Martin Luther Quote

Reformation Day
October 31, 2009

The Lord be with you

As this is Reformation Day I thought a quote from Martin Luther would be in place.

May you ever cherish and treasure this thought. Christ is made a servant of sin, yea, a bearer of sin, and the lowliest and most despised person. He destroys all sin by Himself and says: "I came not to be served but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). There is no greater bondage than that of sin; and there is no greater service than that displayed by the Son of God, who becomes the servant of all, no matter how poor, wretched, or despised they may be, and bears their sins. It would be spectacular and amazing, prompting all the world to open ears and eyes, mouth and nose in uncomprehending wonderment, if some king's son were to appear in a beggar's home to nurse him in his illness, wash off his filth, and do everything else the beggar would have to do. Would this not be profound humility? Any spectator or any beneficiary of this honor would feel impelled to admit that he had seen or experienced something unusual and extraordinary, something magnificent. But what is a king or an emperor compared with the Son of God? Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the filth of sin which is ours by nature, stinking a hundred thousand times worse and looking infinitely more repulsive to God than any foul matter found in a hospital? And yet the love of the Son of God for us is of such magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us, the more He cleanses us, relieving us of all our misery and of the burden of all our sins and placing them upon His own back. All the holiness of the monks stinks in comparison with this service of Christ, the fact that the beloved Lamb, the great Man, yes, the Son of the Exalted Majesty, descends from heaven to serve me.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Halloween II

Monday after Pentecost 19
October 12, 2009

The Lord be with you

In a post on October 9 I suggested one way Christians might celebrate October 31 was by remembering the communion of saints of which all believers in Christ are a part of, including all those who have preceded us into Glory. I also said that for Protestants, especially Lutheran, there was another reason to celebrate October 31. That reason is the Reformation.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his now famous 95 Theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg, Germany. This was a call for an academic debate on the topic of Indulgences. Each thesis was a topic to debate. Such debates were common in academic circles of the day. Posting such notices on the church door was also common; it was kind of like a community bulletin board. What happened is that an enterprising printed made copies of the 95 Theses and sold them. Soon they were circulating far and wide, sparking conversations that challenged the whole idea of indulgences. The idea that forgiveness is a free gift from God’s grace was radical. When Luther and the other reformers were excommunicated, they did not simply dry up and blow away. Instead they continued on, with the support of their rulers, and formed what in Germany was called the “Evangelical” Church, but in America is called the Lutheran Church. The Augsburg Confession was the first publicly accepted confession of these Christians. After Luther came other reformers who, while disagreeing with Rome like Luther, felt Luther didn’t quite get it right. So other “confessions” came along, some in the lifetime of Luther. All these churches, lumped together, are called Protestants. Because the 95 Theses were posted on October 31, that day is recognized by Protestants worldwide as Reformation Day. While I can understand why Roman Catholics and Orthodox churches don’t want to celebrate Reformation Day, a Protestant church certainly can have a Reformation Fair as a Halloween substitute. (The Orthodox and Roman Catholics split about 500 years before the Reformation and so the Reformation doesn’t mean much to the Orthodox historically speaking.) Again it could include costumes like knights, kings, emperors, monks, bishops, and other period things. You could include any sort of ethnic background from your denomination. You might even want to show the movie “Luther,” which was in the theaters a few years back.

There is yet one more way for Christians to celebrate on October 31, but that will have to wait for Halloween III.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert