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| ps from psWe’re a few days away from our annual celebration of the Reformation. Once a year on Reformation Sunday, we remember and celebrate what the Holy Spirit did through Martin Luther and the movement that began the Protestant Reformation. Luther and those that followed CHANGED the church! All because of reading Scripture and hearing about God’s grace for each of them. Quick review: Luther was a Catholic priest. He read the Bible, especially verses like Ephesians 2:8-10 where it says “for by grace you have been saved through faith…..not because of works…” This new understanding of what God was really trying to tell us in the Scriptures propelled him to detail out 95 things he thought should be changed to match up the church better to these grace filled Scriptures. Church didn’t like his ideas. Church kicked him out. Luther kept reading and preaching about God’s grace. People started hearing, maybe for the first time, that they were unconditionally loved by God and that good news alone could change their lives and therefore they could change the world. And 500 years later, here we are. Lutherans. Methodists. Episcopalians. Baptists. And more. Each church still changing and trying to change the world. So if I asked you today: “what would you change in the church/world today?” Could you match Luther’s movement? Seems like a lot for a rainy Wednesday in WNY with the Bills on a slight losing streak. So…. what if we scaled the Reformation back a tad. To a reformation. And just looked in the mirror today and started a new reformation right there. In us! Just in us. What if you re-read that Ephesians 2 text: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Do you hear it speaking directly to you? Just you! That you are unconditional loved by God! With that in mind, what would change in us? What could change through us? Knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God, how does that change how we feel about ourselves? Knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God, how does that change how we love….forgive…support our family and friends? Knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God, how does that change how we deal with stranger or those that don’t look like us, come from the same place or love the same way? Knowing that we are unconditionally loved by God, and that we are empowered by that love and created to do good, how does that change the work we do today to be ministry instead of just a job or a timecard we punch? What if we start with that reformation? What if we move from macro-church-changes to micro-church-changes? What if we let this good news seep into every other day of our family and work life, above and beyond Sunday? That would be a Reformation Celebration for sure. And that feels like enough for a Wednesday. Lord, thanks for the Reformation. May the reformation continue today. In me. Amen. Still in One Peace, ps |
October 22, 2025
