The reformers at Wittenberg undertook an extensive campaign of religious instruction through the sermon. There were three public services on Sunday: from five to six in the morning on the Pauline epistles, from nine to ten on the Gospels and, in the afternoon at a variable hour, on a continuation of the theme of the morning or on the catechism. The church was not locked during the week, but on Mondays and Tuesdays there were sermons on the catechism, Wednesdays on the Gospel of Matthew, Thursdays and Fridays on the apostolic letters, and Saturday evening on John’s Gospel.
No man carried this entire load. There was a staff of the clergy, but Luther’s share was prodigious. Including family devotions, he spoke often four times on Sundays and quarterly undertook a two-week series four days a week on the catechism. The sum of his extant sermons is 2,300. The highest count is for the year 1528*, for which there are 195 sermons distributed over 145 days.
His pre-eminence in the pulpit derives, in part, from the earnestness with which he regarded the preaching office. The task of the minister is to expound the Word in which, alone, are to be found healing for life’s hurts and the balm of eternal blessedness. The preacher must die daily through concern lest he lead his flock astray…
*Luther was 45 in 1528.
From: Roland H. Bainton (1894-1984), Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther reprint (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), pp. 272-273. Originally published by Pierce and Smith in 1950. Bainton was Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University (1936-1962).
