Reformation Day Remembrance: Resting in God’s Promises

Reformation Day Remembrance: Resting in God’s Promises

In the Lutheran church, the month of October is always remembered as the month of Reformation. We are not tired of hearing that on October 31, 1517—on the eve of All Saints Day—Dr. Luther nailed the invitation to discuss the 95 theses. The theses were concerning the practice of Indulgences—an attempt to financially smooth the way to heaven for the living ones and their relatives who passed away. Nowadays, this practice is very rare. But the attempts to achieve heaven by doing more and more, better and better, are deeply rooted in our hearts. Therefore, we need to remember the Reformation time and time again.

Why We Still Need the Reformation

Reformation is not simply a set of theological propositions. Even though Martin Luther had a Doctor of Theology degree, he cared for the daily lives of the people of God. He first re-introduced the sweet teaching of the Bible to men and women of Wittenberg. Then his teaching went across Germany, Europe, and the whole world. And the sweet teaching of the Bible is the Gospel—the Lord's forgiveness He extends to us in Jesus Christ. Being united with Jesus, we are adopted into the Family, the Church.

The Gospel at the Heart of the Reformation

With the Day of Thanksgiving and the Christmas season approaching, the life of LWML members picks up a faster pace. More and more events fill the calendar: Congregational meetings, LWML sessions and rallies, Christmas parties at the church and school for children and grandchildren, family gatherings…and so on and so forth. And sometimes, one might feel all the events are great and needed for you, the family and children, the church, the LWML. And they are probably great, but I want you to pause for a second and go back to the achievements of the Reformation.

Vocation Frees Us from Holiday Pressure

Luther spent much time trying to explain the ideas of vocation, being a beloved child of God. We are to do many godly acts, but we do them not to become the children of God or to prove that we are. We do not need to prove it—for the proof is found at the Baptismal font where God promised us His love and care. Being the daughter of God frees you to take a deep breath and assess what will be godly and beneficial for you and your family this year.

Planning from Your Identity as God’s Child

Usually, it is the mother's or grandmother's task to plan the festive part of the year. But a mother's vocation is to present the gracious presence of God to the family. So, going through the calendar, you can see what events can be postponed to next year or which responsibilities can be delegated to others.

Resting in God’s Promises

Neither Thanksgiving nor the Christmas season should be seen as a race. We can truly enjoy them, knowing that our status as children of God is safe and secure in God's promises fulfilled in Jesus. And that's why the Reformation is so important—to remind us, time and time again, of the Biblical discovery made by Dr. Martin Luther.

Genesis: Judah and Tamar

 Judah and Tamar

text: Genesis 38

Structure:

A. 38:1-5, Birth of Judah's children

  B. 38:6-11, promise of giving Shelah as a husband

    C. 38:12-18, Tamar got the pledge items

    C'. 38:19-23, Judah can not retrieve his pledge items

  B'. 38:24-26, Judah confesses that didn't gave Shelah to Tamar

A'. 38:27-30, Birth of Judah's children

Comments: There are at least two things that should be said before the comments. First, the length of this story. It takes maybe 5 minutes to read it, but when one puts the years of boys being born, get married, dye, and for Judah to have it right – the span of the narrative occupy 20+ years. Therefore, Judah comes to his senses about the same time when he takes personal responsibilities over the safety of Benjamin (Genesis 43:8) along with stepping up as the spokesman for the brothers negotiating with Joseph whom they have did not recognize (Genesis 44:18). That connects the story with the future part of the narrative – and it is the second point to know prior to the reading. Genesis's author carefully places Judah and Tamar story here to show his conversion and not to intervene the Joseph narrative in the future. We need to understand how Judah converts from being irresponsible selfish man to the head of the household who will end up being the heir of Jacob's blessings, becoming the ruling tribe (Genesis 49:8-12). Now to the text!

Mark ch. 1 and the Seven days of Creation

 

Some people can call me obsessed with the creation story. I am not even going to object – I full heartedly believe that the God created the world, but I also believe that creation activities did not stop at the sunset of the sixth day, with the beginning of the first Shabbat ever. God continued to create and re-create. Yet not His creational activities include people, societies and whole countries. What is most amazing is the fact that creation account – creation-pattern story – can be seen within other lives, novels or developments.

So, Mark chapter 1. What caught my attention was the fact that Jesus + 4 other men ended up in a room with a woman. She was Peter’s mother-in-law. Actually, his name at the time was still Simon, but it is a different story. If we exclude these four men – they were not doing anything important – we’ll end up with Jesus and Simon’s mother-in-law. A Man and a woman being of re-created. Obviously, 6^th day theme. That’s vv.29-31.

Interestingly enough v. 32 begins with “that evening at sundown” – new day. The whole block goes 32 – 45 is a one-day story (it might help to know that in the Bible day goes from sunset to next sunset). During this day he heals people, releases them of demons, therefore he provided them with THE REST – Shabbat story.

Then I started to count back. The story that precedes the healing of the Simon’s in-law is contained within the verses 21-28. What triggered me there was the fact that a demon says to Jesus “WE know who you are”. “We” – plural. It can be understood in a variety of ways. One of them that further down the road Jesus will meet other demon-possessed people (3;11, 5:7). On every occasion demons knew exactly who Jesus is. So, THEY know. During fifth day of creation story God made fish of the sea and birds of the air. And they were made in swarms – plural.

1:1-8 – definitely the story of beginning. Even starts like Gen. 1:1! Another fact that in Gen. 1:2 we have three features of the newly created earth. John the baptizer is also described (v.6) with three verbs (was clothed, wore and ate). The whole passage ends with the mentioning of the Holy Spirit, while Gen 1:2 tells us the the Spirit of God was hovering over the “face of the deep”.  

Second part is vv. 9-11 – the story of the Jesus’s baptism. The parallels to the second day of creation would be – water and the voice from above. It was on the second day when God separated the waters above from waters below.

Then third part would be vv. 12-13 – the wilderness experience. If we remember that it was on the third day that God created the dry land out of the water that parallel presents itself.

The final connection is the passage of vv. 14 to 20 and the fourth day of creation. This is, actually, an easy one. The fourth day of creation tells us about placing sun, moon and stars into the firmament to rule over the earth (Gen. 1:14-16). Therefore, the very fact that the moon of the Gospel account (John the baptizer) was arrested (vv. 14-15), and the Sun of Righteousness – Jesus – gathers up new stars to rule – Simon and Andrew, James and John (vv. 16-20) – make the parallel perfect.

Overall:  Day 1 – vv. 1-8                                                

Day 2 – vv. 9-11                                                                 Day 5 – vv. 21-28

Day 3 – vv. 12-13                                                              Day 6 – vv. 29-31

Day 4 – vv. 14-20                                                              Day 7 – vv. 32-45