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Back when I was in my Anglican interim, I loved commemorating Guy Fawkes Day. A haunting little historical nursery rhyme, bonfires, the burning of effigies, and children in raggedy clothes with ash-blackened faces accosting householders, begging A penny for the Guy!—what’s not to love? I had a vague notion of the historical events behind the festivities, and knew that Shakespeare had referenced them in his haunted (and contemporaneous) masterpiece, Macbeth. Mostly, though, what I knew about Guy Fawkes day was that some bad guy named Guy had tried to blow up the English Parliament, but the plot was foiled and...

The Obama campaign on Saturday quietly released a web video featuring President Obama talking about his faith. The video includes various faith leaders describing how there is moral, even Biblical, backing for his policies on issues ranging from higher taxes for top earners to health care to the auto bailout. The video opens with the president at the National Prayer Breakfast where he says, “In my moments of prayer, I’m reminded that faith and values play an enormous role in motivating us to solve some of our most urgent problems.” Woven throughout the video are statements by persons of faith...

What with Campaign 2012 hurtling into its last lap, the fourth game of the World Series being contested in Detroit, and Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the East Coast, it completely slipped my attention that Sunday, October 28, was the 1,700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. There, Constantine defeated Maxentius, seized the Roman imperium, and began the process by which Christianity became Christendom. But up in his Canadian pastoral redoubt on Wolfe Island, the ever-alert Father Raymond de Souza was paying attention, and his thoughtful reflection in the National Post on the legacy of the imperial embrace...

[L]et it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty; if the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good, so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will...

(Reuters) - It's rare to be invited to an event five years off and even rarer to bicker about its details, but Germany's Catholic Church finds itself in that delicate situation thanks to an overture from its Protestant neighbors. German Protestants are planning jubilee celebrations in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's launching of the Reformation, a major event in the history of Christianity, of Europe and of the German nation, language and culture. The Protestants have invited the Catholics to join in, a gesture in harmony with the good relations the two halves of German Christianity...

Devotional using scripture, quote from John Calvin and thoughts for the day each day- on the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth. 11/1- All Saints Day He said: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see...

Tomorrow we have our choice -- we can go with Reformation Sunday or All Saints Day. We can sing "For All the Saints" or "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Being that I pastor neither a Lutheran nor a Presbyterian Church, and thus my connections as a Disciple to the Reformation of the 16th century are more derivative than direct, and perhaps because my sermon tomorrow has to do with the Worship of God, we'll take the All Saints Day route. But, instead of For All the Saints, we'll be singing Holy, Holy, Holy. But, it would be appropriate to...

There are two important days in our church calendar just before the first Sunday in Advent. The first is Reformation Sunday, a celebration of the birth of the Protestant faith, which arose during a unique time in history in the mid-1500s. The second is All Saints’ Day, on which we honor our church heritage. The Reformation Martin Luther was a troubled Catholic priest when he wrote his Ninety-Five Theses critiquing certain church practices. According to one church leader at the time, he posted them on the church door in Wittenburg, Germany, on October 31, 1517. Due to the newly-invented printing...

The Church of England is in danger of losing the trust of millions of worshippers because of “ridiculous” secrecy over the choice of the next Archbishop of Canterbury, clergy have warned.The committee choosing the next leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans is facing growing discontent from within the Church amid clams that the long-running process has become a “cloak and dagger” procedure. Calls are mounting for an overhaul of the system and even growing support for future Archbishops in the Church of England to be elected. It came as even the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church, based in Egypt- which...

How appropriate it is that Reformation Day (October 31st), celebrating Christ's victory over Evil for those who rest in Him, precedes All Saints Day (November 1st). Martin Luther's defense of the authority of Scripture (alone) and of Justification by Faith (alone), at the Diet of Worms, is what we celebrate on Reformation Day. Without these biblical truths, which the Reformation re-established in opposition to evil church hierarchies, there would be no saints. It's a shame that some Protestant and Anglican churches celebrate All Saints Day while failing to celebrate Reformation Day. There are no saints apart from the principles of...

  The Reformation was a political and religious movement in Europe that began in the 1500’s and lasted for roughly 150 years. It is difficult to pinpoint exact starting and ending dates for the Reformation, but we can point to two events that seem to begin and to culminate the Reformation era: 1517 (Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and his protest against the indulgence system of the Roman Catholic Church) and 1648 (The Peace of Westphalia, treaties that ended both the Thirty Years’ War and the Eighty Years’ War and thus put an end to most of the civil disruption caused...

