Why the Pope Has Nothing
N
on-Catholics might be excused for feeling a little envious at the media coverage of the death of one pope and the accession of Pope Benedict XVI. No way would Lutherans ever get that kind of press.
H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 22
More than that, the pageantry, the ancient customs, and the tangible institutions built around a single man have a certain attractiveness, at least to me. Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of a church of a billion people, rather than always being in such a beleaguered theological minority? Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of such a vast global and historical institution? Even Christians with a megachurch way of thinking had to be impressed.You judge a church by the numbers it attracts? The Pope’s funeral service was the biggest worship event of all time, with some 500,000 people in attendance, and hundreds of millions taking part on simulcast television hookups worldwide. And the service did not consist of 1960s-era praise songs or entertaining, seeker-friendly programming. It was three hours of ancient liturgy. In Latin. It was not just Catholics but non-Catholics and nonChristians—even rampant secularists—who were caught up in the papal frenzy. The mystery and the grandeur of it all seemed to overwhelm the usual cultural objections. For example, it was amusing how the media pundits praised the late Pope John Paul II, even though his pro-life and pro-morality stance went against everything the media usually stands for. As for the new Pope Benedict XVI, the pundits expressed a little worry about him since he is reported to be conservative. And yet, they say, he actually seems nice, so how conservative could he really be? (Note the common assumption, that if you are conservative—or religious, or confessional—you must be mean.) Actually, this new Pope may well reverse some of the religious relativism that has plagued the Roman Catholic Church. He may crack down on the nominal Christianity that has plagued much of American Catholicism, with its feminist nuns, pro-choice politicians, and sappy guitar masses. If Benedict XVI gets the Catholic house in order, we may see a revival of genuine Catholicism. Many secularists looking for spirituality, evangelicals looking for a historic faith, and—yes—disaffected Lutherans may well head for Rome. But they would be wrong.We Lutherans are part of the history of the papacy.We share much of Rome’s liturgy, creeds, and sacramentalism. Many Lutherans describe themselves as “evangelical catholics,” that is, as catholics who embrace the Gospel. And there is the rub.
Our forebears who wrote the Lutheran Confessions determined that the papacy—not the person who holds the position but the office of a human being who presents himself as the vicar of Christ on earth who speaks infallibly by the Holy Spirit—is a manifestation of the Antichrist. Luther said that the “papists” and the “enthusiasts” are alike in believing that the Holy Spirit speaks through human beings apart from the Word of God. (Luther went on to say that the charismatic-like enthusiasts were worse because at least Rome only has one pope. For the charismatics who think God speaks directly to each of them, they are all popes.) And, most profoundly and tragically, the papacy undermines the Gospel. As Paul McCain observed on his Cyberbrethren blog, at the Pope’s funeral, everyone was saying how holy this man was on account of all of his good works. And yet, at the same time, the whole service (if you read the subtitles) was one of desperate pleading to God—and to Mary and to the saints and to anyone who would help—that this man be allowed to enter heaven.
