English speakers are used to is either taken directly or slightly modified from Cranmer's Common Prayer.

All Protestants in the English speaking world should thank God for Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. He was by no means perfect, but without him there would have been no Reformation in England; and without that those giants of biblical theology we call the Puritans would never have been able to edify the English church as they did. May Cranmer's memory serve to magnify God's faithfulness to His church.