October 28th - Reformation Sunday

Reformation Sunday. A holy day. Pastor Dayle taped the 95 Theses on our church door in remembrance of the 490th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

This was also the day for the 9th Graders Affirmation of Baptism. Kate, Jakob, Maggie, Nathan, and Angela made public affirmation of their Baptism at the second service.

It was a music-filled service. The choir sang two pieces, All Are Welcome and God Is Our Refuge and Strength. The congregation joined in on both. The choir also learned Grace Alone and For By Grace You Have Been Saved to insure the congregational singing would be confident on these songs and it was.

Toni gave a stewardship talk introducing this year’s Time and Talents sheets and our Pledge cards. As she talked about Creator’s importance in her family’s life she mentioned how their decision to join Creator was because it was a close local church. She then remarked that the smallest decisions can become the most monumental. I understood exactly what she meant in that reflection and my membership at Creator also came about because of a small decision.

During the Adult Education we discussed the series How Lutherans Interpret The Bible. There were questions about which other denominations viewed the Bible in the way Lutherans do and Pastor Dayle answered most mainline churches. We talked about how the church viewed the writings of Martin Luther in the churches constant reformation.

Pastor Dayle talked about a public apology the ELCA made in 1994 which publicly rejected Luther's anti-Semitic writings, saying "We who bear his name and heritage must acknowledge with pain the anti-Judaic diatribes contained in Luther's later writings. We reject this violent invective as did many of his companions in the sixteenth century, and we are moved to deep and abiding sorrow at its tragic effects on later generations of Jews."

This brought home for me the importance of continuing reformation and owning church history. We sang Martin Luther's hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God within the piece God Is Our Refuge and Strength. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God is a hymn I learned so early in my childhood I remember not knowing what many of the words meant. What comes to us from Martin Luther are writings and thoughts we decide to embrace or reject.

Martin Luther, as Pastor Dayle reminded us, first only wanted to discuss the questions he nailed to the door of Castle church. We may not realize how important it is to keep asking our questions and seeing if our answers remain the same.