One little word

Today is Reformation Day, the day we remember what happened in 1517 when an obscure German monk called Martin Luther nailled his 95 Theses to a door in Wittenberg and changed the world for ever.

Next year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and our local Lutheran Church, the Norwegian Church in Rotherhithe kicked off a year of celebrations in a special service last night, to which all the local churches were invited.

Norwegian Church, Rotherhithe

Most of the service at which the Bishop of Southwark was the guest preacher was in English, but it was good to hear the Norwegian choir sing some parts of the service in their native language.

A special treat for your blogger was singing Martin Luther's great hymn 'A mighty fortress is our God.'

I particularly like verse 3 where Luther takes on the devil and all his wiles, confident in the power of a word from God, ('one little word'):

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth shall triumph through us;
The Prince of Darkness grim -
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him

Wonderful stuff. Thank God for Martin Luther and thank God for the rediscovery of the life-changing Gospel that came with the Reformation.

As the reformers were fond of saying: to God alone be the glory!