Here’s a piece that Matt Smith wrote for the new Q&A Service based on Martin Luther and the Reformation.
:redux
In 1517 the sun rose on Castle Church and faded into All Hallow’s Eve
With shadows black like doubt growing over history
Martin Luther was a man dressed in black at the Wittenburg door
With a monk soft smile and a heart at war
His two hands, ink stained black, gripping one mallet, one nail
One hope that hoped somehow God would prevail
Years before when he began to wrestle with the jaded barbs of truth
They tore at his skin and robbed him of his youth
But inside every scar there was an answer that was a thought
That was a question that was bought
With the courage to ask why God’s children settle for oppression
When there is freedom waiting inside the question
So his ninety-five thoughts were spread out and thin
Just shapes like letters on pages in the wind
The rebellious pastor pounded his theological frustration
Into the papal heart in the name of education
And demanded boldly that new voices engage a conversation
Around love and truth and restoration
Indeed it looked like treason and dissension and the height of blasphemy
To question the unquestionable hierarchy of authority
But when ignorance becomes the sacred tradition
Perhaps the saints are called to sedition
:redux / re-turn / re-think / re-store / re-enter the conversation –
ask questions
reads like honey