Then all of the sudden, there is a pound on the door and low and behold Martin Luther (a.k.a. Pastor Nathaniel) dressed in a brown monk’s robe enters in after nailing his 95 Theses on the door. The students are shocked and alarmed at this unannounced intruder, and they are ushered outside to sit under the trees as Luther tells them the story of how the Reformation began.
Embodied reenactments, like the one Mrs. Leong does each year, put the students into a context and a narrative they will remember for years to come. Today when I asked my 6th grade class what Reformation Day was, I was delighted that they remembered so much from that same experience they had two years ago.
“Who knows what Reformation Day is? What happened on Reformation Day?” I asked the class.
“The day that Martin Luther nailed his 89 Theses on a door!” one girl answered.
“No, there were 95 theses!” a boy corrected her.
“Yes, there were 95 Theses. And what did the 95 Theses say? What was Luther concerned about?” This left the class thinking for a moment before hands started going up.
“Something about working for your salvation?” suggested a boy.
“You’re on the right track,” I replied.
“Oh, something about penance!” a girl said excitedly.
“Right! And it also involved something else…” I prompted.
“Money!” cried another girl. “You would give money to the priests, who would put it in their pockets, and they would say your sins are forgiven.”
“That’s right! And what was this giving of money for forgiveness called?” The class strained to recall the name. “It starts with an “I”…”
“Indulgences?” asked a girl in the front row.
“Awesome job you guys! That’s right!” I said. “Martin Luther wanted to change and reform the Catholic Church at the time and he didn’t believe that the idea of indulgences was what the Bible teaches. But did the Catholic Church at that time want to change?”
All the students shook their heads.
“That’s right, they didn’t. Later they would stop selling indulgences, but at the time they didn’t want to change. So what did Luther have to do?”
“He started the Lutheran church!” offered one boy.
“Correct. If the Catholic Church didn’t want to change (though they later did), Luther felt like he would have to go ahead and start another church. And that, ladies and gentlemen, started the Protestant Reformation.”
The events of the Reformation and that renowned day 497 years ago in Wittenberg, Germany remind us that we are not the first generation of Christians to face challenges and opposition. Our church history has been shaped by countless saints throughout the ages. For as the saying goes, “You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.”
NOTE: If you have a child in fourth grade, please don’t tell them about what will happen on monk day to keep it a surprise for them!
Benjamin Moore
6th Grade Teacher