2017 is going to be a pretty big deal for Lutherans.  This coming October 31st will mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg.  But you don’t have to wait until October to begin learning and celebrating the impact of the movement that was sparked by those hammer blows.  In fact, there are events and resources available all year.  Consider this excerpt from a new book on the subject:

“The Reformation—the word still conjures up images and excitement whenever we hear it. We picture that determined German monk nailing his ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg church door and later on taking his stand before the emperor and church representatives at Worms. What he said and did back there in the 1500s quite literally changed the history of the church and the world. Heady stuff.

But the Reformation didn’t start with Martin Luther, nor did it end with him. Rather, what happened was this: From the beginning the church faced a host of challenges which threatened to destroy the teaching it had received from its Lord. To these challenges, which more and more became crises, the church responded. Challenge and response, the structure of world history which Arnold Toynbee detected, is clearly obvious in the specific matter of the history of the Christian church.

Even before Luther’s time, the church’s response to the challenges it faced had become so insistent that response had turned into reformation. With Luther this response reached its high point, and since Luther the church has continued to face even more challenges to which it must respond. Response, then, still leads to reformation, to re-forming in line with God’s truth. Ecclesia semper reformanda—the church is always in the process of being reformed.

Though any person may observe challenges and responses, deformation and reformation, in the church, only the person of faith will see the hand of God in the whole process. For God is always watching over his church and his truth.”

(Excerpt from Martin Luther and the Long Reformation by James Kiecker, used with permission of Northwestern Publishing House.) 

Find more helpful resources at https://wels.net/reformation500.  Ascension Lutheran Church will be here to help you celebrate one of the great events of the church’s history – an event that continues to shape our church today!

As contentious as the presidential election campaign was, things have not gotten much better, have they?  Back then there was widespread consternation in one political party over presidential candidate Donald Trump’s assertion that he may not accept the results of the election without a challenge.  Some of his political opponents used words like “appalled” to describe their reaction.  His words, they claim, was a dire threat to our democracy.  Now it’s a growing number in the party of President-elect Trump’s opponent who claim that he is an illegitimate president.  There are voices now who claim that to acknowledge and accept him as president is a dire threat to our democracy.  Political winds shift, blowing opinions to places once condemned as beyond the pale.

On one hand, this is the kind of thing that seems to go on in politics these days.  But I think that’s only because people have lost some perspective.  By that I don’t just mean that things like this didn’t happen for much of the 20th century.  The election was held.  The new president was inaugurated in a peaceful transition of power.  People and political parties who disagreed about how best to chart the course for the nation then got busy competing in the arena of ideas, persuading voters and marshaling the formidable power of the ballot box for the next election.  Rather, I mean that it seems to me that we have lost some perspective as compared to the way much of the world transitions power.  In many places in the world the next ruler has that power by right of inheritance, the throne or dictatorship being passed from one generation to another.  We in America elect (choose) our leaders.  Imagine that!  Many in the world can’t imagine it – and never have the opportunity to do it.   In many places in the world it is a coup d’état that brings a change in leadership.  But here in America it isn’t the barrel of the gun that establishes our leaders; it’s the ballot.  I’m afraid we Americans get so caught up in the hyperbole of political competition and become so over-wrought with emotions that we don’t see how amazing our political process still is.  No tanks in the streets.  No political assassinations.  No civil wars.  Instead, it is citizens who vote. 

Ours is a system of government that would have made the apostle Paul go slack-jawed with amazement.  He lived under the Roman government.  Political intrigue, corruption – yes, Rome had that, too.  And that government could be brutally efficient in maintaining its power.  Eventually, Paul himself was the victim of bad decisions made by people in government who did bad things.  Even so, he understood the importance of peace and order.  He laid the responsibility for praying for leaders on the hearts of first century Christians.  Here’s how he said it, “I urge, first of all, that request, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth....I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”  (1 Timothy 2:1-3, 8)

Did you notice his reason for calling on us to pray for those in authority?  It had everything to do with living our faith and spreading the gospel.  So let me second Paul’s call.  Go or don’t go to inauguration celebrations; that’s your choice. Disagree, if you wish, about how health care should be handled in the United States.  Have robust debates about foreign policy.  Express differences of opinion on how much tax is the right amount for people to pay.  Christians can disagree about such things.  But let’s all be in agreement about this:  pray for everyone in authority in local, state, and federal government.  Ask God to bless them, guide them, even thwart them as necessary to maintain the kind of nation where we can exercise our faith by living it as the Word directs us and by sharing the good news of what Jesus has done for all people.  Please pray.  That pleases God our Savior.

This is about the time of year when gyms and health clubs see a spike in memberships.  Losing weight, shaping up, working out – whatever term people use – is a very popular new year resolution.  The problem is that the resolve dissipates after a few weeks.  Memberships lie dormant and finally expire.  It’s pretty common this time of year.

I understand why, do you?  Life is busy.  Unless a person is resolved to consistently reprioritize his or her time, things have a way of crowding in on the new year resolution.  We are creatures of habit.  It’s just really hard to break eating habits.  We vow to drink more water – but soon we don’t follow through.  We are resolved to eat healthier, but it’s faster and easier to grab a burger at the drive-through window and get on to the next thing on the list.  Besides, they taste so good!

It seems to me that resolutions to grow in the Word of God are like that, too.  We want to know the Bible better.  We wish we knew more about our faith – not only what we believe, but why we believe it.  When the subject of religion comes up in conversations (and it often does), we want to be more articulate about our faith.  And so we resolve in the new year to do something about that.  We’ll get into a Bible class.  That’s just the ticket!  And it truly is!

But then life happens.  A packed schedule all week leaves us with Sunday morning as the only time for ourselves.  We’ve jammed so much into our weekly “to do” list, that we just can’t (to be honest – we just won’t) jettison something to make room for spiritual growth.  Or we imagine that a Bible class is going to be heavy on the abstract and light on concrete relevance to real life.  And so we don’t continue the class.  Or we don’t start in the first place.  And next year we will go through the same exercise all over again.

Let me pass along to you God’s call and encouragement to make this new year different.  He wants to have a closer relationship with you.  He knows you perfectly well, but he wants you to know him better.  That only happens through the Word of God.  Let me say that again:  Knowing God better only happens through the Bible.  That’s where he explains himself and his wonderful plan for us.  That’s where he talks to us about life and death and marriage and love and fulfillment and faith and integrity and value as a person and sin and forgiveness and so much more.  The Scriptures are WAY more relevant to the things that really matter in life and for eternity than many people give them credit for. 

So be resolved to know more, and in that way, grow more.  Ascension Lutheran Church stands ready to help you with that.  Right now we offer you two ways to know and grow:  our Sunday morning Bible class that gets heart-deep into Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians, and the Bible information class I teach on Thursday evenings.  Check out our website for more information.  Call me and we’ll talk about how you can get started.  It’s free and it’s for you.

So be resolved.  We’ll be resolved right along with you!