These Are My JOTtings...

Happy 500th Reformation Day!

What is the point in Reformation?

Is it not that something is not functioning as originally designed and it needs to be repaired?

When a new house is built, we bring all our friends to see the beautiful new edifice. "Let's celebrate and enjoy what we have made!" However, in a few months, a few weeks or even a few days cleaning has to begin because dust settles, furnishings begin to wear out, and even food wrappers begin to clutter the floor, if not properly placed in receptacles.

What happened? It was such a beautiful home just a short time ago!

The Second Law of Thermodynamics happens. The complex tends to revert to the simplistic.

The same thing happens to people and to their organizations, including churches. We must exercise to keep our bodies fit. We must evaluate the way we run our organizations in order for them to keep functioning properly.

Some could ask me, "Why are you talking about the 500th Anniversary of The Reformation? You have never been catholic nor protestant." All true! All true! You've got me there. However, though the catholic and protestant churches are both flawed (as were the Baptist churches of my lifetime) because they were all peopled by,...well,...people, these organizations have all done some things well.

If instance, some of the longest-lasting homeless and poverty help organizations have been operated by church groups, who selflessly wanted to help those, who could not help themselves. The Salvation Army is one such organization.

What about the fact that Martin Luther blamed the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus? Doesn't that make him antisemitic? If he is, doesn't that disqualify everything he has ever done, said or written? Well, to be honest I would love to have a conversation with Martin Luther today in Heaven on this very subject. "Sir, do you still believe the Jewish nation is responsible for the death of Jesus on the cross?"

I doubt very seriously that Martin Luther is still antisemitic in any form on this very day in Heaven. WHY?

Martin Luther has met Jesus Christ Himself in the flesh.
I am sure that Jesus has manifested Himself to Luther as being fully Jewish...in the flesh.
Jesus has, no doubt, explained to Luther that He put Himself on the cross,
and stayed there of His Own Volition
without "calling ten thousand angels" as the old hymn expresses.
If Jesus put Himself on the cross for an eternal purpose,
then the Jewish people as a nation are "off the hook" so to speak.
The truth is that my sins and the sins of every other human being
were the reason that Jesus chose to be there.

I am just as guilty as anybody else for putting Jesus on the cross. (Genesis 3)

If Martin Luther has truly had a change of heart on this issue, then would we be honorable to judge him to be disqualified for a position that has been reformed in Eternity? Have you or I ever held a viewpoint in our past on Earth that we find offensive, even to ourselves, today? If we have had a change of heart for the better, then would we like to be disqualified for our past failings?

Now, to turn the corner for a minute,...let's address the issue of atheist reformation.

Do atheists need reformation? Isn't that a religious-only concept?

Hardly! To reform means to form again. The first form had only so much information. The forming again incorporates all new information available to date. Atheists reform every day,...or at the very least,...every year to be sure.

How so?

Many atheists don the title, "scientist," and as scientists many do quite admirable work in the field of science. Were it not for the reformation of these scientists, we might still be trying to heal people by placing leeches on their skin to remove the "bad blood."

"But aren't leeches still used to do some very specific things by some scientists and doctors around the world, even today?" Well. I see I can't "pull the wool over your eyes," my Googling Friend.

The reformation here is in the realm of specificity.

One example of true and complete reformation in the area of physician practices is in the discovery of germs around the middle of the 19th century.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/12/375663920/the-doctor-who-cha...
The account I have posted shows the observations of one Hungarian doctor, Ignaz Semmelweis. He started to see a correlation between doctors, who examined cadavers and then delivered babies without washing their hands, as being complicit in the deaths of many of those babies.

Did this doctor get it right on every count? Apparently not. However, he got enough of the issue correct that today no hospital in the civilized world would consider allowing doctors to treat two separate patients without first washing their hands thoroughly with soap and water, and then using a fresh pair of gloves.

That, my friends, is a clear example of non-religious reformation, if I ever saw one.

Reformation means that as humans we all have room for improvement, whether one claims to have faith in God or not.

Happy 500th Reformation Day!

by Jay O'Toole
on October 31st, 2017,
the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, in which
Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the Door of the Wittenberg Cathedral on this day in 1517.