Friday, December 5, 2008


Martin Luther is a pretty cool guy. We talked about him at youth with the middle schoolers Wednesday. Leader of the great religious revolt of the sixteenth century in Germany; born at Eisleben, 10 November, 1483; died at Eisleben, 18 February, 1546. He was studying law until he was struck plum straight by a lightning bolt (or the lightning bolt struck near him). It was too close, too dangerous, too miraculous, Luther said. He decided then to become a monk.
Luther went against the then church to say that salvation is a free gift from God, received only by faith in Jesus as the Messiah. That is not what the church was saying at the time. He translated the Bible so Germans could read it and see for themselves.

And somewhere in there he put it all writing. On Oct. 31, 1517 Luther wrote a letter to the archbishop protesting that the church tied salvation to money. Included was a little thing called The 95 Theses.

"The 95 species," one kid answered.

no, not species, theses.

"Are you saying feces?" another one chirped.

no, I'm sayi...interruptions and yelling and laughing.

Interjects one of the loudest ones... "So, you're telling me that this guy went up to the door of the church and nailed poop to it?!?!?"

Tears from laughing so hard. Tears.

OK... here's another one.

This Martin Luther lesson was taught by a girl named Rebecca. She couldn't get out one sentence before the middle schoolers started talking about "I have a dream."

no, this isn't Martin Luther King, Jr. This is Martin Luther... and on she explained.

But there were still questions, including this one: "So, was Martin Luther African American, too?"

You know when you try not to laugh. You almost hold your breath until you get control, and then all the sudden you're shaking again?

Yeah.

The whole lesson.

They make me laugh so much.

2 comments:

deepnblue said...

Ok, is it just me, or do his eyes REALLY look like they're looking at you?! Like they aren't a part of the painting and someone's spying on you through it?!

*shiver*

Kat said...

haha!! good lesson ! :)