The 95 ThesesOn this day in 1517 a relatively unknown German monk pounded a proclamation of sorts onto a church door in Wittenburg, Germany. In the empty spiritual bucket created by a corrupt Catholic Church hierarchy and alongside a godless Renaissance, Luther’s 95 Theses represented renewal. They were a call back to personal and corporate holiness that resounded well past the door frames of the church.There are six attributes common to all movements and we can easily see them in Luther’s Reformation. For those of us bent on seeing movements of transformation the lessons are worth reviewing.Affinity group recruitment: Luther’s...

When Martin Luther started the Reformation in 1517, what did he imagine that the church would look like when he was done? What was the goal toward which he was taking those who were willing to follow his lead? Was he simply reacting against things he thought were wrong? Or did he have a new vision of what the church could and should be? Our Gospel lesson expresses what Martin Luther had in mind when he attacked the Pope and the doctrines of the Catholic church. Jesus said in John 8:31, “If you abide in my Word, you are truly...

Yes, it’s Reformation Day and so here’s some Luther. First, the famous speech at the Diet of Worms. Some of this is, perhaps, a little embellished but the guts of it is certainly true. And Joseph Fiennes’ portrayal of Luther is just brilliant.Next, my favourite Luther quote ever - for what I hope are obvious reasons! We should preach the Word, but the results must be left solely to God’s good pleasure . . . I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept,...

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8Consistent readers of this blog know that I am deeply committed Evangelical. Especially in the area of soteriology (i.e., theology of salvation), I am convinced that the Evangelical understanding of how we are saved is the biblical message. Without question during the Middle Ages, the church in the Western world lost the New Testament understanding of salvation of faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. Anglican theologian, Alister McGrath elaborates: The late Middle Ages saw...

A blog post on the First Things web site some time ago was drawn to my attention by a couple colleagues as we were eating lunch the other day. A perceptive remark was made about it. The article, by a LCMS pastor, is rather typical of what the Roman Catholic journal, First Things, loves to publish: hand-wringing articles by Lutherans over the Reformation. In the article, the pastor opines that the better color for Reformation Sunday would be a color of mourning, rather than a festive red. He laments the Reformation as a tragedy. He is correct, but for the...

Below is a set of theses from the late Dr. Marquart, posted here in honor of the Reformation. Originally written for class and perhaps a conference, they speak of what exactly Sola Scriptura means and what it means for the church. Blessed Festival of the Reformation! Verbum domini manet in aeternum. The two focal points of the Reformation conflict were the Gospel’s core content (justification) and the Gospel’s authority (Scripture alone—sola scriptura).“Sola scriptura” means to assert the sole authority of Christ over His church, to the exclusion of all other powers and authorities. IESOUS KYRIOS (Jesus is Lord, I Cor....

I’m just going to come right out with this – I do not like Halloween. Don’t get me wrong, if you have your kids out there dressed up as little Jedis and Harry Potters visiting your neighbors and enjoying some extra treats, there’s not anything wrong with that. The fact that Halloween has become the holiday second only to Christmas in spending in the United States is a little disconcerting though. I do generally take my kids trick or treating at an event before Halloween, or as I prefer to call it Reformation Day. We usually participate in a campground...

October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the castle church door of Wittenberg. This was a common way of making announcements at the time, and since November 1st is All Saints day, a day of special observance, crowds were guaranteed to see the announcements. At the heart of the 95 theses was a custom of the day, selling indulgences in order to raise money for the church. The general idea was that one could buy more rapid exit from purgatory for one’s self or a relative. In the famous words of Johann Tetzel, “Sobald der Gülden im...

Slovenia is on Wednesday celebrating Reformation Day dedicated to the Reformation and Protestant movement, which brought Slovenians their first books in own language. The government decided in March that Reformation Day would not be marked with a high-profile national ceremony this year, due to cost cutting. However, the Slovenian Protestant Association Primož Trubar held a ceremony in Ljubljana's arts centre Cankarjev dom on the eve of the bank holiday, with President Danilo Türk as the keynote speaker. The Reformation movement in Slovenia brought the country Protestant reforms, following the example of Martin Luther in Germany. The most prominent Slovenian Reformist...