On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted Ninety-Five Theses (or topics for discussion) on the cathedral doors in Wittenberg, Germany. This act, questioning the Catholic Church's departure from Scriptural truth and practice, was the beginning of the Reformation. The Reformation resulted in the formation of new churches that taught the gospel, avoided the abuses of the Church, gave the Word of God to the people in their native languages, and restored the primacy of the teaching and preaching of the Word of God to the church. Previous to the Reformation, almost all church teaching, Bible reading, and choral music was in Latin, which only a very small minority of the population understood.
Our family has always celebrated Reformation Day. Our children greatly look forward to it. We always have a party (though this year, due to illness, only our family will be present), serve German or Swiss food, watch the Martin Luther movie (or occasionally a movie about another Reformer), play games such as "Pin the Theses on the Wittenberg Door" and celebrate God's mercy in restoring the gospel to his people.
This year's menu includes bratwurst and knockwurst, Bavarian sauerkraut, hot German potato salad, hard rolls, and apple strudel. If you've never had hot German potato salad, you are missing a treat! It's nothing like regular potato salad, and is totally yummy.
Several folks have asked how we do "Pin the Theses". The children take a huge sheet of paper, or several of them taped together, and draw a great, big, old-fashioned church-style door on it. They label all the panels with different types of candy treats. Players are blindfolded and spinned the number of times they are years old (capped at 15 :-) then they try to place their post-it note Theses on the right panel to get a great treat. Lots of fun and helps the little ones remember what we are celebrating.
I hope you will take time today to remember those who risked their lives to bring Reformation to the church of God and to thank God for his mercy in bringing us to Himself.
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