I grew up attending a Lutheran church with my family. My parents were very active in the church, so I attended Sunday School regularly, plus Vacation Bible School. When no one else was available to play the organ for church services, I found myself thrust into that role at a very young age, only 11 or 12 years old. I attended confirmation classes and was confirmed as a member in due time.
My husband was not a Lutheran, and I did not feel it necessary to remain Lutheran, so during the 34 years of our marriage we have been associated with a wide variety of denominations. Recently I have decided to be Lutheran again. It has been an interesting adjustment from “worship teams” to the organ, and from contemporary worship songs to hymns, some of them written hundreds of years ago.
Today was Reformation Sunday, which means we were celebrating the 500th anniversary of the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Predictably, our opening hymn was Luther’s best-known, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Being proper Lutherans, we sang all four verses. (Baptists often skip over verse three of any hymn. I don’t know why. Perhaps they haven’t the perseverance it takes to make it all the way through.)
Image from Wikipedia showing Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the church door
To my surprise, the bell choir played the same hymn while the offering was being taken. And then a recording of the same song was played during the first part of the communion service. I wonder if the bell choir director and the organist and the pastor neglected to communicate with each other about their hymn choices? It made me chuckle.
The words to the second hymn, “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word,” were also penned by Martin Luther. It only has three verses, and I am familiar with it, so I sailed through that one easily. However, the hymn we sang during the communion distribution was new to me. “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice” was (surprise!) yet another of Martin Luther’s writings. The words were certainly meaningful, but the tune was tedious and difficult to follow, even though I read music very well. As usual, four verses were printed between the two staves of musical notes, so I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the end of the fourth verse. But the organist kept playing! What?!! Oh no!! There were six more verses printed on the following page in the hymnal! TEN verses to one hymn! This has to set a record.
The final hymn for the day was “By Grace I’m Saved,” by Christian Ludwig Scheidt, obviously another good German fellow. There were six verses, and another difficult melody to follow.
Sometimes I wonder why I’m back in the Lutheran church, since I grumble about the lengthy, hard-to-sing hymns. I do prefer the livelier hymns I learned in the Baptist churches I’ve attended (including the oft-omitted third verses), and I enjoy at least some of the more contemporary worship songs, especially the ones that were popular in the Vineyard Churches in the 1990s. But I like the solid Lutheran theology, and the German traditions that lurk around the edges of Lutheranism. I am fond of Lutheran-style fellowship, with potlucks and hot dishes and jello salads and plenty of pie. I appreciate the contributions made by Lutheran World Relief. And even though some of the tunes have changed, there is comfort in the familiarity of the liturgy with which I grew up. And so, at least for now, a Lutheran I shall be!