As I consider the life story of Martin Luther, I’m impressed with his prophetic question: Do you trust who the church has become?
For Luther, the answer must have been “partly” because he worked within the church to bring massive change for the remainder of his life. For many of his contemporaries, such as Ulrich Zwingli and Menno Simons… the answer was different, and they removed themselves entirely from the Roman Catholic Church, and that’s how the Mennonites came into existence. That’s also why so many early Anabaptists were martyrs for their faith.
Jumping forward 500 years, it is still an interesting idea to ponder when considering the modern church, Evangelicalism in particular. Do we trust what the church has become? The Reformation brought us the separation of church and state, but the Evangelical movement has brought those two back into close alignment, which is troubling to many of us, and has led to great oppression.
But much more important than politics are the questions of trust within our own home congregations, and within the circle of individuals that we respect as friends and the leaders we follow on social media. Are they trust worthy?
Am I?
These are important questions – even when they don’t have readily apparent answers.
God bless you in your journey to faith in Jesus, and may you enjoy your interaction with Jesus, the Word, and the Biblical text that tells His story. God bless you and keep you as you consider who to trust.
Carmen Shenk 