Reformation Day Fun!!
Halloween freaks me out. It's just weird. We dress little kids up like bloody murderers, witches, ghosts, and SpongeBob SquarePants. We reward their freaky costumes with loads of candy. It's just weird...and a little freaky. I decided to do research on this crazy holiday and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed:
Read the not-so-freaky history of Halloween Here
So, instead of celebrating Halloween, I submit that we all celebrate Reformation Day!! Come on! It'll be fun!
Reformation Day fun can include the following activities:
-Playing Nail the 95 Theses on the Door (like Pin the Tail on the Donkey)-Making up our own indulgences and then throwing them in a huge bonfire
-Showing the movie Martin Luther on a huge screen on the seminary lawn
-Holding a drama contest for a reenactment of Luther's "Tower Experience"
-Wearing red
-Eating only Gummy Worms all day
-Playing "RECANT!" (A fun game where half of the people yell out RECANT! And then try to look really mean. The other half of the people yell out in unison "I neither can nor will recant anything, for it is neither safe nor right to act against one's conscience!"
Who's in?
posted by Nikki Leigh Daniel @ 10/23/2005 10:43:00 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
Why gummy worms? What am I missing?
That is hilarious! Somebody get the Dr. M's on board and make it an official holiday on Southern's campus... anybody, anybody??
Aww... every time I played recant in elementary school I ended up in the mush pot with cooties
...or was that duck, duck, recant?
Making up our own indulgences and throwing them in a bonfire...my Reformation Day favorite!
Doing this while circling the bonfire, dressed in garb from the 16th century, and chanting the 95 thesis in unision is also a great variation of this classic game. Recommended for ages 12-97
Diet of Worms, Alex. Diet of Worms.
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woops, that's:
http://www.theopedia.com/Halloween
Reformation Day?
An equally frightening holiday-- if I do say so myself.
Perhaps, in the spirit of Luther, you can also arbitrarily denounce various parts of the Bible. Then, you could run around with scissors and cut various books out of the Bible (Including Hebrews, James, and Revelation), chanting "Epistles of Straw! Epistles of Straw!" Then perhaps you can encourage one another to "Sin boldly, but believe even more boldly". Ick, ick, ick.
Honestly, from a Catholic perspective, that's as scary as it gets. I understand most here will disagree with me, and I can respect that. But I do hope that you'll recognize (in the very least) that the Lutherans and various groups had to "one up" Mr. Luther in order to right some of the man's numerous shortcomings, and the influence they had when he invented his own church.
From a personal point of view, some of Luther's hangups with the Church at the time were very apt. Certainly the SELLING of indulgences (oftentimes folks would also dress up as priests and monks, SELLING indulgences and counterfeit relics as an easy way to acquire money-- there is a very expansive picture to it-- more than just a few corrupt religious here and there). The way in which he approached them in the end (by leaving the Church, and he had not even intended to do so at first) is what we Catholics disagree with. Furthermore, many of these things were never backed by the Church in the first place. If to put it in modern terms, think of various bishops/ and or presbuteri who support abortion-- The Church is adamantly against such. Just because a few dissenting wackos spout off here and there does not mean that it is the official stance. That would be a fallacy of composition.
Lastly, I can never grasp (biblically, historically, or doctrinally) how he could excuse the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, when Luther was telling his followers how to interpret the Bible in this mode of interpretation (albeit from a far different way than the Church). I mean, lets face it, the man had a lot of control, and various others would exert influence based on their personal preferences after him (James Arminius, Servetus, Zwingli, Queen Elizabeth. Monsieur Jean Cauvin, lol).
I believe that if Luther were listening to the Holy Spirit and relying on the Lord instead of his own intelligence (I'm paraphrasing a Proverb, here), perhaps today he would have been viewed as the type of Reformer along the lines of St. Francis of Asissi (Indeed a Reformer).
But then again, my very, very partisan two cents.
God bless,
Danny
Hey Nick, it is Justin Edgar. I wanted to write to this most recent post witht he hopes of emailing or talking with you. You know what's funny, is that a friend of mine had a ref. day party at his church last year, with a more serious bent to it. They did play some of the games you mentioned, and were quite serious about it. My buddy who is an RUF director laughed about it for days. Anyway, I hope to hear from you. Email me at justin@wpclubbock.org
Nikki, this is totally off topic, but if my sister ever gives you anything to post about me on your blog, I am hereby requesting as your good old favoriteguybuddyfromHawaii not to do it. Remember who gave you some last minute Amabassador tour advice? And remember who told you to even ask my sister about help with your wedding in the first place? Hmmm? Just remember, I'd do the same for you!
