In the

Shadow

Of the Swan

gospel devotions

inspired by 8 days in

the cradle of the Reformation

1517-2017

Brian Huseland 2017

Dedicated to my beautiful wife

and steadfast helpmate,

Jennifer (Gesch) Huseland

 Foreword

In June of 2017, I had an unexpected opportunity to attend a celebration of the 500th

anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation. It was hosted by a consortium of
educators and church leaders in Wittenberg, Germany, drawing students and teachers from
the Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Zambia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Rwanda, and the Philippines. Ironically we were housed in a former East German
school named after Karl Marx, the atheist.
We celebrated the impact of the Reformation on learning in a large marquee tent, then
marched together to the Castle Church near the town center. We released balloons and
entered the church through the very doorway where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses. This
time we came not to protest, but to proclaim our multi-lingual praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Being a Protestant is ultimately about praise seeking to remove all man-made
obstacles that keep us from worshipping the Lord as He deserves, for rescuing us from what
we deserve. This requires us to consider the hand of God in history. Those who forget the
past deny so much comfort for their souls when they face trials.
I thank God that He provided for this journey to Wittenberg and Berlin, and enabled
me to receive spiritual insights that I pray will encourage you. I will begin by taking you to
three places: the pulpit of John Wycliffe, the dungeon of Jan Hus, and the tower of Martin
Luther.
John Wycliffe was the parish priest in 14th century Lutterworth, England. He devoutly
followed God, and desired that his parishioners would know God better through having the
Scriptures in their own language. He once said, Englishmen learn Christ's law best in
English. Moses heard God's law in his own tongue; so did Christ's apostles. Sadly, the
leadership structure of the Roman Catholic Church opposed his translation efforts, rather
than allow a grass-roots revival of Biblical repentance and faith. Such awareness would lead
to traditions being questioned.
After Wycliffe died, the church authorities burned his bones and scattered the ashes in
the River Swift. When I visited Lutterworth in 2015, the Swift had dwindled to a stream.
However, Wycliffes influence did not dwindle at all. It expanded as the messages preached
from his pulpit and the translation of the Bible into English spread throughout Britain and
beyond. The good news of the gospel was starting to reach both milkmaids and merchants,
peasants and princesno longer locked in Latin for only the highly educated to learn.
On the opposite end of Europe, the Czech priest Jan Hus was influenced by Wycliffes
writings and tried to reform the church in agreement with the Word of God. He wrote,
Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, hear the truth, learn the truth, love the truth,
speak the truth, adhere to the truth, defend the truth even till death; for the truth will make
you free.
He was imprisoned in a dungeon and finally burned at the stake in AD 1415 at the
Council of Constance. Hus is Czech for goose and Foxes Book of Martyrs records the
words of Hus before his death: You are now going to burn a goose, but in a century you will
have a swan whom you can neither roast nor boil.
Exactly one hundred years later, in the spring of 1515 a monk named Martin was
studying the book of Romans in the tower of an Augustinian monastery... 400 miles to the
north of Huss martyrdom. As a professor of the new Wittenberg University, he was preparing
a lecture series on Romans. As he came upon Romans 1:17, he wrote, "Night and day I
pondered until I saw the connection between the righteousness of God and the statement
that the just shall live by faith. Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is that
righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith.
Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The
whole of Scripture took on a new meaning."
So we see that exactly a century after Hus was awaiting his death in a prisoners cell,
Luther discovered the gospel in a monk's cell. It was this tower experience that would lead to
the 95 Theses, the Diet of Worms, and every other bold act of faithagainst incredible odds.
It all began with the holy Scriptures... which is where I will also begin.*

*My intent is not to be anti-Catholic. The Bible supports godly faith wherever it is found, and
critiques unbiblical ideas wherever they exist, be it a Presbyterian, Baptist, Anglican, evangelical,
Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox church. My desire is to highlight the key ideals of the
Protestant resistance (the five solas), but without glorifying Luther, who had his faults. We must
look to Jesus to find the real hero of the Reformation... a Savior who loved His Church too much
to let it stay the way it was.
DAY ONE: SOLA SCRIPTURA

So shall my word be that goes out from my

mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but
it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I
sent it. Isaiah 55:11

The long Northern summers day had

finally passed into a glorious twilight. As I
stood in the city square of Wittenberg,
Germany, I could still see a patch of dark blue fading in the west over the facades of the old
houses.

