In many ways, the controversy surrounding the forgiveness of sins in the sixteenth century was driven by money. Pope Leo needed money to pay off the loan he had with the Fuggers, a prominent banking family. The indulgences he put up for sale were to help with that loan, along with completing the construction of St. Peter’s in Rome. Charles V was getting a cut of the indulgence money to fund war with the Turks. When Luther preaches that you cannot buy forgiveness, the flow of German money to Italy dries up. Money has a tendency to corrupt theology.

I hadn’t been a pastor for very long before a woman asked me a question that flabbergasted me. She’d just had a baby, and we were scheduling the baptism. “How much does it cost?” she asks. “What do you mean?” “What’s the fee for the Baptism?” “Fee? There is no fee.” In the church she grew up in, there was a fee. I had no idea. It’s not for sale….