13 August 2020

Luther and Lewis

God has created one being and one unity with this intent, that each one in fulfilling his ministry shall do the work allotted to him as his state demands, performing it with that humility which regards all states and persons as equal before God, as being all created equal and having the one as much favour with Him as the other, so that no one may pride himself before God and his neighbor, thinking highly of himself because his state is high, but may perceive that unless he preserves, in his higher state, the spirit of true humility, he sins much more shamefully and will be condemned much more severely than any man of lower degree.—Martin Luther, Sermon, 1531

Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question, ‘What on earth is he up to now?’ will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep, not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’ Thus my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity.—C. S. Lewis, Business of Heaven, p. 206.

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