Fortress
Wartburg Castle, where Luther found refuge. Photo by A. Savin, WikiCommons, click the image to link to the source.
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 34.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. —Psalm 46:1
In my files, I keep a copy of a few pages from a 2001 New York City travel guide. By strange coincidence, on the evening of September 10, 2001, I planned a trip to the World Trade Center. Already, I was registered for an October continuing education at Princeton Seminary. When in Princeton, I usually spend a day in New York. With travel guide in hand, I read about “Top of the World, the 107th-floor glass-enclosed observation deck (at the top of the north tower) … from which the view extends 55 miles,” and the elevator ride on which you would “hurl a quarter of a mile into the sky in 58 seconds.” The next evening, September 11, it was difficult to comprehend that the place I had planned to visit was no longer there, and the twin towers in my travel guide no longer existed. I’ve kept these pages as a reminder of a rare moment when it became crystal clear how things we think are rock solid really are fragile and vulnerable to change.
In the wake of September 11, a poet named Godfrey Rust wrote a piece that described somewhat prophetically how America’s public life would change. We think twice before venturing into large public places or gatherings. Some of us fear strangers, and ask more questions about their background and motives. We pay more attention to safety protocol and security procedures. When we wake up in the morning, we’re more anxious that we’ll hear bad news about another world-changing crisis. As Rust said, we “seek refuge in the more virtual reality and trade within the safer evils of the internet.” There are other reasons for these changes, of course, but September 11, 2001, marks a turning point for many.[1]
The author of the 46th psalm would have understood our feelings. He says literally “God to us is a ‘refuge,’ transliterated from Hebrew as “makh-seh.” According to linguists, the word can have a nautical connotation, as in “harbor,” or leeward side of something that protects us from wind-driven rain and choppy waters. That’s one kind of refuge. Martin Luther translated it as “Burg,” or “castle.” If you’ve visited a castle or two in Europe you might make a connection with the massive stone structures that provided effective barriers against hostile invaders. That’s another kind of refuge.
We all know, in a general way, that Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral on October 31, 1517, is viewed as the event that launched the Protestant Reformation. Less easy to recall are the context and consequences of that action for Luther. Luther was an Augustinian monk and teacher, so there was nothing unusual about a monk writing, posting, and teaching church doctrine. But the Ninety-five Thesesled to trouble because in them Luther challenged practices that were integrally connected to unjust power and ill-gained money in the Church. These practices may be summed up in the single word “indulgences,” transactions in which a financial gift is made in return for assurance that an individual’s suffering in purgatory will be eased, and passage to heaven expedited.
Luther had in mind the abusive practices of indulgence sellers like John Tetzel. Tetzel had an advance promotion team to announce weeks in advance his arrival in a town. One of their tasks was to compile a directory of the financial resources of the town’s citizens. To create additional buzz, Tetzel arrived in a parade with trumpets, drums, flags, and symbols of the papacy. He would preach about hell and its terrors, the horrors that grandparents and other loved ones were enduring in purgatory as their sins were purged. Then, to prime the sale, he would preach about the joys of heaven. As the audience moved toward the exit, there was opportunity to purchase indulgences on a sliding scale, according to each one’s financial resources. Tetzel had a sales motto ridiculous to our ears: “As soon as the coin into the box rings, a soul from purgatory to heaven springs.” In German, it sounds even more crisp: Wenn die Münze im Kästlein klingt, die Seele in den Himmel springt. Luther was appalled that many no longer participated in church because they believed they had bought a ticket to heaven.
It was this practice that provided a foundation for the larger and broader Reformation doctrine about salvation by grace through faith. As Carter Lindberg summarizes it, “The sinner does not ascend to God. Instead, God descends to the sinner. Fellowship with God is not achieved through improving and perfecting oneself through good works. Rather, fellowship with God is the gift of God apart from our works.”[2]
Luther’s writing struck a chord with many common people and their Germanic rulers. As his popularity increased, so did the threat to his ministry and life. A series of interviews and debates led, eventually, to the meeting with the German parliament, the so-called “Diet of Worms,” in 1521. Luther’s interview was not an opportunity for a mutual exchange of ideas, but rather an effort to document Luther’s outlaw behavior. When asked to retract his so-called errors, Luther made the famous reply: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason … I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.[3]
That evening, the Emperor and a smaller group of papal-supporting bishops and princes declared him a criminal, which might quickly have led to a fate like burning at the stake. Frederick III, to save Luther’s life, ordered him taken into protective custody. Luther was stashed away secretly in Wartburg Castle, disguised as a knight, for nearly one year. It was there that he translated the New Testament from Greek into German in about ten weeks time. Was it this experience in the massive ancient castle that helped inspire the words, “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing”? I don’t know for sure. Still Luther’s experience of finding protection in this safe place gives us one context appreciating what it means to say God is a “refuge.”