I turned around to look to the east, and saw the imposing statue of Martin Luther barely visible
in the dusk. All that I could see of him was his head and shoulders highlighted by the floodlit
towers of the Stadtkirche, a thousand feet behind his image.

The profile of the Reformer, glimpsed against the backdrop of the church where he preached
the Bible over 2,000 times, stared resolutely to the south. As I took several photographs, I
paused and thought about the reason I had come: this man, but not this man. The unlikely
architect of the Reformation never wanted adoration. The movement that he helped engineer
was always greater than his abilities. It was a work of the Holy Spirit, unleashed by Luthers
faithful insistence that the Christian church should live by Sola Scriptura, solely basing our
beliefs and customs on the clear teachings of the Bible.

Luther did not live in isolation, of course. There have always been true People of the Book
since the days of the apostles; and Waldo, Wycliffe, Hus, and Savonarola all played an
important part as early reformers. So Luther lived at the right time, when Europe was at its
point of greatest spiritual crisis. He also lived in the right place. Germany was divided back
then into many small realms, yet unified by language and culture. This allowed his Biblical
arguments to spread rapidly, while the complicated regional politics prevented anyone
silencing him immediately. Gods sovereign purpose created this intersection of space and
time.

As I strolled in Wittenberg Square at night, I was quietly grateful for how the Word of God
changed one man, and led to the Bible being translated into German. What happened here led
to greater religious freedom in other parts of Europe. Luther recognized that the Reformation
was a movement fueled by the power of the Word of God. He once wrote, Take me, for
example. I opposed indulgences and all papists, but never by force. I simply taught, preached,
wrote God's Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with
my Philip of Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor
did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all.
As we consider our times, we look with Luthers statue to the Global Southand the amazing
ways that the witness of the gospel of Jesus is going deeper: more indigenous in South
America, Africa, and Asia. Those who receive the truth will experience the reality of Gods
kingdom in ways the secularized West often lacks. Yet we own in our homes the same
powerful book!

It should give us great hope to see that the Word of God is still going out from Jerusalem to
Judea, and Samaria, and Europe, and North America, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Its
accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it in AD 33, 1000, 1517, and today.

Application

1. God loved us so dearly that He has protected a clear witness of the way of salvation in
Scripture through the centuries. We have the Bible in our own language thanks to reformers
like Wycliffe and Tyndale who risked everything. Take a moment to pull a Bible off the shelf
(or on your smartphone) and give thanks to the God who speaks to you personally in His
Word.

2. If the Bible is the Word of life, do you feel that your desire reflects that? Do you see Bible
reading as a nice bonus, or essential to living? How can you draw close to God today in the
Psalms, the Gospels, or other parts of the Old and New Testament?
DAY TWO: SOLA FIDE

These all died in faith, not having received

the things promised, but having seen them
and greeted them from afar, and having
acknowledged that they were strangers and
exiles on the earth. For people who speak
thus make it clear that they are seeking a
homeland. Hebrews 11:13-14

I fumbled with the buttons of the electronic ticket kiosk at the Wittenberg train station. It
refused to read my credit card. A handful of drunk German men nearby lounged on a bench.
They kept coming over to help me, without success. They were getting a little rowdy, when
one of them came over and spoke in English. Samuel kindly showed me where another ticket
machine could be found. As we walked away, he apologized for his friends behavior. We
chatted about Germany and I asked him what he thought about the refugee situation.
Samuel reflected. Im open-minded, he said. But my friends over there are Nazis. They hate
the Auslnder. I was thankful I didnt have more trouble with those guys, bought my ticket to
Berlin, and said goodbye to Samuel.

