Pastor Devin Strong

Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

For most Americans, October 31st is about candy and costumes, horror movies and hoopla. But for Lutherans, it also marks the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and the official beginning of our denomination.

For those of you who are not church history nerds, Martin Luther was born in Germany in 1483. Early in his career, he became a monk to cleanse himself from sin and please God. It was a hopeless task. No matter what he tried, young Marty could not assuage his deep guilt, until he dug into the pages of scripture for himself. Reading the Bible was not easy in those days since there were not a lot of copies lying around, and the Bibles they had were all printed in Latin!

Still, Luther persevered, and what he discovered in the Bible was not the angry God that the priests of his childhood railed about from the pulpits but in fact a loving and gracious God who meets us in the person of Jesus. Jesus’ love, and particularly the Lord’s willing death on the cross, turned young Martin’s heart inside out, and he became closer to God than he had ever known.

The problem, as Luther saw it, was that the church of his day was still teaching about a jealous God who demanded good works to earn God’s approval.

Even worse, a popular brand of church corruption at the time involved the sale of something called indulgences that supposedly allowed believers to buy their family’s way out of God’s doghouse and put them in the express lane to the Pearly Gates. After his own study of scripture, Luther found this, and many other church teachings, unconscionable, so on October 31, 1517, the rabblerousing monk posted his 95 theses on the door of the biggest church in town. These nearly 100 arguments were Luther’s way of challenging church authorities to a major theological debate, which eventually resulted in Martin Luther being kicked out of the Roman Catholic Church, the only church there was at the time. After his death, Luther’s followers split off from Rome and formed what is now the Christian denomination that bears his name. In time, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists also formed their own churches.

But why did Luther start all this on Halloween? Because there was no Halloween yet! In Christian countries at the time, the big holiday was All Saints Day on November 1st. This was a day for faithful believers to remember their relatives who had passed away. Since November 1st was a big feast day, Luther reasoned that his protest would get more attention if he did it on the night before All Saints Day, All Hallows Eve. Our modern Halloween traditions grow out of the thought that wayward ghosts and goblins probably roam the earth on the night before the All Saints celebration, that and it’s a great way to sell candy!

So why does October 31st matter in the church? Because Christians of every tribe need to realize that the church is never done reforming. Believers, and their institutions, are always a work in progress. We must regularly ask ourselves, have we moved away from God? Do our beloved traditions speak meaningfully to searching people today? How can we Christians better represent God in the world? The Reformation never ends.