I was nine years old when it happened. Easy to date because it was the day of my home congregation's 100th anniversary. Easy to remember because of the shock, pain and embarrassment I felt at that moment.
My cousin Dale and I found ourselves along - in the Sanctuary! Dale has always been my wise mentor, guide, faith pioneer, and leader. He is older than I and was at that time already the ripe old and wise age of eleven. The others were downstairs eating. There was of course a large meal for this grand event. I was very proud and taken with all the details of this great event and the long anticipation for its coming, for my Mom was the co-chair for all the proceedings. Three of my relatives, having been ordained at St. John's, Kirchhayn, had preached on the Sundays leading up to this day - an uncle, great uncle, and my Dad's first cousin. Yes, lots of pastors in my farm-based family.
All of this explains the reason for the opportunity Dale and I suddenly realized. The Sanctuary - and no one else around! Neither of us had ever been near the inner-sanctum of the church - never past the first pew. There were steps separating that space, high and lifted up, from the pews where people sat. Only at Communion did people walk up those steps and kneel at the communion railing and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord which only the pastor distributed. AND communion was a long ways off. We first had to be confirmed. That meant making through "Examination Sunday". This was one worship each year in which there was no sermon. The whole worship was devoted to the pastor asking questions of the confirmands in front of the WHOLE congregation. Whew, that dreaded day was still a year off for Dale and three years off for me.
How daunting that was! We had seen others live through it, but there was always a first time. I dreaded the thought of that day when I would have to stand up in front of the whole church when the pastor called my name and to have to recite perfectly whatever Commandment, Article of the Creed, or part of Catechism that the pastor called out AND its meaning!
But I would never receive Communion unless I survived "Examination Sunday" and until I was blessed on the next Sunday, Palm Sunday, which was the annual official "Confirmation Sunday". Then and only then could I ascend those steps and on Maundy Thursday receive my First Communion.
Well, except for this day, when Dale and I saw our chance. What did it look like behind the lectern and pulpit? What did the altar look like close up? What was in that room off the side from which the pastor would emerge all stately and properly robbed?
We looked at each other, quickly knew what the other was thinking, and off we quietly went so walk up those steps and see for ourselves.
"What are you boys doing!" We suddenly heard the thundeous, shouting, scolding voice. We had not yet made it to the top step. "You have no business up there! Who do you think you are? That is only for the pastor! What do you think you are up to? Now gt down!"
That's what many call OLD CHURCH. It was the church many loved and experienced up until around the 1970s depending on how quickly congregations accepted change - a series and nearly constant change from the way church had been for as long as anyone remembered.
I too loved that OLD CHURCH. Or more correctly the clarity, constancy, security, and sense of holiness. Everything was clear, black and white, never changed, always reliable, true for all eternity:
Everyone knew their role in life, church, family, work and forever. Everyone attended worship every Sunday with the hour or more after worship being the main social time for the week. Sunday School was for children. Vacation Bible School was for baseball, oh yes, and lessons and crafts (homerun if you hit the ball in the cemetery) - my favorite two weeks every summer. Confirmation was three years, every Saturday for three hours. But obviously necessary in order to learn and recite all the teachings of the church - the truth for life everyone accepted. After which you received Communion and were forever part of that community until death and the eternal life that followed.
Then came NEW CHURCH. And it kept coming. "Change" was one word for it. Others called it opportunity or keeping up with the times or even "necessary". There was so much, some vague in my memory:
We do have business there and a role, for both Dale and I are now pastors. Customs, language, roles, and understandings have changed in that church body in which we both serve. It is Jesus who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
OLD CHURCH - it was clear, secure, safe, holy and never changing. There is much to be said on behalf of that. But it is not coming back. It is Old Church. That ethnic identity and never changing, stable, exclusive community no longer exists. The car, telephone, television, Internet, cell phone and countless modern conveniences, culture, and changes have made Old Church impossible and even closed and unhealthy if we tried to do it again.
Jesus was there in Old Church. Yes, and Jesus is also present in New Church. Church can come in many very different forms - in English, German or Norwegian, and in all denominations and ethnic groups, proclaimed by women, worshipped in new hymnals, received in Communion distributed in different ways, and deeper and richer than what can be memorized or described and taught in only one way.
My cousin Dale and I found ourselves along - in the Sanctuary! Dale has always been my wise mentor, guide, faith pioneer, and leader. He is older than I and was at that time already the ripe old and wise age of eleven. The others were downstairs eating. There was of course a large meal for this grand event. I was very proud and taken with all the details of this great event and the long anticipation for its coming, for my Mom was the co-chair for all the proceedings. Three of my relatives, having been ordained at St. John's, Kirchhayn, had preached on the Sundays leading up to this day - an uncle, great uncle, and my Dad's first cousin. Yes, lots of pastors in my farm-based family.
All of this explains the reason for the opportunity Dale and I suddenly realized. The Sanctuary - and no one else around! Neither of us had ever been near the inner-sanctum of the church - never past the first pew. There were steps separating that space, high and lifted up, from the pews where people sat. Only at Communion did people walk up those steps and kneel at the communion railing and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord which only the pastor distributed. AND communion was a long ways off. We first had to be confirmed. That meant making through "Examination Sunday". This was one worship each year in which there was no sermon. The whole worship was devoted to the pastor asking questions of the confirmands in front of the WHOLE congregation. Whew, that dreaded day was still a year off for Dale and three years off for me.
