This year our acknowledgement of Reformation Sunday will not have quite the same excitement, anticipation and pageantry as did our observance of the quincentenary anniversary last year. After all not many folks take note of a 501st anniversary with great fanfare.
But observe it we shall. This annual recollection of Martin Luther and the other reformers is not just an historical exercise where we recite the key text from Romans, or walk around in a brown monk’s alb holding a long piece of paper and a wooden mallet searching for a door to nail the paper to. It is a bit more substantial than that.
Luther (Martin and Katie) and their colleagues revealed to the world our total dependence upon God’s grace, revealed our inability to live in loving faith without the power of the cross of Christ, and revealed how, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to give and provide out of our abundance for our family of faith, and our neighbors in all locations of God’s creation.
As it turns out, these themes also will show themselves in the gospel texts from the tenth chapter of Mark’s gospel, which we will hear and think about during the first three weeks of October. When heard separately, the texts from this chapter appear to speak to three different topics. But we need to consider them as a complete teaching unit of Jesus, as he journeys closer and closer to Jerusalem, and his fate as the savior of the world.
As always, your participation each week in sacred worship is essential in our life together as a family of faith. God bless you as you live out your call in service to our Lord.
Clifton D. Eshbach,
Pastor