This week is a pretty special week for those of us who are in the Lutheran Church world. This week, if you’re following a church calendar of any kind, you’ll notice was the week of the reformation. Now this isn’t something we go around talking about everyday so perhaps a quick history lesson is in order.

The Reformation was undoubtedly one of the most transformative events in the life of the church as of late. The Reformation took place in the years surrounding 1517 although that’s the year we generally mark for the anniversary. The Reformation was a time of renewal and awakening for the church. It had gotten too far from its roots. The church had wondered far away from where it was supposed to be. Things that weren’t part of the church ended up in the church and things that never were supposed to be part of the life of the church ended up central to its very existence. Things were a mess!

Enter the reformers. Kind of like the Avengers for the church. The Reformers were the faithful men and women around in this time that realized things were going awry and decided to take a stand. One of these Reformers was a man named Martin Luther. Luther was a monk who fit into the system quite nicely for a while. He went with the flow and didn’t cause a lot of trouble. Then one day he decided he just couldn’t take the errors in the church any longer and instead of talking about people behind their backs, he tried to have a face to face conversation with the leaders of the church.

The short story is…that didn’t go so well. He ended up being kicked out of the church and they even tried to have him killed! Can you say dysfunctional? At any rate, this week we spent time looking at this Reformation idea and how the Reformation can shape how we approach the bible and our everyday lives. Admittedly, this message looked a little different than any of the Reformation messages I’ve preached in my 17 years of ministry. Perhaps we can learn new ways to communicate solid and unchanging truths.