While I waited for the 8:12 train, I considered the word Auslnder. Foreigner. Alien. Aside from
the real political and social issues of refugees, I remembered how many times people were
called strangers in the Bible as Gentiles, as unbelievers, but in Hebrews 11:13 a special kind of
stranger. An exile, one who used to belong, but through a change of allegiance no longer feels
at home. Does this connect with your experience? If youre like me, I was relieved to return to
the USA and the culture Im used to. Yet we are strangers, exiles, and Auslnders who seek
another homeland. As the America I grew up in continues to change rapidly, this becomes real
to me.

There is a place where I will feel more at home than Ive ever felt before not based on
language, or nationality, or fanbase. It will be a homeland whose people all have been
redeemed by the blood of Jesus, the great Exile himself, who voluntarily left Heavens glory to
save sinners by dying outside the city, rejected. An Auslnder.

Our greatest comfort in life and in death is to belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. By
faith, the believers of old took courage from this sense of belonging. Today, you and I by faith
alone (sola fide) discover that all our desire to be included and have acceptance from some
inner circle comes true when we find eternal life. He became the ultimate outsider to make us
insiders forever, loved by an infinitely good Father.
Application

1. In light of Psalm 103:10-12, what promises has God made that you can trust Him for
today?

2. How can you reach out with the love of Jesus to an outsider, in your circumstances?
DAY THREE: SOLUS
CHRISTUS

"And there is salvation in no one else, for

there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

I entered the church door holding luggage

in both hands, as my taxi drove away on
Usedomestrae, West Berlin. "Wo ist der Goddesdienst?" I asked. A big, friendly German man
gestured upstairs for the worship service, and put my bags in a side-room. As I walked up the
spiral staircase, hearing the distant thrum of a minister's voice, I was deeply glad. I made it on
time to this place, where from 1948-1969, my wife's cousin Dr. Gerhard Gesch pastored this
little city church. I could almost hear his life story as I walked up the curving steps.

In Berlin, he had been born to parents whose faith was of the Old Lutheran variety, Bible-
centered and holding on to the teachings, liturgies, and song hoard of German Protestants for
centuries. Early on, he showed a brilliant mind, and chose training in church ministry. After
ordination, he pursued a Doctorate in philosophy, and wrote several books. He got pastoral
experience as a hospital chaplain before being called to serve at the prestigious St. Lawrence
Cathedral in Nuremberg. This was in the early 1930's, before Adolf Hitler was elected as
Chancellor.

Gerhard Gesch married a woman from a locally respected family in the community, who
supported the rise of the National Socialist Party over the next decade in its rise to power. Dr.
Gesch became deeply troubled by the "Aryan question" and signed a Declaration by pastors in
Bavaria that disagreed with the policy of barring all Jews from participating in Christian
worship.

Strengthened with a thorough knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, his sermons
contrasted Nazi ideology with truth. Had not God's Son come to earth as a Jew, in fulfillment
of God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3? Was not the Lord's purpose and desire to save
people from every tongue and nation, according to Revelation 7:9? Is Christ alone (solus
Christus) the real foundation of our worthiness and acceptance before God, or is it our racial
"purity"? We owe obedience to the government only to the extent that it does not cause us to
break God's laws. The Reich (kingdom) of Christ will outlast every Reich of man, because
salvation is in the name of Jesus, not Hitler or any other leader.

The consequences were swift. First, his wife sued for divorce under pressure from her family,
and he lost his home and little son. Then the Gestapo arrested Gesch on trumped-up charges
of immorality, and threw him in political prison, thereby losing his ministry and reputation.
Held somewhere in a concentration camp for a few years, he was fortunately released to
mandatory military service when he posed no further threat. Somehow surviving the war, he
rebuilt his life in Leipzig and remarried, before being called to this church in Berlin to preach
the gospel. Christ was his only hope, in captivity and in freedom.

All this swirled through my mind as I entered the sanctuary and slid into a pew. The service
was interesting, although very traditional. At the end, we sang "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"
in German... and I lingered on that great hymn of Luther's, which Gerhard's life encapsulated:

A mighty fortress is our God, a sword and shield victorious;

he breaks the cruel oppressor's rod and wins salvation glorious.
The old satanic foe, has sworn to work us woe!
With craft and dreadful might he arms himself to fight.
On earth he has no equal.

