Martin Luther is known as the “Father of the Reformation”. October marks the month when we take time to reflect on what took place within the church during this reformation.  Martin Luther lived in the dark times of the Middle Ages.   It was a time that was marked by disease, death, deceit, greed, and abuse of power.  Yet out of this darkness, through the power of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, Luther placed a powerful light on the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

47 years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to East Germany as a teenager and visit Lutherstadt – Wittenberg.  Now, this October 2023, my wife Jo and I will be traveling to Wittenberg, Germany to attend the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Disaster Response retreat.   We will be joining 12 other couples representing 3 districts (FL/GA, English, and Southern). We will be spending time reflecting on responses to the recent natural disasters that have affected our families and congregations, take time to worship God together, and have the opportunity to walk where Luther and his family walked.

As we prepare for this adventure we are thankful for Pastor Brad and Barb as they stand in our place here at Faith, for the members of Faith who have been so supportive and loving with your thoughts and prayers, and the LCMS Disaster Relief group for inviting Jo and I to attend this seminar.

I thought it appropriate to share the opening lines of Luther’s treatise entitled: “The Freedom of a Christian”  published in November 1520.  The small treatise was dedicated to the Pope “as a token of peace and good hope”.  In Luther’s own words, “It contains the whole of Christian life in a brief form.”

Luther writes:
Many people have considered Christian faith an easy thing, and not a few have given it a place among virtues.  They do this, because they have not experienced it and have never tasted the greatest strength there is in faith.  It is impossible to write well about it or to understand  what has been written about it unless one has at one time or another experienced the courage which faith gives a person when trials oppress them.  But he who has had even a faint taste of it can never write, speak, meditate, or hear enough concerning it.  It is a living “spring of water welling up to eternal life”, as Christ calls it in John 4:14.

“May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord show His kindness
And have mercy on you.
May the Lord watch over you
And give you peace. “ (Numbers 6:24-26)

Pastor Don Treglown