Newsletter October 2014

On October 26 we will again celebrate Reformation Sunday.  Lutherans celebrate the great reformation of the church on the Sunday before October 31 because on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  It was the eve of All Saints’ Day and most people would be passing through those doors the next day for mass.  Many would read them or at least take note of them.  Martin Luther was a professor of Old Testament at the University of Wittenberg, and his 95 Theses are written in the language of the educated elite of his time.  He intended to start a discussion of reforms he felt were needed in the church.  He intended this discussion to take place at the university level with people who knew the Bible very well, who could quote many of the church fathers at length, and who could read not only German and Latin but maybe Greek and Hebrew, too – as Luther himself did.  Luther had a brilliant mind and was highly educated.  His father intended for him to spend his life working in the family’s copper mining business, but Luther instead mined the scriptures in the original languages and scoured the writings of the church fathers for the truth of God.

So Luther’s attempt at reformation was intended to engage the most nimble minds of his time.  Luther held his own in disputations over many points of doctrine and practice both with those representing the old order and those advocating a much more radical reformation.  But he also had a heart for the needs of the common man, and especially for the Christian family.  Once he renounced his vow of celibacy, he himself became a family man when he married Katherine von Bora with whom he had several children.  As a father and the head of his household, he was deeply concerned about the faith and knowledge of his children and the children of his community.

In the fall of 1528 he made a visit to several parishes in his native Saxony which led him to publish the Small Catechism in 1529.  In the preface he wrote, “The deplorable conditions which I recently encountered when I was a visitor constrained me to prepare this brief and simple catechism or statement of Christian teaching……Although the people are supposed to be Christian, are baptized, and receive the holy sacrament, they do not know the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed or the Ten Commandments….”  So he set about to rectify the situation.  In the preface he excoriated the local parish pastors who had so neglected the teaching of basic Christian ideas and encouraged them to emphasize the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer in their preaching and in their parishes.

Under the headings for his explanations of the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments he wrote these words, “in the plain form in which the head of the family shall teach them to his household” and thereby placed the teaching of the fundamentals of the faith right in the home.  (By the way, not all Catechism booklets have this phrase in them, but the authoritative version in the Book of Concord does, and many of us who are older remember reading these words in even the shortest Catechism booklet.)  As much as Luther prized the public preaching of the Word, at which he excelled, and as much as he taught the efficacy of the Holy Sacrament (Christ is really present here in an absolutely unique way), he also knew that practicing the faith at home was essential to a vibrant Christian life.

So Luther promoted faith at home.  He believed in daily devotions with the children and whoever else was in the house.  In addition to the five main parts of the Catechism (Commandments, Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Communion) he added morning and evening prayers to be said every day, and he added “Grace at the Table” which included not only a prayer before eating but a prayer after eating as well.  He encouraged, and practiced himself, a lively devotional life at home as well as an active church life.  He not only strongly encouraged vigorous singing at Sunday morning worship, but mentioned singing a hymn at the beginning of the day at morning devotions at home.

As we celebrate Reformation Sunday 2014 at the end of the month, let us consider this aspect of the Reformation and consider our own practice of the faith at home.  Some of us say grace at meals occasionally if not consistently.  Some of us have a daily devotion routine, now made even easier with the internet resources available.  And quite a few of us say prayers at bedtime or, perhaps, upon rising in the morning.  This year why not affirm what you are doing and consider what more you might do to practice the faith at home?  Take a look at those later parts of the Catechism in the back and put a 21^st century twist on them.  Old Brother Martin knew what he was talking about, and he practiced what he preached.