This is a Sunday packed with beautiful images, deep-seeded ideas, and a rich history. For life-long Lutherans, these things can provoke a sense of pride in our denomination, but Reformation Sunday is not “Proud Lutheran Day.” Instead it is a day focused on knowing God truthfully and, in light of God’s unbelievable grace, understanding who we are as people of faith and children of God. Luther believed that truth about God and our faith, as complex as it is, should be something we can grasp and wrestle with. The law is like a truth serum where all is revealed… whether we like it or not. But God’s grace is like the antidote that sees the truth and yet forgives and forgets our iniquities and sins. The message of Reformation Sunday is God’s undeserved love for us. It is a love that frees us and reforms us as people of God, and it is a love that calls us to share this good news in the world.
image: Red paint on white space. Photo by Sean Gladwell. Copyright © 2025 Getty Images Plus via Getty Images/Moment Collection. Used by permission.