Years ago, I was at a Wednesday night Confirmation class where three local Lutheran Churches came together to share the joys and responsibilities of Confirmation Instruction. Thankfully, the three churches that took part in this teaching cluster all had a shared vision of Confirmation. We treated it like Discipleship 101 for Middle-school students. The three pastors and several lay volunteers came together each Wednesday to lead a dynamic, engaging, dare-I-say-it, FUN youth group experience where the textbook was the Bible and Luther’s Small Catechism. Tonight, we were learning a bit about the Protestant Reformation.
Pastor John Lingle took out of his mystery bag, a small, plastic Jack-O-Lantern, small enough to fit inside the palm of one’s hand and tossed it into the crowd of curious students and volunteers. Then he tossed another. And then another. Soon all forty students were holding their very own cheap, plastic Jack-O-Lantern, curiously inscribed with a Sharpie, “1517” on one side.
“Do you know why I wrote 1517 on the back of your Jack-O-Lanterns?” Pastor John asked. No one ventured a guess. Most were more familiar with the upcoming candy grab known as Halloween than with five-hundred-year-old Church History. “Well,” Pastor John continued, “It was on the evening of October 31, 1517, when a young Martin Luther started what we now call the Reformation.
Of course, we all know that a young Marty, a naive early twenties doctoral student from the University of Wittenberg, had no clue how incendiary his actions would be that day. All he wanted was to start an academic debate over a list of concerns he had about then, and current practices in the Church.
He had a list you see.
This list had ninety-five items on it. Each one enumerating concerns, large and small, about practices and teachings of the Church that young Martin Luther had noticed seemed at odds with the plain teachings of Holy Scripture. He had opinions, strong ones at that. But really, he only wanted to debate the issues to learn. He seemed to have no clue as to the firestorm he was about to unleash on the Church, and indeed the world.
Much of the vast societal changes that we now trace back to the sixteenth century are directly connected to those early days when a naive Doctor of the Old Testament requested the opportunity to debate a list of things that were on his mind that year. This Fall season starts the almost blur of holiday traditions, secular and sacred. It’s easy to just go through the motions and survive it all, hoping we get to January 1 intact, waistlines and all.
My hope is that we dive right in and enjoy the Fall to the full, looking for every opportunity to see and take advantage of opportunities to serve our neighbors with the love and mercy of Jesus, in word and deed. So, as we approach the first of many sacred and secular holidays, tune your spiritual eyes and ears to ask and see what the Lord Jesus might be up to with those you live near. So that you might join him there.
Blessings+
Pastor Mark
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