30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The last Sunday in October each year is marked by many Protestant Christian faith traditions as “Reformation Sunday”. It’s a “back to basics” day of sorts, as we remember our tradtion’s roots in the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, which reclaimed for its time the centrality of scripture, grace, and Christ himself. On this day we celebrate the heart of our faith: the gospel—that is, “good news”—made known in Jesus Christ that it is God’s grace and God’s grace alone, rather than anything we ourselves must or even can do, that makes us free! We also remember that “ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est”: the church Reformed must be the church always reform_ing_ according to the Word of God. It’s also a “back to basics” day in our scripture texts this week, as we hear in our focus reading from the gospel of Matthew the call to “love God with heart, soul, and mind,” and also to “love our neighbour as ourselves”… what could be more central?