God's second best gift
Next to God's Word, his best gift is a pious, cheerful, God-fearing, home-keeping wife with whom you can live in peace and tranquility; to whom you can entrust your goods and body and life. --Martin Luther (as quoted in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. VII (1849), 461.
Reflections by Diana Severance, director of Dunham Bible Museum and author of Her Story.
My husband and I met in 1990 on a tour of the Early Church, led by Ken Curtis, CHI’s founder. We enjoyed each other’s company during the tour, and I thought Gordon certainly the most fascinating man I had ever met (everyone says that about Gordon!). When the tour came to an end, I went on an extension to Rome, but Gordon went back to the US. My camera had broken, and Gordon loaned me his little camera to finish taking pictures on the tour, giving me his address to mail the camera back. I actually cried myself to sleep that night thinking I would never see this fascinating man again—he lived on the west coast and I lived in Texas. After returning home I mailed the camera back with a thank you letter, which to my delight he promptly answered. As our correspondence and affection for each other increased, Gordon thought he needed to tell me how old he was so I wouldn’t get too serious about him. I wrote back that the 20 year age difference was not important. After all, in the Bible Boaz was old enough to be Ruth’s father—and Martin Luther was quite a bit older than Katie! Luther’s marriage became an example for us, as it had been for so many in his day and after.
Family time with the Luthers.
As an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther had taken a vow of celibacy and internalized the Roman Catholic teaching that celibacy was most conducive to spiritual attainments. However, when Luther made the Scripture his spiritual authority, he found the Bible not only did not require ministers to be celibate, but that marriage and the family were institutions established by God. As early as his 1520 Address to the German Nobility, Luther encouraged the end of clerical celibacy, recognizing that marriage itself could be a restraint on sexual temptation and immorality. While the Church authorities often saw women as fleshly and seductive, Luther did not disparage the female sex, even encouraging education for girls as well as boys. Women as well as men had been created in the image of God.
While some clerics followed Luther’s advice to marry, Luther didn’t consider that an option for himself, even though his superiors had released him from his vows as a monk. Because of the threats on his life and the danger of being arrested and executed at any time as a heretic, Luther didn’t see marriage in his future.
Luther’s scriptural teachings had spread throughout Germany, reaching even into monasteries and convents. Some of the nuns in the Marienthron convent in Torgau read Luther’s writings and wrote to him for advice and help on leaving the cloister. In 1423, Luther arranged for Leonhard Köppe, a merchant who delivered herring to the convent, to secretly pick up eleven women, hiding them among his barrels of herring (some said they were hidden in the barrels!).
Several of the women returned to their families; others were placed with families in Wittenberg. Within two years, all of the former nuns had married except one—Katherine von Bora.
One young man had wanted to marry Katherine, but his family was opposed to the match. Luther and his friends tried to match Katherine with a Pastor Glatz, but Katie thought him arrogant and had no respect for him. She said she would not marry anyone unless she married Martin Luther! In Luther Katie saw her liberator and a man she could trust. Luther finally consented to marry Katie, saying it would “please his father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep.”
Katie and Luther were married June 13, 1525. Their wedding invitation stated that “marriage was an act of confession and obedience to God’s act of creation.” The twenty years of their marriage became a model of pastoral marriage and a Christian family. Katie bore Luther six children and elevated the position of motherhood as a godly calling. Luther affectionately called Katie his “rib” as well as his Galatians, for she brought him much freedom by relieving many cares from him. Luther wrote a friend, “My wife is compliant, accommodating, and affable beyond anything I dared to hope. I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus.”
Katie managed the large Luther household, which often included students and visitors, as well as their own children and some adopted ones too. With his growing family, Luther prayed, “Dear heavenly Father, because You in Your name and in the honor of Your office have ordained and want to name and honor me as father, grant me grace and bless me so that I may govern and nourish my dear wife, children, and servants in a godly and Christian manner. Give me the wisdom and strength to govern and raise them well and give them a good heart and the will to follow your teaching and to be obedient. Amen.” Together Martin and Katie showed that family and marriage, not only the convent or monastery, were areas where faith and obedience to Christ were lived.
Gordon and I enjoyed twenty-two incredibly harmonious and joyous years together before his passing. Everyone marveled at our oneness and compatibility, which we both knew was the Lord’s special gift. I began writing for CHI, and Gordon went on to co-produce Candle in the Dark, a film on the life of William Carey. But, Martin and Katie Luther had led the way.
Diana Severance is Director of the Dunham Bible Museum and the author of Her Story and A Cord of Three Strands.
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