Like any other year, the Bible Society of India commemorated Reformation Day on October 31, 2022 in all our offices at the Central and in all 17 Auxiliaries across India. This year, the BSI celebrated this day by adapting a special Order of Worship prepared by the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) on the theme “Witnessing to the God of Life”. Reflection was done from the chosen text for the day – Psalm 104 : 24, 27-30 and Romans 8: 18 – 25. Recalling the beauty of God’s creation of the world as recorded in Psalm 104, where we found God’s intention for each and every creation, of their existence, freedom, and respect for one’s space and their boundaries, through which ecological life should remain balanced. But, when we read Apostle’s Paul letter to the Romans in chapter 8: 18 – 25, we understand that the whole creation ceased to enjoy its primordial status and now groaned in pain for redemption from disruptive and abusive situations. Human beings, the custodian of creation failed to do their duties and became very corrupted, even to the extent of selling indulgences ‘God’s redemption’ by extorting money from the peasants. Humans abused and misused the Bible and continued to cause severe crises to God’s creation. Martin Luther, by way of pinning the ’95 Theses’ of wrong biblical interpretations and corrupted ministerial activities thereby set the right tone to correct the church and it’s theology on October 31, 1517 at the Castle Church, Wittenburg, Germany. Today, as the whole world is celebrating Reformation Day, there is yet another big milestone to celebrate in the history of Bible translation. This day also marked the 500th year of Martin Luther’s significant work of translation of the New Testament into German language which the Lutheran World Federation celebrates with much joy and gratitude to the life and work of Martin Luther. The Bible Society of India too acknowledges Martin Luther’s great contributions to the liberation of the Scripture itself from the clutches of misconstrued ideologies and perceptions.
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