I'm not sure I understand what's going on here.
This is Harvey Brown.
I'm not sure what Bolo is talking about... I think that's an A-B conversation, so the rest of us are supposed to C our way out of it! haha!
But seriously, I love some good controversy, and was quite pleased to see Spider in a Mason Jar made his way over here. Speaking of Reformation Day, the funny thing is that I grew up Lutheran and I don't know if we ever so much as thought about the anniversary of the 95 Theses. But you do gotta admit that Luther was a bit of a wacko with apparently excellent leadership skills.
Before you go singing Luther's praises you should do a little more research on his views about the anabaptists (ancestors of the baptists) and their theology and practices.
Also you might want to resereach Indulgences, they aren't something one could exactly throw anywhere, especially a fire.
Luther wrote in a 1536 pamphlet:
"That seditious articles of doctrine should be punished by the sword needed no further proof. For the rest, the Anabaptists hold tenets relating to infant baptism, original sin, and inspiration, which have no connection with the Word of God, and are indeed opposed to it . . . Secular authorities are also bound to restrain and punish avowedly false doctrine . . . For think what disaster would ensue if children were not baptized? . . . Besides this the Anabaptists separate themselves from the churches . . . and they set up a ministry and congregation of their own, which is also contrary to the command of God. From all this it becomes clear that the secular authorities are bound . . . to inflict corporal punishment on the offenders . . . Also when it is a case of only upholding some spiritual tenet, such as infant baptism, original sin, and unnecessary separation, then . . . we conclude that . . . the stubborn sectaries must be put to death."
(Martin Luther: pamphlet of 1536; in Johannes Janssen, History of the German People From the Close of the Middle Ages, 16 volumes, translated by A.M. Christie, St. Louis: B. Herder, 1910 [orig. 1891]; Vol. X, 222-223)
This is all getting confusing and scary. Let's all just love Jesus.
Sean, you're not saying you're a Catholic are you?
Sister Nikki: I heard your on the worship team at Sojourn. I'm fixing to join. We'll even be in the same community group and can talk about my ideas for worship.
This has been Harvey Brown again.
if we all continue to do our homework, we'll find that the Anabaptists had a few funky ideas and practices of their own. They were imperfect times inhabited by imperfect people.
Think of it this way. When we celebrate the 4th of July, are we celebrating that George Washington owned slaves and that Jefferson and Adams were Deists? um ... i don't think so.
Sometimes I wonder if Harvey Brown is even be a real person ... but I have to agree with him here ... Love Jesus.
While I certainly would fault Luther for his penchant for wanting to get rid of certain parts of Scripture... we need to remember that one of his great contributions was in giving the Scripture to people. Before Luther, few clergy, let alone laity, even had access to the Bible. The fact that you can deride him for hating Hebrews is a testament to the way you have benefitted from his reformation.
First of all, I want to apologize (to Nikki, especially) that I sort of "threadjacked" this topic. Perhaps for future reference, it would be more fitting for debates at Sean's blog: http://summavitae.blogspot.com
Secondly, I want to apologize for merely cutting and pasting only one source for now for this response to the most recent post from AlexF (due to the fact that I have to go to work right now), but here goes:
[Before the modern printing press was invented in the mid-15th century, Bibles were chained at libraries not in order to "keep them from the people," as the stereotype goes, but rather, to protect them from thieves, so the common people could have more access to them, as books were very expensive. This practice persisted long after 1517 in Protestant countries such as England, since older books would have continued to be very valuable. Every Protestant (even the most anti-Catholic sort) ought to be profoundly thankful to the Catholic Church, without which they would not possess their Bible.
Nor is it at all true that the Catholic Church was opposed to the printing and distribution of Bible translations in vernacular languages (it did oppose some Protestant translations which it felt were inaccurate). For instance (utterly contrary to the myths in this regard which are pathetically promulgated by the movie Luther), between 1466 and the onset of Protestantism in 1517 at least sixteen editions of the Bible appeared in German, with the full approval of the Catholic Church:
High German:
Strasburg: 1466, 1470, 1485
Basel, Switzerland: 1474
Augsburg: 1473 (2), 1477 (2), 1480, 1487, 1490, 1507 [also in 1518]
Nuremburg: 1483
Low German:
Cologne: 1480 (2)
Lubeck: 1494
Halberstadt: [1522]
Delf: [before 1522]
(From Johannes Janssen, History of the German People From the Close of the Middle Ages, 16 vols., translated by A.M. Christie, St. Louis: B. Herder, 1910 [orig. 1891], vol. 1, 56-57, vol. 14, 388)]
Cited from:
http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ244.HTM#IV.%20The%20One%20Glaring%20and%20Unfair%20Distortion%20of
God bless,
Danny
This is Harvey Brown.
