John Calvin at 500

Just a brief breaking of the silence--which I promise to rectify very soon--to give a nod in recognition of today's anniversary. There have been any number of well-worded tributes and not a few acknowledgements that Calvin himself would have eschewed any celebration of this day. But I'll offer my introductory comments from my current Sunday School series on Calvin:

We are not interested in developing a party spirit (1 Corinthians 3:4-7) or even of celebrating a man. Calvin, who did not even want a marker for his grave, would have been the first to decry attempts to place him on a pedestal. That which we properly celebrate, though, is the way God used and worked through this man so powerfully and with such enduring influence for the kingdom. It is right, to paraphrase Paul, to imitate Calvin as he imitated Christ (after 1 Corinthians 11:1). We could do far worse than to echo Calvin when he prayed, “I offer my heart to you, O Lord, promptly and sincerely.”