Reformation Day is usually commemorated on 31 October, or the closest Sunday to that. We commemorate it today because on 30 October we celebrated 50 years of the LCA. We could have let Reformation Commemoration ‘go’… but we are now in a countdown over the next year to the 500th anniversary since Luther posted his disputation in 1517 … a day long since recognised as changing much about the western world at that time and since. Some bad – schisms are painful. But also liberating for many who have come to understand the promises of scripture in a much clearer way than existed in the medieval church. You won’t hear those promises too much clearer than this one from our Epistle text today: ”For we maintain that a person is justified (declared right with God) by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:28 – my edit). We don’t idolise Luther. But we can thank God for his work and that of the Lutheran reformers. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will too teach us through his Word of God’s saving activity through ‘the redemption that came by Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3:24).