“Here I stand, I can do no other, may God help me. Amen.”
You might recognize the traditional quote from Martin Luther as he stood before the Imperial Diet of Worms in 1521 charged with authoring heretical books.
Unlike the heroic depiction of Luther in modern movies standing as a courageous lion in front of his books as well as the church and political leaders who could command his future, Luther was more likely shaking in his German boots than roaring like a lion. Who wouldn’t be?
History is romanticized perhaps because of our need for heroes, or maybe because it tends to be boring in spots. One way or another, before the Diet of Worms, Luther comes to us through history a heroic theological action figure buffed up like Thor with his hammer of righteousness. I think he was a bit more sober-minded at the time.
But here I, too, stand on this new platform in uncertain times. A spiritual fog has descended over our nation, and it drifts ever so slowly over an anesthetized church.
These are the same conditions present about every 500 years when seemingly from nowhere, the earth convulses, and the heavens erupt, shaking us awake.
It’s coming. May God help us.