Sunday of the Reformation

October 25, 2026

About four years ago, my son James had a seizure that left him non-responsive. The doctors and nurses in the ER were working frantically to save him. It wasn’t looking good. A hospital chaplain came. “Do you want me to pray with you?”

“That depends,” I replied. “Are you going to pray in the name of Jesus?”

He answered, “Is that really what matters right now?”

“Yes.” I sent the chaplain away. We didn’t need thoughts and prayers. We needed Jesus. At the hour of crisis, that’s the only thing that matters.

Forget politeness. When life brings us, with Job, to the dung heap, the only thing to do is confess the Redeemer. Solus Christus. Only Christ saves.

Life offers clarifying moments. Someone sues you. They’re going to take your reputation, your job, your peace. Sometimes a devil or a bishop comes, trying to take your life … take your goods, fame, child, wife.

Let these all be gone! They still have nothing won. If we have Jesus, then we have everything. The kingdom ours remaineth. Without Jesus, we have nothing.

For the catholics of the Augsburg Confession, for the catholics at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, the Reformation was not an act of rebellion. The Reformation was not schismatic. The Reformation was all about putting Jesus back in the center. Stripping away all accretions, the Reformation went back to the sources. The Reformers showed that medieval councils and popes had departed from the Bible, and departed from the teachings of the fathers. New doctrines had been added, definitions were changed, the Gospel obscured.

The conflict over indulgences raised the deepest question: When life and death, heaven and hell are on the line, what actually matters?

Jesus. His Words, His work, trumps every council and pope.

The peddlers of indulgences said, “Buy!” Jesus said, “Repent!”

In Luther’s day, the church had forgotten how to repent. Money and certain actions defined repentance and earned forgiveness. Repentance was a thing you did, not a change of heart and life. What set the Reformation in motion was this simple statement Luther posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent!’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” That’s the first of The Ninety-five Theses. It launched a repentance movement that could not be stopped. Previous reformers like Jan Hus were tortured and killed. Frederick the Wise protected Luther, allowing reform to continue. But we must never make this repentance movement about Luther.

The repentance movement we call the Reformation was not about Luther. The repentance movement we call the Reformation was not about Germany. The Reformation was about pointing people back to Jesus. “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent!’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Five centuries later, even Reformation churches have forgotten this. Go to Germany, and you can find Luther’s picture on trinkets, but his teaching forgotten.

Luther the nationalist, Luther the rebel, Luther the marketer lives. Luther the preacher of repentance and Jesus, is largely forgotten.

We need no recovery of his memory. We only need the Scriptures, the voice of Jesus calling our hearts and our congregation to reform. The indulgences of our day are the ones we allow ourselves, excusing and justifying the sin in our own lives. The words call still to us across the centuries: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent!’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Does your entire life demonstrate repentance? Or are you holding something back? Are you better than those medieval peasants who dropped coins into a box imagining they’d escape purgatory? At least they acknowledged sins’ cost. You sin, and abuse the gospel to keep on doing it.

Lutherans started schools so peasants could read the Bible. Do you have a college education yet leave your Bible unopened. You have time to play, but take no time to pray. You have money for mansions but no money for missions. You want everyone else to change, but you remain captive to the same besetting sins.

Luther’s words last because they weren’t his. He simply repeated what Jesus said: “Repent!” What’s it mean? “Change your mind. Turn and become different. Re-form your life as a disciple of Jesus.”

To the penitent, the Lord Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid. I forgive you, I will be with you, in every trouble.”

Trouble besets our world. Frauds govern us. False teachers plague the church. Islam again invades Christian lands, but there aren’t many Christians left. But take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, still we have everything we need. We have Christ and His Gospel. We have Baptism and Christ’s Supper. We have the Bible, and a parochial school to teach our children how to read it.

In that Bible is every treasure. Are you afraid? Pray Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to You!” Are you sad? The Scriptures console us, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” Each new morning we have words to praise Him, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” And when you are dying, “Lord Jesus, remember me in Your kingdom; into Your hands I commend my spirit.”

The Scriptures give the Lord’s promises to you: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

And daily the Bible guides you: “Little children, love one another.” “As far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men.”

This is reform, not revolution.

Revolutionaries smashed crucifixes; reformers keep them. They preach the saving death of Jesus.

Revolutionaries discarded the calendar; Lutherans reformed it, for by it we remember the Advent of our Lord, His suffering in Lent, His death on Good Friday, His resurrection on Easter, His Ascension, and His gift of the Spirit on Pentecost.

Revolutionaries scorned sacraments; reformers returned sacraments to Christ’s institution.

The Reformation started no new church; she returned to catholic doctrine, orthodox worship, before the abuses.

We still need Reformation. Prayer and piety, good works and charity – our lives and homes and congregation needs reform.

We are saved by faith alone. But faith is never alone. The Lord calls us to work. And as He began a good work in us, He promises to bring it to completion.

Reformation begins in our hearts. We pray, “Reform me, O Lord, and conform me to Your image.”

I had hoped to come up with something really profound and eloquent for Reformation Sunday. But all I have is this: Christ alone saves. Place Your faith in Him. His grace is sufficient. His Scriptures are clear, and they alone are infallible.

Repent of your sins. Keep the Reformation going. Receive Christ’s gifts. Rejoice.

Repent. Reform. Receive. Rejoice.