This Reformation Day themed article is by Nathan Hoff:

Martin Luther rarely said anything entirely new. It perhaps felt new, because that is what renewal feels like. He spoke the old word in an old world, and new life was born (again)!

It is hard to overestimate how much Luther loved the scriptures. He wrote, “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26–29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends … the Word did everything. (LW 51:71).

He also loved the long line of saints, teachers, and the doctors of the faith. He quoted liberally from “Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian from the second century, Origen, Cyprian, Anthony of Egypt, Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Hilary of Poitiers, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Leo I covered the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, Gregory I, Bede, and John of Damascus from the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries.” (Anthony Dodgers). He loved and was profoundly influenced by hymns and writings of Bernard of Clairvaux.

Luther’s love of beer is well known, which perhaps explains why one particular theme of the early church stood out to him — an experience of Holy Spirit described as a “sober intoxication.” For instance:

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Peter preaching on Joel 2 in Acts 2.)

“Let us drink the sober intoxication of the Spirit with joy.” St. Ambrose.

“[The Holy Spirit] has found you thirsty and He has intoxicated you. May He truly intoxicate you!” St Augustine.

Indeed, Martin Luther seemed inspired by those who came before him:

For drunkards suffer physically from this evil. In addition, they shout, blaspheme, curse, and make much noise in the wineshops, as can be seen among our citizens and peasants, whose taverns resound far and wide with shouts and yelling even during our sermons. They howl and bellow when they drink beer. On the other hand, spiritual drunkenness makes them joyful and proud, so that they praise God, give thanks, and proclaim God’s blessings. (LW 8:260).

Everyone lives under the influence. The important question, “What is intoxicating you?” For some, it’s actual booze or another drug. For some, romance. For others, partisan outrage that is like a strong drink that makes them feel so right. For another, workaholism that make them feel so valuable. For another beauty or strength that makes them feel so desirable.

For the Christian, “living under the influence” is as Robert Farrar Capon describes those days of renewal:

The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distilate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly (Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace (p. 109-110)

Let’s drink that!

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