Dear Fellow Children of God,
You
know that Kathy and I recently returned from a trip to Germany that included a
tour of Luther sites. I prepared a book
for this tour, which was entitled “A Journey of Faith. Surprisingly one special moment of in this
journey of faith happened for me after the official tour was over. On Sunday, November 11, Kathy and I worshiped
at the Market Church in Hannover, Germany.
Hannover is the major city nearest the place from which my ancestors on
my dad’s side emigrated to the United in the mid 1800’s. We were in Hannover looking for my ancestral
roots.
While
searching Hannover for information on my family we first visited the City Hall,
or Rathaus. There we saw a sobering
model of the results of bombing in WWII.
Between 80-90 % of the roofs in Hannover were missing from bombing. After visiting the town hall I was sent to
the city archives. On the way to the
archives I saw a bookstore that included the name of my dad’s family on his
mom’s side, Stender. I visited the
bookstore and talked to the owner, an elderly, white-haired lady who spoke no
English. From what little my poor German
could understand, she had ancestors with the same names as my ancestors. They weren’t the same people but it is very
possible this lady and I were family in some distant way.
Then
on Sunday Kathy and I sat worshiping in this old church listening to beautiful
music and listening to the preaching in German, which I did not totally
understand. What I did understand,
however, was what I saw. The bricks in
the enormous pillars were of many different kinds. The bricks were of different color, and
texture. Some bricks were new and some
were old. In addition, where many other
churches we visited had beautiful stained glass windows, only some of the
bottom windows in the very front of this church were of stained glass. The rest of the windows were clear. It was obvious from the bricks in the pillars
and the glass in the windows that this church too had been seriously damaged in
the bombing in WWII.
This
has been quite a year for learning about my family and our roots. This past May when my dad’s brother died I
also learned that he had been administrative aid to General Dwight Eisenhower
in the march into and through Germany.
Now I was learning about my relatives and ancestors in Germany. I have great respect and admiration for all
my relatives I have met on my dad’s side.
I especially am thankful for their faith and their wisdom and their
ability to deal with problems in a calm and reasonable manner.
In
liturgical churches the Sundays of the church year are often named. The name for this Sunday as we worshiped at
the Market Church in Hannover was Fried Sonntag, or Peace Sunday.
So,
as I worshiped in this church on Peace
Sunday, having met this elderly distant relative in the bookstore and
having learned about my uncle’s war history, I realized that my faithful, wise,
reasonable ancestors were very likely on different sides in a conflict that
greatly damaged this house of God. Even relatives
of Christian faith and wisdom can be led to horrible acts of war. What also became very clear to me as I sat in
this church was the depths of man’s corruption by pride, and by
self-righteousness, and through sinful rebellion against God.
In
Romans 3:23-24 God moved Paul to write, “23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” We
are all sinful, even those you respect.
We all need forgiveness. We all
need the Savior, Jesus Christ.
On
this Thanksgiving weekend as I count my blessings, I am very thankful for my
family. What a blessing and Christian
heritage I have been given. But, I am
even more thankful for the grace of God that comes to a sinner like me, and
sinners like my family, through faith in Jesus Christ. God is good and merciful. Thanks and praise be to God!
A Child of God, Blessed beyond reason by our Savior,
Jesus,
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. Please
remember Thanksgiving Worship is held
tonight, November 21, at 7:00 p..m.
I hope many of you take this opportunity to Worship and Thank God for
His great love and mercy.
P.P.S. Here are
some pictures that might help you understand this devotion. https://picasaweb.google.com/114993745799525883148/ALessonFromSearchingForFamily?authuser=0&feat=directlink
P.P.P.S. I’m sorry
about the extra e-mail you received yesterday.
That was due to the complications of dealing with computers as I tried
to have my weekly e-mails sent out while I was gone.
****
ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS
FROM THE PASTOR’ - I am sending these e-mail messages, hopefully
weekly, to all St. John members and friends whose e-mails I have. (I am
always adding new names of friends and members – in case you are just receiving
this e-mail for the first time.) However, if you don’t want to receive
this e-mail, please let me know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list
for this message. . . Or, if you know someone who would like to receive one
of these e-mails, please send me their
e-mail address.
****
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