Reformation for All the Saints

All Saints Day – November 1^st, A+D 2026
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Reformation for All the Saints 
John 8:31-36 and Revelation 7:9-15 

Audio of the sermon available HERE.  

   Martin Luther is reported to have said that the Devil and Pope Leo X had forced him to become a good theologian. 

   On this All Saints Day, we are also looking a back one day to October 31^st, the day Luther sparked the Reformation that came to bear his name, by posting his 95 Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  On this combined festival day, I will humbly suggest another source for Luther’s growth in God’s Word and service.

   What Luther meant is that Pope Leo’s opposition to him, which in time Luther came to believe was inspired by the Devil, had forced him to dig deeper and deeper into God’s Word, so he could respond.  Leo excommunicated Luther, threw him out of the Church.  The Pope’s theologians defamed him, falsely accusing him of heinous things.  And, Luther was declared an outlaw, subject to arrest and execution, thanks to Leo’s ally, the Holy Roman Emperor.  Fortunately for the cause of the Gospel, German princes protected Luther, and Germans also proved most adept with publishing, using the new information technology of the printing press.  Luther’s ideas spread like wildfire, despite Rome’s attempts to discredit and destroy him. 

   Put yourself in Luther’s shoes for a minute.  Martin was a loyal son of the Church, a serious soul who wanted to be faithful.  As a monk and a priest, as well as a teacher of the Bible at the University of Wittenberg, Luther’s whole life was tied up in and depended on the Church.  Ironically, Luther’s crisis began when he was made a professor, and so had to dig deeply in the Scripture in order to teach the future clergy who passed through his lecture hall. 

   Now, being given time to study God’s Word is great.  Biblical study has been at the heart of my daily tasks for more than a quarter of a century, and I have just as much, if not more enthusiasm for digging into the Word today, as I did the first day I sat down in Summer Greek class. 

   Luther clearly loved studying God’s Word.  However, as his knowledge deepened, he discovered more and more clear contradictions between what the Church officially taught and what Scripture plainly said.  Which was a problem, because Luther had been taught since childhood that the Pope was God’s specially chosen representative on earth, whose authority was always to be respected, and obeyed.  On top of that, Leo was one of, if not the most powerful political figure in all of Europe.  Correct him at your peril.

   Luther’s conflict with Leo would come later.  In 1517, posting his 95 theses, he was not rejecting papal authority.  Rather, he was simply asking for a theological debate about a few questions that had arisen.  And it is the reason for Martin’s concern over these questions which shows us another cause for his growth as a theologian. 

   Pope Leo was a big spender.  The construction of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo’s pet project, was bogged down, and required an infusion of cash.  By the way, we are talking about the same St. Peter’s Basilica that is the Pope’s home church in Rome today.  Leo sent out preachers to raise funds for his basilica, by selling indulgences.  Into the Wittenberg area came the Friar Johann Tetzel, staging special public gatherings at which he preached, the goal of his sermon being to motivate his hearers to purchase indulgences. 

   An indulgence was a piece of paper with a papal seal which promised full forgiveness, either to the purchaser, or to a designated deceased relative of the purchaser.  The sales ditty went like this: “When the coin into the money box rings, another soul from purgatory springs!” 

   What’s this all about?  Good question.  The official position of the Roman church was that the Pope controlled a treasury of merits, extra forgiveness earned by super-pious saints over the centuries, which the Pope could grant to whomever he wished.  Which he dispensed by selling these these indulgences.  Selling forgiveness, in order to finish his church building.  What a deal! 

   There was just one thorny problem with the plan.  Martin Luther was not only a monk and a university professor of the Bible; Martin was also a parish pastor, to two congregations, the Castle Church, and St. Mary’s in town.  And, as anyone who has carefully read the Bible can tell, indulgences are never mentioned.  In fact, Isaiah and the Gospels and St. Paul all state very clearly that forgiveness is a free gift. 

   But very few souls could read the Bible in 16^th century Europe, and so indulgences were old hat, and very lucrative.  And yet, Luther had never protested before.  What was different this time?  Johann Tetzel was in Luther’s backyard, selling a false bill of goods to Martin’s members. 

   Being pastor to all the saints in Wittenberg seems to have been the spark that set Luther off.  And I get it.  Many questionable things are said and done in the name of Christianity, both outside and within of our beloved Missouri Synod.  I do not have time or energy to respond to everything that seems contrary to God’s Holy Word.  But if an error, whether by someone inside our Church body or outside, begins to impact the lives and the faith of my family, or my church family, people whom I have been called to care for, then I will respond, with vigor.  It is the saints, the believers, that matter to Christ our Good Shepherd, and so also to an undershepherd, a faithful local pastor and preacher. 

   And it’s not that I’m so noble or virtuous.  There is simply something about a pastor and people together, sharing God’s true Word.  As Isaiah teaches us, God’s Word is living and active, it does things, it changes us.  Living from the Gospel, together within a congregation, creates a bond.  I suppose we could say all the saints at any given congregation matter because they are a microcosm of the glorious congregation of All the Saints in heaven, worshiping around the throne of God and of the Lamb.  That future is worth fighting for.   

