Quick Summary:

There is a well-known story that Martin Luther, when asked what he would do if God's final judgment were to arrive the next day, replied: ‘Even if I knew that the world were to fall to pieces tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today.’ This story is behind the 10 year project to establish the Luthergarten in Wittenberg, Germany, and plant 500 trees from 500 faith communities around the world as part of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation movement.

This hopeful attitude and action is something our world sorely needs right now—particularly after a week which saw the news cycle dominated first by the story of a man who MAILED BOMBS to public figures he counted as political enemies, and then by the massacre yesterday morning of 11 Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
How we speak to and about one another matters. When leaders legitimize vitriolic rhetoric, their words can lead to violence. We who identify as Lutheran Christians should be particularly aware of this reality, for the tragic truth is Luther spewed out his own vitriol against the Jewish community in a now infamous treatise written three years before his death. Luther’s attack on Jewish people has reverberated throughout Europe during the 500 years since.

When it came to GRACE, Luther got it right; when it came to JEWISH PEOPLE, he got it all wrong.

I cannot follow Jesus any which way I like. My following must be consonant with his leading. Our baptism plunges us into that hard work—into the moment by moment, day by day practicing of faith—and we’re never done. And the means we choose in following Jesus must be consonant with the ends we’re aiming toward.