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Reformation Sunday • Year C
October 26, 2025
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Historical Collect
O Lord God, heavenly Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon your faithful people. Keep them steadfast in your grace and truth, protect and comfort them in all temptation, defend them against all enemies of your Word, and bestow upon the Church your saving peace; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Saxony, Duke Henry)
Thematic Collect
Sovereign God, we pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to reform the church of Christ. Keep it in the true faith, restore, correct, and inspire its teachings, and embolden it to bear witness to the life-giving message of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
The Common Thread
The church has an eternal gospel to proclaim, good news that makes the followers of Jesus free. We have nothing to fear—even death and the devil—since God is the sanctuary and a stronghold for those beset by the fear of sin, death, and the evil one. That refuge is Christ Jesus, for though no one is justified to God through works of the law, God’s righteousness is established separately from the law. That righteousness of God is given through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteous one (1 John 2:1). The new law is the law of faith. So, we are now able to “be still and know” that God is God, trusting in his word and continuing to believe that Christ alone is our righteousness.
First Reading • Revelation 14:6-7
The Small Catechism exhorts us to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Since the day of judgment is coming, it will serve us well to learn this lesson now, so that our fear, love, and trust brings him glory not only on that great and glorious day but also in these earthly days. In the meanwhile, may we be his messengers who fly about the globe, proclaiming the eternal gospel of salvation.
Psalm • Psalm 46:1-11
We are still faced with troubles in the process to reform the Church. Things that were once considered true because they are the testimony of Scripture, are now cast aside in favor of personal and public opinion. The troubles that once came from outside adversaries have now come home to us. We must now reform ourselves. Never before has the old adage been truer than it is now in Lutheran churches: Semper Reformanda. In our efforts to keep reforming, God remains “a very present help in trouble.” “The Lord of hosts is with us”; he will prevail.
Second Reading • Romans 3:19-28
Only God is just to forgive sins, as some of the teachers of the law noted when Jesus forgave the sins of the paralyzed man who had been lowered through a roof by his friends (Mark 2:7). And only God is the justifier of sinners. This righteousness of God that makes him “just and justifier” is only had—or as Melancthon liked to say, “apprehended”—through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness that justifies sinners with God will not come through works of the law, religious ceremonies, or acts of devotion. It only comes through faith in Christ, and to the one who believes in God who justifies sinners. That person’s faith will be counted to him as the very righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (Rom 4:5).
Gospel • John 8:31-36
What does it mean to be a disciple? Jesus says that his disciples are those who abide in his word. We have no clearer picture of what such abiding means than those first disciples of his who wanted to live with him, following him everywhere so that they could hear his word. Being a disciple means the same thing today: people who want to live with Jesus, abiding in his word, following him all day long in that word—not just having religious traditions like mindlessly reciting a creed by heart on Sunday mornings. Traditions do not free us from sin and death. The Son does that through a knowledge of the truth found in his word. This is the clarion call of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura!
Resources
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