Let me get this straight. There is a "stuffed bunny" running around this blog and several other blogs that I have visited, and "he" even has his own blog. And no one says an odd word about it. But then I am suspected as not being real.
And my brothers -- the Catholics pray to Mary. Beware the leaven.
We ask Mary to intercede for us. Just like you would ask anyone else to intercede for you. The communion of the saints includes the ones we can and can not see. God is indeed the God of the living, and we are sorrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
Beware the leaven? What the?
Why the topic shift? This isn't about the Reformation. Also, haven't we plagued poor Nikki enough? Can't we move this to more of a debate blog, such as Sean's?
Catholics do indeed pray to Mary. This is nothing new. This practice is as old as the Church itself and there are several 1st and 2nd century documents that point to this fact. It wasn't added along the way, as I had once believed in my more fiery Protestant years.
We pray to Mary that she'll add our prayers to her own prayers to God. This is called intercessory prayer, and we believe this among all Saints, living and "dead."
The question is often asked "Why pray to Saints when I can pray directly to God?" It's a good question, but the formerly mentioned practice does not belittle the latter, nor vice versa. Put it in this way:
I come to one of you and ask, "Brother or Sister, would you pray for me because of my upcoming surgery?"
Would it be foolish of me to ask such if I could just pray to God myself? What would James say about such a thing in his Epistle? :)
Furthermore, is it "necromancy" like that mentioned in the Torah to pray to saints? Hardly. Those who die in Christ are indeed alive. "Aren't they 'asleep,' though, so they wouldn't be able to hear us anyways?"
Revelation (chapter 20, I believe) would suggest otherwise, as those 24 elders in heaven worshipping the Lamb offer up golden bowls of insence which are the PRAYERS of the saints on earth. Truly, Mary and the other saints do interceed and there are backings for it in history and Scripture (and many more readily available, if you wish).
Lastly, I hope I've helped and that I'm not coming off as some mean ol' Catholic monster- type guy. I'm just Danny, I'm actually quite friendly in real life and am probably one of the most non- threatening people you'd ever meet. Just a silly kid from the southend of Louisville who likes hiking and eating pizza with my friends and loves Christianity, it's rich history, and the Bible. Plus, I'm a really small guy, so it's not like I'm trying to pick fights or anything. In Christ I hope that that you'll know that my intentions are not malevolent, nor am I getting some sort of ego trip from this. I'm just a kid who's been around the block a few times, and felt he should have said something regarding the Reformation. I actually talk about you guys alot, and am thrilled that you are all in seminary.
God Bless,
Danny
For further reference, I'm gonna be at Sean's blog for debates. His articles usually start them off, and they do well as organized, on- topic forums.
summavitae.blogspot.com
Check out his most recent post, which works in tandem with what i was saying (He also answered my James "riddle," woo!)
God Bless,
Danny
Rabby! I dunno if creating a blog really proves anything. Last I checked, Blogger doesn't ask for a copy of your birth certificate, an SSN, or any kind of real indentifying information. I could have 50 blogs, ya know?
You know what's funny is back in the day when Bobby first started posting on the Sojourn message boards, most of us had no idea who he was. I didn't think he was real for a while. Thought he might have been one of the SECC spies infiltrating the community. So don't worry about whether people think you're real or not.
Jason. Dude -- I'm not real. Not a bit. I'm actually the virtual creation of a huge media conglomeration that is testing the appeal of really big hats.
It reminds me of a scene from "Man On The Moon" where Andy Kaufman is complaining about no one knowing the real him, and his girl says "There is no real you."
Then Andy deadpans, "Oh, yeah." Hilarious.
So who's that guy at church who answers to your name?
And how are really big hats catching on?
This is Harvey Brown.
You guys did it again. "Rabby" says something and is responded to as if he's a real person. No one even says "haha," or "Wink, wink." There is no such thing as a stuffed rabbit.
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