WWLS...What Would Luther Say?

I have a deep respect for the Roman Catholic Church.  For 6 years I was a part of the Newman Catholic school system in Mason City, Iowa.  I wasn't Catholic, but I have this strange suspicion the priest and nuns were brainwashing me.  To this day I have this urge to say "and also with you"... or "thanks be to God"... (Which thankfully we say at the Christian Reformed church I attend)

A few days ago I watched the news coverage of Pope Benedict's visit to the White House, and I had a "this is why I am a protestant" moment.  I have a deep respect for Pope Benedict, but I had a difficult time stomaching the pomp and circumstance.  There was the Pope, next to President Bush, watching a military parade being put on in his honor.  The glitz, the glamour, the power and prestige, the "papal protocol" (which Mrs. Bush apparently broke by wearing white...)...  And all I could think was:  What would Martin Luther say?  Then I chuckled... That's why I love Luther...

The contrast was too much.  Here was the head of the Catholic church, the "representative of Jesus Christ on earth" as one reporter put it, at the center of a media circus.  And yet, the one he represents had an entirely different experience.  Instead of power and glamour, he experienced shame and forsakeness.  Instead of presidents and prime ministers, he associated with fishermen and prostitutes - the sick, the lame, the suffering.  Instead of Papal protocol, he had no place to lay his head...  The essence of Biblical Christianity is  the Lamb who has been slain, and the testimony of the martyrs proclaiming the gospel through their suffering.  A confrontation with the powers of this age... not a part of the program.  Sadly, it seems, too often both protestants and Catholics want to be part of the show.

What would Luther say?  I think we know...