Location: Luther Hotel (Wittenberg) Lobby
Listening To: Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
What a day...I hardly know where to start. I’m sitting a ten-minute walk from the church where Martin Luther preached and about as far from the one to which he nailed the 95 theses (see Sam’s & my “ecumenical” picture). I received a tour from a man dressed as Dr. Luther and making a not-so-concerted effort to stay in character and experienced the nightlife offered by this bumping metropolis - and all this after the real highlights of the day. I am sure of one thing - no one on this tour will ever forget at least a few the memories made on this beautiful May day.
A brief plug - I’m not the only one frantically trying to write down the experiences of this tour so they can be remembered, and Abby Lange did a great job on her blog for today. If you haven’t seen the other bloggers, photos, or videos (yes, videos!), just head over to Valpo.edu and look to the right side of your screen. You can’t miss it, and I promise the pictures are much better than my own!
Our day began with a tardy bus ride from Berlin to a small town called Jütebog. There we met the pastor of their church. Pr. Thomas Meinhof is an incredibly kind, soft-spoken, energetic, and generous man, and he was kind enough to take us to his church after providing refreshments for our entire group from a local restaurant. In this church, we heard a bit about the significance of this place to the Reformation movement (after singing “If Ye Love Me” by Tallis). This is one of the churches where Tetzel sold the indulgences that so infuriated Martin Luther, but it had an interesting twist to their mutual history: after Tetzel had sold his papers and tried to leave, a local prince took his money chest by force. Tetzel, of course, told him he could burn in hell for stealing the church’s money. The prince responded by showing Tetzel the papers their seller himself had claimed could redeem someone who defiled the holy mother herself, believing that taking the chest was surely covered by this indulgence. The chest is still in the church in Jütebog, though my camera unfortunately died at about that point in the tour.
The other incredible part of our stay in town was our opportunity to climb the 217 steps to the top of the church’s spire. As such, the view was breathtaking in more ways than one. I had a good conversation with Pr. Meinhof about U.S. - German relations and specifically about the emigrant families like my own. It was a surreal experience between trying to both explain Woodstock and clear up his notions about the homestead act. Grandma, if you’re reading this, I did get the packet and I’ve been reading it piece by piece. They’re driving us pretty hard and I just haven’t had time to really stop and think about the four days between Berlin and Barcelona - I’ll get there, I promise.
After Jünebog came the really incredible part of today. We left the city and headed down a few narrow country roads through country not unlike the Midwest until we arrived in Mark Zwuschen (which meant I found some fresh batteries for my camera). On the way, Pr. Meinhof told us a bit of history about the area - it’s been occupied by everyone from Napoleon to Stalin and some wooded areas were still off-limits due to explosives in the area. He actually participated in the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig as a student and told us about that night in 1989 when his father told him over the phone from Berlin that the wall had come down. It's still tough to comprehend how important this event was to these people, even when your pastor and tour guide chokes up just thinking about it twenty years later.
I think it’s safe to say this village is to Wittenberg what Wittenberg is to, say, Berlin. It is a tiny, tiny place, but the faith and actions of its faithful congregation are anything but insignificant. Today we helped to consecrate (“top”) the first chapel to be built in Eastern Germany since the forties. It’s no glass cathedral, but it doesn't need to be. These people came together as a community of faith and decided they wanted a space to share their fellowship, so they made it happen with the resources at their disposal. I’ll admit most of us were surprised when the speaker shattered his champagne glass on the roof, but I think these were some of the best musical moments of our time in this country. We sang four songs for them, including Praise to the Lord and Shenandoah. One woman in front was particularly moved - by the former, understandably, but I was startled to see her in tears during such a distinctively American folk song. I’m certain she understood no more than a few of those words, but something about the intense longing for home expressed in that beautiful piece reached out and touched her in a way conventional language could not. Leaving that little chapel was the hardest thing we've attempted thus far. "Bleib Bei Uns" means "stay with us", and I know many of us would gladly have given up the rest of our day just to be with those people for a few moments more. Looking back, it’s hard to believe what I wrote before experiencing the events of this afternoon - it couldn’t have been more appropriate, and I’m sure the somber taste in my mouth only enhanced the open and loving embrace of this tiny, mighty group of believers.
I wish I could write about all of our experiences in Wittenberg - maybe tomorrow. I took lots of pictures! Right now, I’m falling asleep on this keyboard and I need to leave this hotel in 7 hours. Gutenacht!
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