Unto
You Is Born This Day A Savior
In time-line
sequence, the upper half of the second window relates the humble birth
of our Lord in the manger of Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph attend Him,
under the watchful eyes of two nearby sheep. The three perpendicular
crowns on the right draw to mind the Three Kings who were en route
to worship Him at the time of the nativity.
Hanging from a staff
in the upper left portion of the window is the purse of St. James.
Its presence, although open to interpretation, easily relates to
the letter of James (1:9-11) in which he writes of the perishing
rich and the exaltation of the humbler man.
The Reformation
of the Church is portrayed by Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-five
Theses on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg on All Saints'
Eve, October 31, 1517, marking new beginnings in Christianity. With
Luther's ensuing refusal to retract his stand on the sale of indulgences
and other dogmatic teachings of the Church of Rome the following year
at Augsburg, and the subsequent burning of the papal bull of excommunication
in 1520, the outspoken German Augustinian monk assumed the role of
protagonist of ecclesiastical reform and consequently ushered in a
new era in Christianity.
Tying in with the theme of humble
beginnings, Luther once stated in his Table Talk, (Tischreden):
"I am the son of a peasant. Kings and emperors have been of
peasant stock."
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