Sunday is Reformation Sunday among the Protestant churches (wear plaid). The day is set in commemoration of All Saint’s Eve (October 31) 1517, when the young German monk, Martin Luther, tacked a list of 95 grievances against the medieval church on the door of the chapel at Wittenberg. The date is often sited as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, though the winds of change had been blowing across the church for more than a century.

The great watchwords of the Reformation were “scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone.” Luther and the Reformers insisted that the sole authority for the life of faith, right belief and the ordering of the church was the Bible. And from the pages of scripture they heard a clear and unequivocal message that our justification – our ability to come into a right relationship with God and to “enjoy him forever” – was “by faith through grace.” Salvation is a gift of God received by faith, and that faith itself is a free gift of God to all who believe.

Reformation Sunday is more than a commemorative event, however. We celebrate not just the past, but the reality of our justification before God; God’s gift of faith through grace to us.

So, put on some plaid, but more than that, put on thanks for the great gift of God!