Five Hundred Years

Five hundred  years is a long time to be remembered.  Most of us are remembered only as long as someone is alive to remembers us.  Such is not the case with Martin Luther who nailed what we know as "The 95 Theses" on the church door at Wittenberg, Germany.  Luther was, of course, a Roman Catholic as that was the only thing going in his day.  And, as a monk, he was even more immersed in Catholicism than the average believer.  He hoped his actions that day would bring some reform to a church that riddled with practices that lined the church's coffers, but did little to bring spiritual comfort to the ordinary folks.  Instead, he started a revolution.

 

Of course, we do not call it the Revolution.  We call it the Reformation.  His bold actions way back then gave power to a movement that caused separation from the Roman Catholic Church and created a climate for change.  Our current orders of denominations are the children of the Reformation.  Look at the wide spectrum of denominational church communities and know that none of them would be in existence without that single moment in history. 

 

It is a good thing that the church still remembers Martin Luther.  He was no more a perfect man than any of us, but God's use of him was something that not even he could have imagined.  Surely, he never thought folks would still be calling his name five hundred years later.  I just always hoped some of my former parishioners would remember my name a few years, but I soon found out that my name was soon replaced with something like "what's his name?"  To think about what God has done through this one man's work gives us hope for the church.  Who knows?  There may be still another great reformer sitting out there in some pew with his or her heart being shaped even now by the Spirit.