Celebration of a faith milestone
On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a priest and scholar living in Wittenberg, Germany, added his voice to a growing number of people questioning the assumed truths of his day. Luther tackled questions of faith and corruption that had made its way into the highest powers of the church by nailing 95 thesis or concerns on the local church doors.
With the advent of the printing press, his concerns reached much further than just the leaders of the church. Everyday folks to regional princes heard their own struggles named for the first time. From an initial intention to bring reform to the church, Luther’s challenge of church teachings stirred a movement we continue to observe 500 years later, called the Reformation.
There are many resources available online and recent videos shown on PBS that tell the whole story of Martin Luther. I encourage you to dig deeper, because many claim we are undergoing a similar time. A radical reformation stimulated by questions of faith, science, increasing access to information, and deep held truths and traditions found wanting.
While we tend to think of the Reformation as a religious time of change. The Renaissance of arts, music, and science also stirred people’s imaginations and gave them hope for something more. With new discoveries of the universe, access to the Bible and the common German language, and authority of the institutions crumbling, for and better and for worse, people began to demand a better life.
The Lutheran church is one of the few Protestant churches who still observe the Anniversary of the Reformation’s start. Major events and worship experiences will be happening all over the globe this weekend. But, I hope all Christians will pause and mark this milestone as the church. I hope those who are not Christians will also take the time to discover more about this major time of change in our history, so we can all better prepare for the change we are facing now.
We tend to remember all the good that arose from these needed changes. But, it took 100 years of war before people, exhausted from fighting — for land, religious beliefs, freedom, power, wealth, against change — finally sought to work together to rebuild and live the vision sparked by those early reformers’ questions. 500 years later, we continue to live with many of the benefits and thoughts sparked from that time. But, it is becoming clear, many institutions, economic forces, religious truths, and ways of living together on this planet no longer work.
The pace of the change and the lack of being able to see our future, is scary, stressful. Many are asking difficult questions. Others are holding on tight to what they know and trust. Extremists are co-opting every belief system in order to divide and gain control, as peoples’ fear grow. Divisions widen between the very wealthy and the poor. Globalization, immigration, isolation … I could go on.
This is not news. But, how we respond might be.
On Sunday, First Lutheran Church will be gathering in one service at 9 a.m. to celebrate the fact that the Holy Spirit is not done with us yet. We will gather to ask forgiveness for the ways Reformation created wounds between people of faith, especially our brothers and sisters of the Catholic Church. And, we will give thanks to God for what the Holy Spirit will do to keep repairing, restoring, inspiring, reconciling, and challenging us — an imperfect church seeking to live by the grace of Jesus Christ.
Or as Martin Luther says it, “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace so certain that you could stake your life on it one thousand times.”
We gather and observe this faith milestone, so that we can continue to stake our lives for others, so they too can trust this day with God’s amazing grace.
The Rev. Lori C. Morton is pastor of First Lutheran Church in Sandpoint. She can be reached at firstlutheransandpoint.org.