Community Change and Christian Martyrdom
by Pastor Walter Snyder

This week's column brings three questions from the same person. Two are closely related; the
first is not only dissimilar, but also not particularly religious. However, it does have dimensions in
the Church, so let's give it a brief look also.

Q1: Give three reasons why change is essential for the development of a community?

Q2: Explain the reason why Margaret Clitherow is named as a martyr?

Q3: Who were the 40 Martyrs? Is there a name any to go with them?

A1: Communities---whether villages or cities, congregations, or all Christendom---may act like
living organisms. They grow, repopulate, "feed," and otherwise show signs of life. We can see
that change might be essential. Stagnation often implies a weakened life. A community that cannot
change can be exploited by outside influences or internal dissent. History gives evidence of groups
failing to learn new languages, accept and properly use new science and technology, or cope with
sudden disasters. You could probably draw up three distinct reasons based upon these thoughts.

Changeability also opens communities to negative influences. Look at the state of affairs among
sports fans and athletes. Amateur and professional sports "communities" have changed with the
times, with the result that rude, crude, and belligerent behavior has become the new norm. These
changes reflect the changes in the greater communities in which they exist, since most western
societies have likewise drifted into ever more ill-mannered and selfish thought and deed.

In the Christian Church, change may allow current communities to speak more effectively to
unbelievers outside the groups to which we belong. Change helps as we seek to assimilate people
of different backgrounds into our various congregations. Change begets problems when it opens
avenues of doubt, fruitless speculation, and immorality. Heresy is cancerous change within
Christianity. Likewise, since much of Christendom opened itself to receive people from the world,
it sometimes also incorporated tolerance, acceptance, and even the promotion of sinful morality.
Thus, much of the Church may apply the world's ideas of equity rather than God's. Buying into
warped perspectives of fairness and openness, much of the Church has departed from the
thoughts and practices of Scripture and early Christianity. Recent changes include a progression
from women's "rights"---no matter how poorly defined or worldly these might be---to women's
ordination, toleration (under the name of love) for perverse sexuality and "choice," acceptance of
abortion, blessing of homosexual unions, and the ordination of homosexual clergy.

One phrase from the hymn "Abide with Me" stays in my thoughts: "*Change and decay* in all
around I see. *O Thou, who changest not*, abide with me!" Our unchanging God remains the
strongest reason not to change for change's sake, but only to better live His Word in our lives.

A2: Clithrow was pressed to death in March, 1586 for refusing to become a Protestant following
the English Reformation and subsequent legal changes in England. She harbored Roman Catholic
priests, continued to worship as she believed, and harbored secret worship services during the
time of persecution. Her executioners laid her on the ground with a stone beneath her back, hands
stretched out and bound to two posts. They placed a door on her and weighted it down till she
was crushed to death. The Catholic Church named her a martyr and, as of 1970, a saint.

A3: I've found two sets of "Forty Martyrs." One summarizes the English and Welsh Roman
Catholics who died rather than practicing Protestantism during almost 100 years of persecution.
Of some 300 people, the names of forty clergy and lay representatives comprise the official list
assembled in 1970. Margaret Clithrow was among this group.

The older, more generally known, group is the "Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Armenia,"(now Sivas,
Turkey). Licinius, Emperor of the East, broke a treaty with western Emperor Constantine to
tolerate and protect Christians. Forty imperial soldiers of the "Thundering Legion" confessed
Christianity, refusing to recant even after promises, threats, and beatings. Other soldiers herded
them naked onto an island in a frozen lake, leaving them without fire or shelter. The pagan troops
built fires on shore while the believing mother of one of the young solders stood on the banks
calling encouragement to her son and the others. When one of the forty broke down, came
ashore, and denied Christ, the story is that a guard member, moved by God and the resolve of the
thirty-nine, stripped himself and went to the island. Most died of exposure by dawn; reports claim
that the few survivors were knifed to death.

Ask the Pastor, © 2004 by Walter P. Snyder. It may be reproduced in totality, including this disclaimer,
by anyone, provided that no profit is generated by said republication and redistribution. Translations
into other languages should similarly note the United States and any appropriate international
copyrights, as well as God's Scriptural injunctions concerning the property of others.

Walter Snyder is the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, Missouri and coauthor of the book
~What Do Lutherans Believe.~