I recently finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The book was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and since I’m on a leisurely journey to read these award-winning works, it was my next find. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of ash and darkness. The two main characters, a father and a son, are “on the road.” They are on a journey to find something, though it is not clear what exactly. Hope, perhaps. Love for sure. Though they try to avoid the dangers and suffering of the road, they cannot. The only path to what they seek is straight through the devastation. No detours. 

​Five hundred and five years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, touching off a debate and conflict that came to be known as The Reformation. Thus ends the most predictable sentence a Lutheran pastor could type in the days leading up to Reformation Day. It would now be predictable to shout the praises of brother Martin and point to the eternal truths revealed in that historic moment. I’m not going to do that. I’m actually tired of doing that.

​Saturday the 15th of September is the day we remember Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a nun and spiritual reformer whose influence on the church continues to grow to this day. One of the most beautiful contributions to the Christian faith she left with us was a reflection on how the incarnate one, Jesus, once raised from the dead continues that incarnation through the faithful. 

​What exactly does it mean to be ordained? It doesn’t really mean that one is called to follow Jesus. That calling comes to every Christian through the sacrament of baptism. To be a Christian is to be called to serve.