Routine | Reformation | All Saints

Reformation and All Saints
Yesterday we celebrated the Reformation. Next Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. What I love being about Lutheran is that we stand with one foot in the Protestant world and one foot in the Roman Catholic world. This puts us in an important position when it comes to ecumenical conversation and dialog. Almost ten years ago, churches of the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed an agreement on Reformation Sunday stating we are no longer in disagreement about the central tenet of the Reformation. If you missed the news then, you can read the Joint Declaration on Justification for yourself.

If you would like to read more on the Reformation, I would direct you to the Book of Concord, a collection of all of our Lutheran confessional documents. Reformation Day (October 31) commemorates Martin Luther's posting of his 95 Theses for disputation. As one who likes to argue, I celebrate that it all began with a debate, or rather an invitation to debate. The Augsburg Confession is perhaps the most concise summary of the faith of the Reformers, stating our agreements and disagreements with other Christians.

Most of all, I love reading Luther himself (at least in translation). Since the English edition of his works numbers 55 volumes alone (not including the sermons), it is a little daunting to know where to begin. Here I would point you toward the late Timothy Lull's book, Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings. It is an impressive one-volume collection with introductions to some of Luther's most important works. Reading Luther is always refreshing to me. He has a wonderful way of cutting to the heart of the matter. Reading him directly is so much better than reading a dry biography of him.

For me, this week between Reformation Sunday and All Saints Sunday always calls me to repentance, longing and rejoicing: repentance of my own sinful pride, longing for the full unity of the Church which Christ commands (cf. John, ch. 17), and rejoicing with the company of all the saints who have fought the good fight of faith and witness to Christ for us.

Routine
Our family just returned from some time away. I love vacation. Even as a child it was a nice break from the everyday. However, we cut our trip a little short this year and came home, longing for (you guessed it), the everyday. We missed home. We missed routine.

I think this is one reason why the Church has thought it wise to pray with regularity. The Church borrowed from ancient Israel the concept of morning and evening prayer. And while we do not offer sacrifice at the Temple or Tabernacle as ancient Israel did, we do offer the sacrifice of our lives and our repentant prayers.

Perhaps you already have a set time for daily devotions and prayers. If not, I encourage you to add one, beginning with either morning or evening prayer. Links to orders of service for the home are in this message.

If you don't already have a series of Scripture readings for daily prayer, I would suggest several options:
1) The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer offers a 2-year daily lectionary.
2) The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau publishes this same lectionary in a 4-volume set called For All the Saints. November 30 this year begins Volume 1.
3) In our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal the daily lectionary begins on p. 1121.