No strength of ours can match his might! We would be lost, rejected.

But now a champion comes to fight, whom God himself elected.
You ask who this may be? The Lord of hosts is he!
Christ Jesus, mighty Lord, God's only Son, adored.
He holds the field victorious.

Though hordes of devils fill the land all threat'ning to devour us,
we tremble not, unmoved we stand; they cannot overpow'r us.
Let this world's tyrant rage; in battle we'll engage!
His might is doomed to fail; God's judgment must prevail!
One little word subdues him.

God's word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes, who fear it;
For God himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child, or spouse,
though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day.
The Kingdom's ours forever.
(Moravian hymnal translation)

Application

1. What about the Son of God makes Him deserve the name that is above every name?

2. Have you shared with anyone in the last year that Jesus Christ is the only way to God? If
you struggle with fear (and we all do), how does Gerhards story encourage you to stand up
for Jesus as the only Messiah?
DAY FOUR: SOLA GRATIA

"For by grace you have been saved through

faith... you were separated from Christ,
alienated from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the
world. But now in Christ Jesus you who
once were far off have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our
peace." Ephesians 2:8, 12-14a

Once I reached Berlin and found Gerhard's church, I was curious about the other story I had
heard... although the church where he served was in post-war West Berlin, his home was in
East Berlin. He ministered to his congregation from 1948 to 1961, when overnight the Berlin
Wall was erected. Gerhard's nephew explained how the pastor and his wife made a dramatic
escape with only the clothes on their backs. Sadly the eastern half of his flock was trapped
behind the Wall.

Gunnar, a helpful guy from the church, offered to take me on a little tour of the Bernauer
Strae section of the Berlin Wall. We walked about 15 minutes from the church to the
infamous "death strip": although the inner and outer walls were replaced by brick outlines on
a now-busy street, a lone watchtower stood as a haunting token of the scar that divided
Berlin's neighborhoods and families. Yet the most heartbreaking place for me was the
Vershnungskirche: a church whose old steeple was caught in the death strip between West
Berlin and East Berlin. It was boarded up by the Communist government of East Germany.
Ironically, it was named The Church of Reconciliation when it was built in 1894. It stood as a
forlorn symbol of hope in no-mans-land, a landmark that suggested the future reconciliation
of divided Berlin (and Germany). That is, until 1985, when the East German government
strapped dynamite to the church and destroyed it in order to have a clear line of sight to fire
on East Berliners escaping. Yet God had the last word: four years later, the Wall fell, and the
two countries were reconciled as one nation.

Yet that church stood for a more enduring reconciliation, one between God and humanity. Just
as West Berliners grieved that their beautiful city had been divided by a spirit of opposition
and animosity, and many East Berliners were oppressed by the tyranny of the Communist
regime, so God grieved even more for the wall of separation between him and us erected by
the inner, spiritual regime of sin. Our first parents built the wall, and we have extended it both
passively by our indifference to the majesty of God, and actively in rebellion to His will.

However, despite the length and width of our unbelief, Gods grace is greater still. What we
could not escape, nor ever destroy, the Lord Himself has torn down. We were without hope,
separated from God. Our goodness and righteousness were not enough to make a way. Instead,
He Himself crossed over the killing zone to die for us, to suffer for our sin, to be our peace.
This is reconciliation greater than Berliners reunited it is grace alone. Nothing is impossible
with God. He desires our faith, but He moves long before that by grace. The Reformers rallied
around sola gratia because Jesus Christ saves us alone, not cooperatively, but majestically; by
fiat as a decree of justifying grace. He comes, bringing salvation.

Application

1. Do you see ways that you might subtly try to add to what Jesus did for you, in order to feel
more forgiven? Or do you understand that being saved by grace means nothing you do today
can make God love you less or more than He already does?