Luther’s interpretation of the 46th Psalm, equating God’s “refuge” to a castle-like fortress, may be close to what the original author had in mind. It’s difficult to date most of the psalms, but Bible scholar Kyle Yates suggests that this one was written in Jerusalem about 700 B.C.E.[4] In those dark days, fear and dread blanketed the city. King Sennarcherib, a skillful military general, had driven his armies down from the north without any serious opposition. An alliance with Egypt had proven useless. King Hezekiah and his people waited for the Assyrian battering rams they feared would soon break down the city walls. On the darkest day, Isaiah issued the bold prophecy that Jerusalem was safe, not as a result of human will or superior military strategy, but because the Lord of hosts had decreed that it would be so. According to the Book of Second Kings, the Assyrians were routed with a loss of 185,000 soldiers, and were forced to retreat. Just when things seemed worst, God had proven to be a mighty fortress, in whose arms God’s people had been defended and saved.
Like the ancient Hebrews, when our illusions are shattered about the security we have imagined is a steady state, it is then that we realize most clearly that our first and last refuge is in God
This week, there was a school shooting in St. Louis, news of which occupied a prominent place in news reports. These days, in their busyness or fatigue, some people choose to turn away. But I paid attention. Several members of my family are educators, and face the possibility of similar events every working day. I wonder what kind of public-school environment will be available to my grandchildren in the future. I worry about threats facing many of listen to this sermon, and to your family members. If such gun violence happens here – and it seems increasingly possible – then my conscience would not feel clear if I said nothing that might help you all prepare for it, or even prevent it. Whether it is advocacy for more armed police officers in the hallways of our schools, or more mental-health services for troubled men, or gun safes and locks in use in your homes and homes of every friend your child visits, I’m all for many small pieces coming together in a larger blended solution that makes things tomorrow better than they are today. I’m motivated to advocate for gun-violence prevention by dread of the day when such gun violence comes to our town, and we are the grieving community.
That moment came this week for the Rev. Rodrick Burton, pastor of New Northside Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, when he took the kind of phone call I pray I never receive.[5] A St. Louis alderwoman told Burton about the shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. “They need clergy,” she said. He rushed to the school to see what he could do. A supervising police officer, alerted to his presence, found him, and asked him to pray with the mother of the 15-year-old student killed by the gunman.
Any pastor would feel the weight of a such a moment. Burton says it shocked him that what the mother wanted most of all was to be given her daughter’s belongings. As the reality began to set in that she would never hold her daughter again, she wanted her daughter’s things, to hold them close. Burton’s recollection reminded me that when you’re with someone facing such deep feelings of shock, grief, and helplessness, all you can do is listen, pray, and hope that the God is able to hold them up, when everything else all around is sinking sand.
We all look for a solid rock and a safe harbor, whether we face a pandemic virus, political unrest, the prospect of gun violence, or one of many other real dangers that stir up feelings of deep fear and helplessness. The Psalmist writes, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear …. “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”
NOTES
[1] Godfrey Rust, “September 11, 2001,” http://www.wordsout.co.uk/september11_long.htm
[2] Carter Lindberg, Martin Luther: Justified by Grace, Nashville: The Graded Press, 1988, p. 11.
[3] Luther’s Works, 32, as quoted by Lindberg, p. 30.
[4] This description of the scene is summarized from Kyle W. Yates, “A Mighty Fortress,” in Preaching from the Psalms, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1948, p. 184.
[5] Tony Messenger, “St. Louis faith leaders plead for gun safety and to ‘stir up the courage’,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, 26 Oct. 2022, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/tony-messenger/messenger-st-louis-faith-leaders-plead-for-gun-safety-and-to-stir-up-the-courage/article_d7bbe2f7-2b83-5a7d-92cc-0a963a5bd220.html , accessed 26 Oct. 2022.
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