Reformation Day

I find it hard to understand that there are Christians who celebrate Halloween - a celebration (or propitiation, depending on your beliefs) of evil and death, yet I used to do it myself. Why did I? I was living an unexamined life. Once I began to examine everything by the light of the Word of God, it became impossible for me to continue a practice that did not bring glory to our Lord and Father but rather glorified evil spirits, death, and evil -- even in jest.

I was not much happier with the harvest festivals held by so many churches. They seemed to be just a G-rated version of the world's festival: Halloween-lite. Can the church do nothing better than imitate the world?

Yes, it can! And it has! For nearly 500 years, faithful protestants have remembered a real encounter with the forces of darkness: in 1517, on October 31st, a monk named Martin Luther nailed an academic call to debate on the doors of Wittenberg Cathedral. That debate shook the world and rang out from the halls of academe to the plowboys in the fields. As a result, the gospel was rediscovered and the Word of God was translated into the languages of people's hearts, their native tongues. For centuries, the church celebrated Reformation Day in gratefulness for God's hand in the life of Luther and his contemporaries and the glorious results it has had not only in the church, but in the history of the world (I'll deal with that at a later date - I'm looking forward to it.)

Our family has celebrated Reformation Day for many years. We nearly always watch the terrific old black and white movie, Martin Luther, unmatched in stirring historical accuracy by the flashier modern versions. We always eat foods of the countries of the Reformation: cheese fondue from Switzerland, bratwurst, sauerkraut and hot German potato salad from Germany or some other Germanic delight. We play Reformation games like "95 Theses" in which blindfolded folks stick their post-it-note theses to a big paper cathedral door with candy rewards listed in each panel. We joyfully tell the stories to our children of those who stood for right and scripture before us, hoping that one day, they too will be able to stand. It's a day our children eagerly look forward to -- whether we celebrate with dozens of friends or just our family. In fact, they can't figure out why a Christian would do anything else. And neither can I.