2. How can you rejoice today that you are reconciled to God, and the Wall is gone? In what
sense does sola gratia help you grow in forgiveness towards others?
DAY FIVE: SOLI DEO GLORIA

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your

name give glory, for the sake of your
steadfast love and your faithfulness! Psalm
115:1

Before my week in Germany ended, I

joined a walking tour of Berlin that started
at the famous Brandenburg Gate. Its an
amazing piece of architecture, built in 1791
and standing 92 feet tall. The Prussian king
Friedrich Wilhelm II had it made as one of 18 gates into Berlin. It was adorned on top with the
Quadriga: a bronze statue of Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, driving a chariot with four
horses. The Brandenburg Gate was being built while George Washington was serving his first
term as U.S. President.

Unfortunately, Napoleon stole the Quadriga when he occupied Berlin in 1806, and it didnt
come back from Paris until 1814. When it was reinstalled, it was modified as a symbol of
military victory. The Brandenburg Gate stood through the 19th and 20th centuries, surviving two
world wars. Finally it lay behind the Soviet-controlled East Berlin, closed to all. In 1987, U.S.
President Ronald Reagan memorably said, Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall.

The opening of the Brandenburg Gate in 1989 signaled a return to peace as the Quadriga no
longer gazed upon a city locked in a Cold War. So when I passed under the Gate last June, I felt
the thrill of history the Wall was torn down, and the Gate had opened. Gorbachev, and the
East German people, had answered.

History is often about glory. Who gets it? Did they deserve it? The Brandenburg Gate has
symbolized the glory of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich,
Communist Europe, and now freedom and peace in a cosmopolitan Europe.

Years before the Gate was built, though, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his famous Brandenburg
Concertos for a German noble. The light concertos, as well as the serious cantatas, were
composed by Bach ultimately for the glory of God alone that is why after signing his works,
Bach often added the initials S.D.G. Bach grew up in the shadow of Wartburg Castle, where
Martin Luther hid from his enemies and translated the Bible. Bach carried on the Reformation
idea that all human talents, experiences, and endeavorsevery level of realityare sustained
and redeemed by the providential power of God, that we might delight in Him most of all. Our
existence, our salvation, and even our achievements are only possible by His glorious will and
Fatherly kindness. All that we are and all that we do are meant to come full circle in great
praise to God.
Application

1. What are the milestones, special achievements, or Brandenburg Gates of your life? What
is the spiritual quadriga crowning those life events? Did these exalt people, or the glory of
God alone (soli Deo gloria)?

2. 1 Timothy 4:4 claims that everything God made is good, and nothing should be rejected as
unworthy of glorifying God. What are the conditions placed on this declaration? Can you think
of one way today that you put this into practice in your activities?
 Afterword

This year, I hope you will join me in celebrating the astonishing way that God brings
revival and reformation to His Church: past, present, and future. Since there are many
upcoming Reformation events marking each 500th anniversary, the 21st century allows us a
unique chance to remember, reflect, and reform.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the
outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever (Hebrews 13:7-9). If Jesus is the same yesterday, that means our faith
can be encouraged by learning more about men and women who followed God in the past.
Take the challenge to read up on one dead Christian every year. Learn from their lives.

Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this (2 Tim.
2:7). Jesus Christ is the same today. In our hearts, in our own homes, we can rededicate
ourselves to studying Gods Word. We resist and even protest the easy, comfort-centered
lifestyle which our sinful nature longs for. We conquer with a greater desire for the God who
bought us with the blood of His dear Son. And His blood atones for all our sins, even today.

Reform your ways and your deeds (Jeremiah 18:11). This is a call to help pursue
continuing reformation in our churches according to the Word of God. This comes from a
place of humility, not pride. We must own our own need to change. Yet repentance is not
only a personal act, but also a communal act. It is not shameful to come before our Lord with
a contrite heart, praying that he would purify our churches by His Holy Spirit. In fact, Isaiah
66:2 tells us, this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and
trembles at my word. Because Jesus Christ is the same forever, we can look forward
eagerly to the Day He returns and we shall no longer need reformation, for we shall finally be
like him in true holiness and righteousness.

Brian A. Huseland, s.d.g.