This coming Sunday is Reformation Sunday, the day we celebrate when the continental reformer Martin Luther took his 95 theses and nailed them to the door of the Wittenberg church door, for public debate.

Luther was not the only Reformer, but we identify him as the one who sparked off the flame of reformation across Europe that saw the birth of Protestantism.

Those early pro-testers, protestants, defied the Pope and the Roman Catholic church. They worked for the reform of individuals and the church knowing that reformation only happens by the word of God. It was Scripture which had the authority, and by the Bible being available to everyone, change swept through individuals, churches, and nations.

Eventually the cinders of reformation landed in England and we here are the beneficiaries of the English reformation and eventually the work of the puritans who sought a purer form of worship provided by that which is most dear to us, the word of God centring in Christ Jesus.

We celebrate the Reformation today.

But I wonder, how? How do we, how ought we celebrate Reformation Sunday? Particularly, what does Reformation Sunday invite us to do?

At Christmas we thank God for coming into the world as a man, Jesus.

At Easter we celebrate that sin is dealt with on the cross and life eternal won by the resurrection of Christ.

When it’s someone’s birthday we congratulate them on reaching another year.

What does Reformation Sunday invite us to do?

One of the great slogans of the Reformation was semper reformanda (the church reformed is always reforming). As the Bible shows us we even as the people of God are still people who are fallen, who still sin, and this means that personal reformation of our hearts does not end. If we think we have made it in this area we are mistaken. For our hearts are always reforming by the Word of God.

If this is their slogan, and by conviction it remains our slogan, then Reformation Sunday invites us to carry on the torch, and in a sense do what the Reformers did.

Today we will open the Bible and let the word of God speak to us so that we are again reformed by it.

As well as this, we will, like those Reformers, take a look at our society and see how the Word speaks to a population in desperate need for the fresh breath of revival and reformation of the heart again.

Happy Reformation Sunday to you all!

Always reforming, Russ