One could rightly say, that we Lutherans probablay (sic), find Reformation Day, a little passé (Look, I made a rhyme!). That rhyme may be the most exciting aspect of this tedious contribution to the October 2026 Parish Rebuilder, or maybe not. You decide.

For roughly 500 years, Lutherans have marked the 31st of October as Reformation Day. On that day in 15?? (do you know which year?), Martin Luther posted in Ninety-five Theses against Indigestion (how many of them have you ever read?) because he suffered from a steady diet of bratwurst and sauerkraut. Contributing to this situation, while in the monastery Brother Martin distinguished himself by taking all that monkey business so seriously that it probably exacerbated his troublesome tummy. This ailment grew ever worse, and finally Luther decided that he could no longer stomach the mayhem in the church. So, gaining renewed intestinal fortitude, Luther developed the Reformation Diet of Worms and launched the now renowned celebration of Halloween! See, so boring.

Of course, the Lutheran understanding of the Reformation encompasses much more than Luther publishing his Ninety-five Theses. When posting them, Luther was seeking to correct an abuse of church theology and practice which the pope and some bishops were using to line their pockets with payments for penance which seemed much more satisfactory for sinners than actually doing their penance.

In the Roman Church, then and now, committing sins has two aspects. First, one has broken a commandment of God or of the church, and second, breaking a commandment meant that somehow somewhere damage has been done. So, to address both problems, one first goes to a priest to confess one’s sins and to receive absolution. Then, the priest assigns some task to do to compensate for the damages caused by sinning.

In my standard example, if you steal Billy’s basket ball, you have broken (which?) commandment, and Billy is deprived of his basketball. So, to address this mess, you trot off to church, confess your sins to the priest, received absolution from the priest, and then, it is up to the priest to prescribe penance. For penance, he could instruct you to return Billy’s basketball or to buy Billy a new basketball or perhaps to say ten Hail Mary’s, which is actually more appropriate for stealing Billy’s football (do you remember this example from last year? – so boring). If you should kick the basketball (die) before doing your penance, you end up in purgatory not passing Go and not collecting $200 to buy indulgences to reduce your time in purgatory.

As we know, Luther challenged this and many other unscriptural notions which had infested and still infest the Roman Church. Through the word of God in both law and gospel, however, Luther rediscovered the gospel-filled doctrine that sinners are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, thus demythologizing the church. In other words, because we pathetic sinners had completely sabotaged our relationship with God, only God could save us by sending his son in human flesh to recreat our relationship with him. God did and does this purely as a gift.

That is why Reformation Day is so boring. There is nothing for us Lutherans to do to effect our salvation. Nothing! As a consequence, we Lutherans just sit around looking at each other wondering all the while, now what? That is when the mischievous sinner in us says, “Well, since it is the 31st of October, we could do something exciting like dress up in ghoulish costumes and go trick-or-treating, right?”

While passing out free sweet treats to tots, would we not rather prefer to give the gift of God’s word which creates a living faith in sinners? When was the list time you affixed a slip of paper with a Bible verse to those pieces of candy for trick-or-treaters on Halloween or maybe even one of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses against Indulgences?

If you were freed from a great burden or debt or injury or malady with no cost or effort on your part, what would you do? Among the many possibilities, it is probably highly likely that you would tell someone about this great happening in your life. We human beings speak, and we find it almost impossible not to tell someone when something bad or good has happened to us.

For centuries, the church buried the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone under a monolith of mendacity. Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel, that we are saved on account of Christ as a free gift, is an amazing reality which we find almost too good to believe. The secular world and even many “Christian” denominations bury this truth again and again in one exciting way or another by turning the gospel of salvation into something which we need to do, earn, achieve, or prove.

For us Lutherans, however, knowing that there is nothing which we can do towards our salvation is both a relief and a release to share this same gift of God’s word and love with others. Whereas we cannot earn salvation by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, in such sharing we are giving God’s gift of salvation to others. Give it a try. The recipients might actually find this good news quite exciting. If so, there is no need to worry. In due course, we can help them become boring, do-nothing-for-our-salvation Lutherans like the rest of us.