Today is, for most people in the western world, a day of "spooky fun" largely unmoored from its liturgical roots as "All Hallows Eve" and its probable pagan antecedents. It is a celebration that has always left me somewhat cold, not because of any fear of sinister forces behind it, but because I don't really do "organised fun" at the best of times. I have let my creative imagination run riot with children's costumes in the past - although the mummy costume that Owain had to endure at one point, including splints on his arms and legs to ensure the proper gait, and slightly over-the top make-up for a 10 year old was probably too much...
But for those of a historical and theological bent, the 31st of October is also the day that Martin Luther allegedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church, the 16th century equivalent of a blog post, intending to start a bit of a debate, but unexpectedly lighting the fuse of a theological stack of dynamite that would blow the western church apart... We are still picking up pieces of shrapnel more than 500 years later. There is a lot of debate about the historical accuracy of the accounts of this event, never mind the repercussions... These are some of my musings early this morning... there aren't 95 of them and I am not nailing them to any door... Rather I am sitting here posting them online waiting for hoards of marauding trick or treaters to come banging on my door...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Nailed it!
Fixed to a fabled door,
A list of disputations
Long-since-resolved,
But that doorway inevitably led
To another feud within a family,
Supposed to be distinguished
by their love for one another.
It freed many hearts and minds
To discover truth for themselves,
Exploring the frontiers of faith,
And ultimately stepping over
The threshold to informed denial.
But also condemned millions
To domination and death
By petty pontiffs who (deliberately)
Confuse faith with certainty
And piety with power.
Martin,
in your mid-night strainings,
Might you think again?
Is it worth the ink, and blood?
Think about a prior conjunction
Of hammer, nail and wood,
And consider,
Might there be another way?
A list of disputations
Long-since-resolved,
But that doorway inevitably led
To another feud within a family,
Supposed to be distinguished
by their love for one another.
It freed many hearts and minds
To discover truth for themselves,
Exploring the frontiers of faith,
And ultimately stepping over
The threshold to informed denial.
But also condemned millions
To domination and death
By petty pontiffs who (deliberately)
Confuse faith with certainty
And piety with power.
Martin,
in your mid-night strainings,
Might you think again?
Is it worth the ink, and blood?
Think about a prior conjunction
Of hammer, nail and wood,
And consider,
Might there be another way?
Selah
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