Being a reader of church history it has been fascinating to observe all the references to the Reformation on our current trip. To name just a few:
- In the centre of Prague is a huge monument to Jan Hus the early reformer
- Then in Konstanz Germany there is a museum to Hus
- In Zurich there are references to Zwingli and a statue
- Luther is mentioned in many places in Germany and has street names and statues in his honour. There is a huge monument to him in Worms
- And of course there is the Reformation Wall in Geneva
- There was even a wall built in St Gallen to separate the abbey from the town because the town had become Protestant.
Yet I have this uneasy sense that these, for most, are just bygone relics of history that sit alongside dead kings and local luminaries.
I raise this because the Reformation was a return to Biblical basics – it was a return to the primacy and inerrancy of Scripture. These are truths that are just as necessary today as they were 600 years ago. The message of these relics needs to be reenlivened (have I made up a word?). It would be a pity if these relics lost their meaning.
Travels from Ur 