Thoughts from the Pulpit

​As many of you know, last year was the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses to the church door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. Though he didn’t expect it at the time, this common act of academic debate would spark a firestorm about indulgences, the faith, and the nature of the Church, as well as cause many other repercussions in society. At the heart of it all, Luther just wanted to be a good pastor, consoling people’s consciences not with the faulty promises of indulgences and our works, but with the lasting and true promise of God’s grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the fountain and source of forgiveness and life.
Last year, many churches had all kinds of fanfare around the occasion of this big milestone. In Germany, many of the famous Luther sites were spruced up for the extra tourism. Too many books to process in one year were produced by scholars of all sorts. Many films, websites, and a variety of other forms of media were all focused on the big 500. In many ways, rightly so. I, myself, contributed to the occasion in a few ways. But now that the big year is behind us what does the 501st anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation look like on October 31, 2018?
501 looks a lot like focusing again on our Lord and Savior Jesus. The Reformation was never about a movement in and of itself for political power, revolution, breaking from the Roman Catholic Church, etc., though it has certainly been framed in those ways. It was, is, and always will be about Jesus, the one who freely forgives and gives us life in His name. If it were about anything else, it would probably not be worth celebrating. Luther, as he would have done then, points us today, like a good pastor, to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us and took it up again.
Over this month, you will have the opportunity to reflect again on what the Reformation continues to mean for us as we look to Jesus. In particular, I will be offering a new Bible Study series on the artwork of the Reformation (Sunday mornings @ 10:30am). We will have an opportunity to see how these pieces of artwork were used to point us back to Scripture and the promises of Jesus, our Savior. A common theme in this artwork was an image of John the Baptist under the cross of Jesus, pointing to Him as the Lamb of God. As we remember the Reformation, may we always follow that pointing finger of John the Baptist to the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29).
Pastor Rosebrock