Sermon Sawdust (Reformation 2026)

Martin Luther was born in 1483.

He was born the son of a miner at Mansfeld in Saxony.

His father, Hans Luther, was a miner.

And by miner, we don't mean that he was under the legal drinking age, but he was actually a miner.

He owned a mining business.

company.

Not only that, but he also managed a second mining operation.

And he did so in order that his son could have a better education than he did.

Luther, of course, was raised in a more blue-collar setting.

But because his father worked so hard, Luther did end up receiving quite an education.

He was educated at the Cathedral School at Magdeburg at Eisenreich.

And then he went to Erfurt University from 1501 to 1505, where he studied philosophy, among other things.

And then Luther's father wanted him to become a lawyer.

That was always his dream.

When we consider the medieval university, the medieval university was built around three specific principles.

programs, three specific sciences, if you will, of study.

The study of law, the study of medicine, and the study of theology.

And believe it or not, theology was considered top the top of the line there it was called the queen of the sciences the theology was considered the greatest the highest good the greatest pursuit of study that of course you know carried over on down the line in the western tradition um in the establishment of the very first american universities didn't it i mean when we consider Harvard and Yale and Princeton and these early Ivy League universities founded in the United States of America.

Excuse me, and the intention or the purpose behind the founding of these original universities was for the study of theology and the preparation of pastors and theologians.

And in the Western tradition, dating all the way back to the medieval university, there was considered no higher good than the study of theology and the pursuit of ministry.

Theology was indeed considered the queen of the sciences.

But Luther's father did not want him to study theology.

No, he wanted him to study law.

And so Luther begins his pursuit of a legal degree.