Deuteronomy – Confident.Faith

Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints’ Day. As Easter celebrates the resurrection of Christ, so All Saints’ Day celebrates the resurrection of all those who believe in Him. On this day, we contemplate the scope and scale of Christ’s work — winning for His Kingdom men, women, and children from every tribe and nation. We are, indeed, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. It is such resurrection that allows us to confess that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed”. Today we celebrate with the entire Church catholic the coming eternal Kingdom and the consummation of all things.

Today we celebrate the festival of Reformation Day. On 31 October 1517, an Augustinian monk nailed ninety-five theses, points for discussion, to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. Dr. Martin Luther did not, at the time, intend a break with the Roman church; rather, he sought only to address a number of pressing matters, among them indulgences. Rome, however, wanted nothing of Luther’s suggested discussion, and would eventually excommunicate him, declare him a heretic, and seek his death. Refusing to compromise on the rediscovered Gospel, Luther would go on to translate the New Testament, publish numerous works, and, above all, spark a Reformation that would see the restoration of Christ’s Church, over and against the heresies of Rome. We celebrate Reformation Day in remembrance of God’s great mercy and His steadfast love, of His work through Martin Luther that rescued the Gospel, enabling us to stand and, with Luther, declare of the Truth:

“Hier stehe ich — ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen.”

Or, in English:

“Here I stand — I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”

Today we celebrate the festival of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles. Simon and Jude are typically listed tenth and eleventh when the Apostles are named; Simon is called “the Zealot” and Jude is also known as Judas (not Iscariot) or Thaddeus. According to tradition Simon and Jude, together, spread the Gospel to Persia, where they were martyred, hence we commemorate them on the same day.

Today we commemorate Philipp Nicolai, Johann Heermann, and Paul Gerhardt, Hymnwriters. Philipp Nicolai was a German pastor who lived through the Great Plague, which took the lives of thirteen hundred members of his parish. Despite hardships, he contributed hymns which the Church uses to this day — among them, “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying” and “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”. Johann Heermann was a German pastor who lived through the Thirty Years’ War, and contributed a number of hymns to the corpus. Paul Gerhardt was a German pastor who also lived through the Thirty Years’ War, lost his pastoral position for refusing to compromise his beliefs, and wrote over one hundred hymns; he is regarded as one of Lutheranism’s finest hymnwriters.