Thoughts in Print - from Pastor Sue

  I know I will date myself by telling you this, but when I was a kid my older brothers had an electric guitar and a small amplifier that they used to play in their bedroom. And the one song that I remember they played ALL-THE-TIME was "The House of the Rising Sun". That melody had a way of getting in my head and getting stuck there... for hours...

  Another thing that I remember from when I was young was that every year around this time many of the area Lutheran congregations would get together for a special service to celebrate Reformation Sunday. Every year a different church would host the service but there would always be a massed choir made up of singers from all of the different churches wearing their different robes, all the pastors would be dressed in their finest for the occasion as well, and there would be a grand procession, and lots of traditional hymn singing to the strong and soaring sounds of a pipe organ and occasionally a few brass or string instruments. One of the favorite hymns of the day was always "A Mighty Fortress"; a Lutheran classic. But often we also sang "Amazing Grace"; another classic, and highly appropriate for the occasion

  Who would have ever thought that this year, at a special service to celebrate the Reformation, RefCon III to be exact, two of those songs would come together in a new way. The service was indeed a celebration of the Reformation. But it didn't look or sound much like those of my memory - no massed choir in their finest robes, no great procession, no pipe organ (although there was certainly one in the room), there were lots of pastors, 7 to be exact, but there wasn't a robe in sight. And instead of the organ, there were a bunch of teenagers with guitars and amplifiers. And at one point I heard that song being played, that one that my brothers used to play in their room that wouldn't get out of my head... But within a few seconds I realized something was different about it this time, it was the words they were singing with it, and those words were familiar too, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..."

  In that instant I was reminded of why we still need to celebrate the Reformation; why we created RefCon in the first place as an opportunity to revive a seemingly long gone tradition but in a new way. You see Reformation isn't about simply looking back, Martin Luther would come back to haunt us if he thought we were doing that. Reformation is about being re-formed and being transformed, about always being made new through the power of the cross. In that instant at our RefCon celebration for Confirmation youth and their families, 134+ people from 5 Lutheran congregations, most of them under the age of 15, every one heirs of the legacy of the Reformation, and more importantly of the Resurrection, shared a moment of transformation that could never have been imagined when those two songs, one in 1779 and the other in 1964, were written. What a wonderful witness to what it means to be made new, to be transformed, to being re-formed.

  The message of the Gospel remains the solid rock on which we stand as people of faith. But the wrapper in which it is delivered can and should change with the times and the needs of the people. I was reminded of that in a really wonderful way at RefCon. I thank God for all of you who shared that experience with me.

Peace - Pastor Sue 

PS - If you'd like to hear a version for yourself you can click on this link for one I found on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn2n797zCjo 

If you would like more information about Lutheran Church history, Martin Luther, and the Reformation click on the following link www.lordoflifetabernacle.weebly.com