Since its beginning, Paideia has held a vibrant celebration of Reformation Day at the end of every October.
Reformation Day commemorates the day on which Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door in Wittenberg (October 31, 1517), setting in motion the events of the Protestant Reformation and changing the landscape of Christendom in Europe.
Trained as an Augustinian priest in the Roman Catholic Church, Martin Luther had an acute sense of his own sin and guilt. The solution offered by the Roman Church of good works and penance to make up for his shortcomings never quite quieted his conscience, and he spent hours, days, and months despairing over his own unrighteousness.
His revelation from Romans 1—that “the just shall live by faith” and that faith is not of ourselves but is the gift of God—was a monumental moment in his life and the lives of his contemporaries. Armed with the doctrines of faith alone through grace alone from Christ alone, Luther confronted many corrupt practices of the Church, including the selling of “indulgences.”
Indulgences were pieces of paper that reduced the number of years sinners would have to spend in “Purgatory” before they could go to heaven. When Friar Tetzel came to Luther’s town Wittenberg selling indulgences to raise money for the pope’s building projects, Luther rebuked him for trying to sell what is a free gift of God and drove him from the town. Luther followed this up with posting the Ninety-Five Theses which explained why the selling of indulgences was incorrect.
As Luther’s writings spread throughout Europe, the pope responded by issuing a papal bull (decree) excommunicating Luther from the Church. Germany at this time was a loose confederation of states who all owed allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor. Martin Luther was granted safe conduct to go to Worms for a Diet (assembly) that would determine whether he was a heretic. Ordered by the pope’s representative to recant his writings, Luther (reportedly, but perhaps apocryphally) responded with the famous line: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me.”
When it seemed likely that the emperor would not honor Luther’s safe conduct, Luther was whisked away by a German nobleman favorable to his teaching. Luther spent many months sequestered in a castle for his own protection, translating the Bible into the common tongue of German so that people could read for themselves about the gift of grace.
Luther’s Reformation in Germany was the spark that lit the stacked tinder in all the countries of Europe, and his legacy impacted those centuries in the future. The centrality of the Bible as the guide for belief and action shaped the founders of our own country, and the courage of Luther and the other Reformers serves as an example for our own day.
October 31, the day Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses, happens to fall on a day in the church calendar known as All Hallows Eve (contracted to Hallowe’en). The word “Hallows” is an old word meaning “Saints” or “Holy Ones.” November 1, the following day, was known as All Hallows Day (or “All Saints Day”), a day to remember those great saints of old who set an example of faithfulness in their lives. We can see a Biblical example of commemorating faithful saints in Hebrews 11, the “hall of faith” passage.
Reformation Day is not as integral a part of the Christian calendar as Easter or Pentecost, but just as the Jews established Purim in the book of Esther to commemorate a specific time in their history, so many Christians have set aside October 31 as Reformation Day to remember this watershed moment in history.
October 31 offers us the opportunity to tell our children the story of Martin Luther, one of the great saints whose lives should be remembered. It offers us the opportunity to commemorate the service and sacrifice of the Reformers, who prayed, and labored, and taught so that God alone might receive the glory in the story of salvation.