   Luther’s righteous anger at Tetzel misleading his members started an argument.  But on October 31^st, 1517, Luther was not yet very Lutheran, that is to say, his clarity and focus on the Gospel of free forgiveness was not strong.  His first thesis is great: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent!, He meant that the whole life of the Christian should be one of repentance.”  Turn from your sin and flee to Christ, every day: this is the paradoxical but wonderful life of the Christian on this earth.  As the father of the demon possessed boy cried out to Jesus in Mark chapter nine: “Lord I believe!  Help me with my unbelief!”  Christians need forgiveness every day, and Jesus is always ready to deliver it.     

   The first of 95 theses is great.  The other 94?  Not so much.  Not so clear.  Luther still assumed many errors in Church practice that contradict God’s Word.  For example, he did not in the 95 theses reject the non-Biblical idea that purgatory exists in the first place, that God has made this horrible halfway house for deceased Christians to suffer, until they work off their remaining sins.  Purgatory is a total fabrication.  Luther had a lot of growing to do. 

   And consider the events happening in Wittenberg on Oct. 31^st and Nov. 1^st, 1517.  November 1^st has long been All Saints Day, or in older language, (still echoed in first petition of the Lord’s Prayer), ‘All Hallows Day,’ the Day for all the Hallowed, or Holy Ones.  This by the way made October 31^st ‘All Hallows Eve,’ which we have shortened down to ‘Halloween.’ 

   Did the Wittenbergers dress up in ghoulish costumes and beg for candy?  No, but there was a festival, and it was a little gruesome.  On All Saints there was a festival to show off relics, supposed remnants of Biblical items, or bits and pieces of the physical remains of saints.  Supposed slivers of the true cross, (enough to build Noah’s Ark, probably), fingers of this or that Apostle, “uncorrupted” bodies of early church martyrs.  Gathering to venerate these relics was a big deal in the 16^th Century Church, and a big money maker.  The pilgrims who come to see the relics will need to eat, and a place to stay, and may want some mementos of their time.  Cha-ching, cha-ching.    

   Here’s another issue: in the 16^th Century, All Saints Day was not for celebrating all the believers that have been made holy in Christ, which is the Biblical meaning of ‘saint.’  Rather, All Saints was for celebrating only those “super-Christians” whom Rome had declared to be saints, famous figures, so important in the Medieval Church that Christians were taught to pray to them.  Rather than pray directly to the Father in the Spirit, through Jesus, as Scripture teaches, souls were taught to pray to other deceased souls, without any Biblical warrant for the practice.  There is no Biblical command or promise from God about praying to saints. 

   But Luther said nothing about relics or praying to the saints on October 31^st, 1517.  He only complained about the selling of indulgences, which tempted his members to put their hope in a piece of paper, instead of looking to Jesus, crucified and resurrected, the One who had claimed them in Baptism, the One who fed them the fruit of His Cross in His Supper.

 

  The Reformer, in due time, after the spark had grown into a raging fire, would recognize and reject these errors, and many others.  But Luther needed to grow as a theologian first.  Accidentally sparking a Reformation is what forced this.  And Luther lit that spark because he was a good pastor, concerned for the souls, for all the saints, that he was called to serve.   

 

   What might we take away from the Reformation for All the Saints?  First, defending and maintaining the truth of Scripture is good and right to do, just because it is God’s Word.  But defending God’s truth is never only for the sake of truth.  Good theologizing never occurs in a vacuum.  Maintaining God’s Truth is always also about God’s saints, His holy children, whose faith and salvation are threatened when God’s Truth is lost or denied.  Reformation, returning to the Truth of Scripture, is always for the good of all the saints.  

   God the Father has given us His Word, through Prophets, Apostles and most especially through the living voice of His only-begotten Son, made man, the Savior Jesus Christ.  He did not do this just to sound good, not just for Truth’s sake.  Rather, He gave us the Truth to save our souls.  Like when Jesus spoke the truth to the Jews in John chapter 8, in order to set them free from their slavery to sin.  The Truth of Christ, and only the Truth of Christ, will set you free, free indeed.   

   God grant us to share His focus on souls as we live as His people in our time and place.  It is good to have the correct understanding of the Scriptures, in truth, this is absolutely vital.  But never to puff ourselves up.  Such pride of self, pride of how right we are about theology, can quickly become a particularly harsh form of spiritual slavery.  No, we sinners are necessarily humble about ourselves.  We maintain the truth in order to stay free, and to help each other and our neighbors also become and remain free.  Freedom in Christ, from sin and eternal death, the blood bought gift of Jesus for sinners.  Good News indeed.  Amen.

 

Closing Paragraph, not used on 261101

  To close, what is the heart of God’s saving Truth?  It is the Gospel, the Good News that, despite what we deserve for our sinful rebellion against God, the Father has sent His Son to be born of a woman, and to live the perfect human life, fulfilling the requirements of the Law, in the place of us sinners.  Then, to set us free from the guilt and punishment our sins have earned, the Son suffered and died, on a Roman cross, and under God’s wrath, so that in Him, there is no punishment left for sin.  All is forgiven, in the resurrected Christ.  The Holy Spirit then, working through the Word proclaimed in the Church, delivers that Word of faith to sinners like you and me.  All who confess their sins and trust in this Promise are justified, declared righteous and holy before God, true saints, set free in the Son, free indeed, forever and ever, Amen.