What a beautiful and morbid depiction of Christ! The image of a disfigured body being sprinkled across the world does not exactly fill you with delight. But isn’t that exactly how God works? He takes the broken and makes it beautiful. Isaiah’s Old Testament depiction describes exactly that.

For Advent this year, we chose to discuss the foretellings (prophecies) of the Old Testament. These were Scriptures that foretold Christ & His coming. They prophesied over a future Messiah. I was assigned to Numbers 24:

I’ve talked a lot this past year about different theological vantage points, doctrines, and religions. As I’m writing this, Reformation Day is coming. I wanted to spend the day talking about reformation for the final “Back to the Very Beginning” (click my name above to see all other articles from this year on this series). 

First, I have to define what a reformation is. It is the recognition of an old system being wrong and a new system being right. I recently heard a sermon that talked about how the church was supposed to create the culture - not adapt to it. Today, churches have adapted to the world in many ways to draw people in. I’m not saying that’s wrong - but we need to be careful that we’re not simply adapting to the world’s customs.

We’ve talked numerous times about Martin Luther and his 95 theses, which caused a reformation that created a separation into Protestant when the church had primarily been Catholic before this. However, we have not shared as much about the rest of Luther’s life in this series. To me, he has one of the strangest, quirkiest, and greatest love stories of all time. Let me tell you the story and explain how it relates to reformation…

There was a young woman named Katarina von Buren. She was a nun. News came to her there was a man named Martin Luther who had been a Catholic priest. He learned that he could hear from God on his very own! In addition, he had left the priesthood because knowing you could hear from God didn’t mean you had to be single. You could be spiritual and married. She and other nuns at the convent requested the help of Martin Luther. Late one night, they were whisked away in whiskey barrels in a wagon. All of these nuns were “matchmade” or placed into familial homes.

Katarina was a problem among the nuns, however. She was fierce, strong, and filled with a very powerful faith. Every time they matched her with someone, it never worked out. Katarina finally said she would marry Martin Luther & no one else. Luther was challenged to view his own beliefs and realized he was the best match for her. They were married THAT NIGHT upon that realization. It is said that they had a marriage that revolutionized marriage for that time in history! Marriage had belonged to the government because all the spiritually strong people were nuns and priests. The marriage of these two brought forth a new generation of marriage in the church.

This isn’t your typical article of theological doctrine BUT it is the discussion of reformation of the culture. Martin Luther and Katarina Luther went on to model a healthy, spiritually strong marriage for a world lacking this at that time period. Look at the culture of your church, your community, and even your family. What needs reformed? How can you be a part of that reformation? Sometimes God places you somewhere like Esther to be a part of a reformation or part of a movement. Where is God placing you today? I hope you enjoyed this year’s “Back to the Very Beginning” on theology & the church! Stay tuned in my own life as I start a new chapter called “Foundations” here on Tirzah!