Here we are 500 years later in a church bearing Luther’s name. It’s quite a momentous occasion and I thought we should look at how the Reformation began, in commemoration. The question always comes up: What is the relevance of these events and ideas, today, for us? This is important and needs to be considered. But first, we will have to look at it historically, to have any hope of getting to that. In any anniversary, remembering and recounting the past is a big part of what it is necessarily about. With Luther, as with many great historical figures, subsequent generations have re-fashioned a picture of him and the significance of his work to suit their own intellectual, cultural, and political needs and aspirations. Particularly in modern times, Luther is sometimes seen as the archetypal revolutionary protesting against authority.