October is here…ready or not. That means long sleeves, warmer clothes, shorter days, and all things fall! Pumpkins (in all sorts of ways) and apples (in all kinds) and scarecrows and field corn and the changing of the leaves.
In the life of the church, October brings two holidays which are not and never will have the same effect as Christmas or Resurrection Sunday (and for good reason). But in our heritage as Presbyterians, they’re both fairly important days.
These two special holidays, World Communion Sunday and Reformation Sunday, will be handled below. I hope to impart some of the significance of celebrating these days.
World Communion Sunday
The concept for World Communion Sunday started just about two hours south of Erie at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. The Rev. Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr was the pastor in those days and he believed there needed to be a worldwide celebration of our Christian unity. So, in 1933 while Dr. Kerr was serving also as the Moderator of the General Assembly, he worked hard to bring Christians together of different traditions.
It wasn’t until 1940 and the dark days of World War II that World Communion Sunday took off. As Dr. Kerr’s son, Rev. Dr. Donald Kerr said, “It was during the Second World War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together. World Wide Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together, in a spiritual sense. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Today, World Communion Sunday is celebrated across the globe in many different languages, different cultures, and different worship styles and yet they all highlight one significant fact: Wherever we are, and by whatever name we refer to God, we are all still sisters and brothers of the living Christ whose presence joins us together as his active body in this world.
I hope this October 1 as we celebrate World Communion Sunday here at Church of the Cross, that you will take a moment to reflect on the work of the Spirit drawing us together as people of faith.
Reformation Sunday
While the original events which kickstarted the Protestant reformation were on a Wednesday (October 31, 1517 to be exact) we set aside the last Sunday in October to remember this famous day in our history as Protestant, Reformed Christians.
As we all probably have heard the story, (then) Augustinian monk Dr. Martin Luther went to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany and nailed his 95 Theses thereupon. This document, fully entitled Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences was most likely never nailed to the church door but instead mailed to Albert of Brandberg, the Archbishop of Mainz (although I like the less historical story better!)
Dr. Luther was asking for an academic discourse to be had on 95 objections that he had to the practice of the Christian faith in his day. He was met with a choice: Recant or face excommunication (official expulsion from the grace and ministry of the church). So, in response to this, Dr. Luther and his students at the University of Wittenberg took the books of church law down to the river and burned them.
I guess they got their answer!
He was summoned before the Diet of Worms on April 17, 1521, an imperial and church gathering of princes and prelates of the church and given a chance to recant his words and his actions. Martin Luther famously then said these words:
“Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
Since this time, we Protestant and Reformed Christians have often set aside the last Sunday in October to recall and celebrate our heritage. So, why does it matter for us to celebrate?
Firstly, it’s our story. From Luther in Germany to Calvin in Switzerland and Knox in Scotland, the Reformation is part of our DNA as Reformed Christians.
Secondly, it helps us to remember the core and essential tenets of our faith: God alone grants us grace, mercy and love; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness of God’s words for us; that the church, while important, is not the vehicle of our salvation, but instead Jesus Christ.
Finally, Reformation Sunday challenges us to keep allowing ourselves to be reformed. A famous saying about Reformation Christianity is, “The Church reformed and always being reformed.” This doesn’t mean that we’re always right and every other Christian is wrong or that new things are better than traditional things. What it does mean is that God is always at work in us, always doing a new thing, and is still alive and speaking powerfully to us (if we’re willing to listen). It calls us to seek the Spirit of God and to go with God’s care and reformation of us individually, ecclesiastically, and globally.
Happy Reformation Sunday! We ‘nailed’ it! (love a good pun!)
I hope you will join in our celebrations of these two smaller but important holy days in the life of our worship and praise of God. I hope they will speak to you more powerfully than before!
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