Ecclesia Semper Reformanda Est!

The Church Must Continually be Reformed

As we head into October, the term “Reformation” may come to mind for some Christians in the United States and around the world. Sadly, I fear that fewer Christians ponder its meaning or take its continuing significance seriously. For many, the Reformation is an event that took place long ago and has little bearing on our lives today.

Even in the very progressive San Francisco Bay Area, where I was born and raised, many congregations continued to hold joint Reformation services well into the 1970s, and possibly beyond. Several congregations would gather on the afternoon of Reformation Sunday at a designated Lutheran church, bring together a “massed choir,” sing some of our great Lutheran chorales, hear a rousing Reformation sermon from one of the local pastors, and enjoy a fabulous potluck dinner afterward, often including the required Lutheran side dish of Green Jell-O salad along with gallons of bitter, black coffee. Ah, the good old days! Those celebrations were memorable, but reformation is about far more than remembering the past.

I did not encounter the phrase ecclesia semper reformanda est, the title of this article, until much later in life. It is a good Latin phrase that most classically trained Lutheran pastors could probably decipher: “the Church must continually be reformed.” One reason the expression may be unfamiliar to some Lutherans is that it is not originally a Lutheran formulation. The famous Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth highlighted the phrase and helped bring it back into theological discussion in 1947. The idea itself can be traced much farther back, however, to the seventeenth-century Dutch Reformed theologian Jodocus van Lodenstein, who spoke of the “truth … that also in the church there is always much to reform.”^[1] Today, some confessionally oriented Reformed and Presbyterian churches use a similar formulation: “the reformed church [is] always to be reformed.”^[2]

 Some Lutheran theologians are wary of this phrase because they fear that “continual reform” could be applied indiscriminately to every aspect of the church’s life, including its doctrine. If the principle is taken to mean that every aspect of the church, including its doctrine, must remain perpetually open to revision, chronic instability can result. If core doctrinal statements found in the Book of Concord, or even the ecumenical creeds, are regarded simply as provisional formulations subject to continual reevaluation and revision, those concerns are legitimate.^[3]

On the other hand, the phrase “the church must continually be reformed” can be both legitimate and helpful when properly understood. It need not mean that Christians must continually reinvent the faith. For confessional Lutherans, such reformation does not mean treating the ecumenical creeds or our confessional standards as provisional theological opinions to be endlessly reinvented. The same concern applies to contemporary confessions of faith forged through modern theological debates and struggles, such as the Common Confession (2005) and the NALC Confession of Faith found in its Constitution. The teachings of Holy Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions that truthfully explicate them do not need to be reinvented; the faithful continually need to be reformed by them.

For this reason, I think the phrase ecclesia semper reformanda est is a very helpful and legitimate expression when understood with the qualifications mentioned above. The church must continually engage in serious self-examination, asking whether its teaching, worship, witness, and common life remain faithful to God’s Word and its God-given mission, and whether corruption, complacency, or worldliness have taken root among its leaders or people.

A casual reading of the Old Testament prophets demonstrates how frequently they indicted the priests, kings, and general population for their unfaithfulness. The prophets acted as covenant lawyers, reminding the people of their call to be a special, holy people in comparison with the nations and people groups surrounding them. Their uniqueness as God’s chosen people was intended to be a powerful and compelling witness that would draw the nations to the true and living God. Their hypocrisy and unfaithfulness, on the other hand, violated their covenant relationship with God and kindled His wrath and discipline.

The prophet Malachi (circa 460-400 BC) served as a covenant prosecutor against the Israelites approximately 100 years after they returned to their homeland and built the second temple. Although these leaders and people lived relatively close to the tragedy of the Babylonian Exile, they had forgotten the bitter consequences of covenant-breaking and religious apostasy. Their renewed unfaithfulness threatened to bring judgment upon them again unless they repented and reformed.

 Malachi zeroed in on the Old Testament priests, those schooled in the intricacies of temple worship and sacrifice who should have known better! They were contemptuously offering diseased, lame, and blemished animals as sacrifices at the temple (Malachi 1:6-8). The church today can and does easily fall into corruption or dysfunction. The danger is not limited to doctrinal failure or infidelity. Moral, spiritual, and attitudinal unfaithfulness can be equally insidious.

It is easy to allow our worship to become routine and to forget that in true Christian worship we stand before the holy God, the Maker of heaven and earth, offering heartfelt praise to the One who has loved us and redeemed us through Christ our Lord. It is far too easy in our present environment to place excessive emphasis on the secular part of our lives and gradually disregard the Lord and His church. It is also easy to condemn the failings of the surrounding culture while overlooking the ways its assumptions, priorities, and habits gradually become our own. We Christians can slowly adopt the same attitudes and lifestyles as those with whom we rub shoulders every day, often without recognizing what is happening to us.

The remedy for spiritual, moral, doctrinal, and institutional decline in the church, as well as in our personal lives, is not another program or strategy that we must put into place and follow meticulously. Nor will the church be renewed by conforming itself to the world in hopes of gaining the world’s approval. No, the prophets, apostles, and Jesus Christ Himself, the church’s chief cornerstone, call us to something far more profound. True reformation begins with God’s call to repentance and faith.

During October, we commemorate the sixteenth-century Reformation associated especially with Martin Luther, through which the church heard anew the clarion call to ground its teaching in Holy Scripture. The Reformation recalled the church to the sole authority of Holy Scripture in regard to faith and life, Sola Scriptura; to salvation as God’s gift of grace completely apart from human cooperation or works, Sola Gratia; and to justification (God’s verdict of not guilty) received through faith as a free gift, Sola Fide. As Lutherans, we also confess that God creates and sustains this faith through His appointed means of grace, His Word and Sacraments.

But as Reformation Christians, we must recognize that reformation is more than a date on the calendar. It is part of our lifelong calling to repentance and faith in Christ. Peter warns Christians to “be sober-minded; be watchful” (1 Peter 5:8). Our adversary does not cease seeking opportunities to draw Christians away from faithfulness to Christ. The words of Revelation 3 likewise remind us of this continual need for reformation. Christ’s admonition to the lukewarm church at Laodicea confronts every generation of Christians tempted by complacency and self-satisfaction. That congregation believed itself rich, prosperous, and in need of nothing, yet Christ exposed its true spiritual poverty and called its members to repentance. His concluding admonition remains appropriate for the church today: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:19).

This passage expresses well the meaning of ecclesia semper reformanda est. It does not propose the endless reinvention of Christianity, but the continual summons of Christ for His church to hear His Word, repent of her unfaithfulness, receive His grace anew, and live faithfully in her God-given mission.

A blessed Reformation celebration to all. And remember:

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda Est!

Pastor Kurt Luebkeman

CITATIONS:

[1]Cited by Werner Klan, “Reformation Then and Now: Ecclesia Semper Reformanda,” Journal of Lutheran Mission, Sept. 2016, vol. 3, No. 2, p. 14.

[1] Werner Klän, “Reformation Then and Now: Ecclesia Semper Reformanda,” *The Journal of Lutheran Mission, p. 14.

[1]See Theodor Mahlmann’s discussion of Johannes Hoornbeeck’s understanding of the reform of the Church, cited in Klän, “Reformation Then and Now,” p. 14