Church reformation should
not be commemorated or reflected only on 31 October, but throughout the year,
day-by-day, especially for church members and church youth as the slogan and
meaning of church reform itself, namely "Ecclesia reformata, semper
reformanda est secundum verbum Dei". It was echoed first time in
devotional writing, called Jodocus van Lodenstein (1620-1677). When he wrote
this sentence, what had in his mind was: that the reform that happened in the
era of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, etc should penetrate life and real practice of
God's people.
Now we see that the
practice has decreased in church and its members. It is not an actual news when
a segregation happened in the body of church and followed by dualism of leaders,
even being a new church organization. Sometimes it is closely related with
money and selfishness of individuals who impose personal ego and group
interests which bring negative impact on faith growth of church members and
away from reformation dreams. God works through Martin Luther to eradicate
problems in the body of church, one of those was the abusing practice of money
which still exists until now.
Started from 'Ecclesia
reformata, semper reformanda est secundum verbum Dei', Yedija Manullang, a volunteer
student of Multiplication of Stube-HEMAT in Bengkulu invited several church
youth in his neighbourhood consisting of students to discuss and to find out
their understanding about church reformation. It took place at Yedija’s house
on Jl. Sisingamangaraja, Doloksanggul, North Sumatra (Thursday, January 30,
2020) at 20:00 WIB. It was attended by eight students who were not familiar
with Stube-HEMAT, so Yedija began the meeting by explaining Stube-HEMAT
ministry and continued by the main topic of discussion, church reformation.
Preceding the discussion, they were asked to mention their church denomination
and found out that four participants are from Lutheran church and four others
are from Pentacostal church.
"In age of
technology and information transparency, youth cannot be separated from gadget,
and it is truly surprising that they did not know what church reformation was,
while the news about artists or viral news they may immediately access
it," said Yedija, followed by laughter from them, most of them did not
know the history of church reformation.
Yedija narrated the
history of church reformation which was 'successfully' campaigned by Martin
Luther. Before him, there were those who initiated reformation movement, namely
Jan Hus, a scholar who ended in death because he was accused of opposing the
Pope by accusing the church for its dishonorable behavior. At that time,
opposing the Pope was like a suicide. Martin Luther, a young man at that time
experienced a turning point in his life in serving God as a monk when he was
almost struck by lightning, he screamed and prayed, "Please! Santa Anna, I
will become a monk!" Finally he took theological education and left his
law and philosophy lecture. Having graduated and took part in church service,
Luther witnessed money manipulation practices carried out by the church through
the sale of indulgences letter or forgiveness of sins. Luther strongly
critisized it and he announced 95 theses about indulgences, written on a poster
nailed at the north entrance of Frederik Palace Church in Wittenberg. The
incident took place on October 31, 1517, which marked the Church Reform
Movement which we commemorate for the 502 years. Martin Luther was still 33
years old, a relatively young age when he campaigned the thesis.
The youth role
Refering to Martin
Luther's young age, Yedija linked his struggle with Indonesian youth in the
20-year cycle of youth and student movements at the time, started in 1908 by
Boedi Oetomo movement, 1928 Youth Pledge, 1948 Test of Ideology, 1968 the fall
of Old Order dan New Order establishement, 1978 New Order was opposed, 1998 the
fall of New Order, and this country entered the Reformation era. It shows that
in the past time, youth has central role in making policies, and the benefits are
still felt up to now. It is the time for youth to learn from youth leaders, one
of them is Martin Luther who always hold the truth and the youth should continue
the struggle in this technology era.
Before ending the
discussion, Yedija also shared the conclusion of discussion about 502 years of
reformation and how the church development in Bengkulu, with Jonny Simamora, an
academician and Bataknesee (HKBP) church council. As the final reflection,
Yedija asked the participants about the development of church reformation which
was undergoing 503 years in Doloksanggul.
Rahel Silaban, one of the
participants admitted that there are still many congregations even church youth
who are apathetic with the church condition, shown by low participation in a
meeting related with church. They thought that the church organization is the
resposibility of the church servant and church assembly only.
Yedija hoped and reminded
that youth must take part in church service in order to learn and comprehend
church reformation, ‘Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda est secundum verbum
Dei’, it means that a reformed church is a church that is continually reformed
according to God's word. How can the church members be renewed if they are
still apathetic and do not participate in the development of church, even they
rarely go to church? It is worth for us to think about. ***
Comments
Post a Comment