How daunting that was! We had seen others live through it, but there was always a first time. I dreaded the thought of that day when I would have to stand up in front of the whole church when the pastor called my name and to have to recite perfectly whatever Commandment, Article of the Creed, or part of Catechism that the pastor called out AND its meaning!
But I would never receive Communion unless I survived "Examination Sunday" and until I was blessed on the next Sunday, Palm Sunday, which was the annual official "Confirmation Sunday". Then and only then could I ascend those steps and on Maundy Thursday receive my First Communion.
Well, except for this day, when Dale and I saw our chance. What did it look like behind the lectern and pulpit? What did the altar look like close up? What was in that room off the side from which the pastor would emerge all stately and properly robbed?
We looked at each other, quickly knew what the other was thinking, and off we quietly went so walk up those steps and see for ourselves.
"What are you boys doing!" We suddenly heard the thundeous, shouting, scolding voice. We had not yet made it to the top step. "You have no business up there! Who do you think you are? That is only for the pastor! What do you think you are up to? Now gt down!"
That's what many call OLD CHURCH. It was the church many loved and experienced up until around the 1970s depending on how quickly congregations accepted change - a series and nearly constant change from the way church had been for as long as anyone remembered.
I too loved that OLD CHURCH. Or more correctly the clarity, constancy, security, and sense of holiness. Everything was clear, black and white, never changed, always reliable, true for all eternity:
Everyone knew their role in life, church, family, work and forever. Everyone attended worship every Sunday with the hour or more after worship being the main social time for the week. Sunday School was for children. Vacation Bible School was for baseball, oh yes, and lessons and crafts (homerun if you hit the ball in the cemetery) - my favorite two weeks every summer. Confirmation was three years, every Saturday for three hours. But obviously necessary in order to learn and recite all the teachings of the church - the truth for life everyone accepted. After which you received Communion and were forever part of that community until death and the eternal life that followed.
Then came NEW CHURCH. And it kept coming. "Change" was one word for it. Others called it opportunity or keeping up with the times or even "necessary". There was so much, some vague in my memory:
- A heated congregational meeting - could we really have a pastor who did not speak German? No more German services, which only happened twice a year by the time I was born, but ending this meant for many losing the very words they had memorized, with which they spoke to God, the songs that played through their mind.
- Someone married a - - - - Catholic! And discussion that perhaps they not be banished, scolded, doomed to hell, and forever avoided. Catholic worship looked like ours, someone said. They worshipped in English, sang songs we did, read Scripture, had sermons (called homilies), and believed in Jesus! BUT - much of our identity in this OLD CHURCH was that we were NOT CATHOLIC. This was perhaps the biggest change - it meant being "Christian". Perhaps it wasn't only Lutherans who were true, right, and saved?
- Who were Lutherans? The larger church to which our congregation had always belonged - merged with Norwegians and Danes! Yes - there were Lutherans who did not speak German! They even claimed to know and understand Luther without speaking German (Luther was German and translated the Bible into German). Where was the church going and could we ever trust it when some far off day perhaps, maybe, the President of the Southern Wisconsin District would suggest our church call a - - - - - Norwegian!
- A new hymnal! Not just new but with songs never sung before and a liturgy that had options and versions. What, not the exact same words and music every Sunday? Wasn't the OLD ordained by God and meant never to be changed?
- Women pastors - now we were really pushing things. It wasn't just the idea of seeing a woman where no one had seen before - BUT - what about those iron-clad, never changing practices, customs, roles and even understanding Scripture?
- Yes - and then it came: the pastor asked and taught having Communion more often than six times a year. That too had been iron-clad a reality that people spent hours agonizing preparing for their sins to be all remembered and named to be officially forgiven.
- AND - to have Communion more often meant other changes: Someone assisting the pastor. Yes, someone other than the pastor touching the elements. Not just using the common cup but having individual glasses. The pastor blessing people at the end of Communion with people coming and going and not each group (table) being separately blessed and dismissed. Would not the meaning, sanctity, and truly receiving Communion be lost in this parade?
- My sisters came home from Luther College talking about theology. It wasn't just to be memorized. It could be discussed. There were different thoughts about Scripture, inspiration, interpretations - yes, the world may not have been created in exactly six 24-hour days in the year 8006 B.C.
We do have business there and a role, for both Dale and I are now pastors. Customs, language, roles, and understandings have changed in that church body in which we both serve. It is Jesus who is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
OLD CHURCH - it was clear, secure, safe, holy and never changing. There is much to be said on behalf of that. But it is not coming back. It is Old Church. That ethnic identity and never changing, stable, exclusive community no longer exists. The car, telephone, television, Internet, cell phone and countless modern conveniences, culture, and changes have made Old Church impossible and even closed and unhealthy if we tried to do it again.
Jesus was there in Old Church. Yes, and Jesus is also present in New Church. Church can come in many very different forms - in English, German or Norwegian, and in all denominations and ethnic groups, proclaimed by women, worshipped in new hymnals, received in Communion distributed in different ways, and deeper and richer than what can be memorized or described and taught in only one way.