Today is the last Sunday in the Church Year, a day that the Germans call “Ewigkeitssonntag” (“Eternity Sunday”). Our Epistle reading today was from Revelation 21 which includes John’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth and a loud voice saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
In Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ one of the most moving moments occurs as Jesus is carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem. Bloody, beaten, and weak, he struggles to carry the load. As he passes by an alleyway where his mother is standing, he stumbles under the weight of the cross and falls to the ground. Mary, seeing her son in anguish and remembering running to him when he fell as a child, again rushes to comfort her son. But he looks at her and says, “See, mother, I make all things new.”
In Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ one of the most moving moments occurs as Jesus is carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem. Bloody, beaten, and weak, he struggles to carry the load. As he passes by an alleyway where his mother is standing, he stumbles under the weight of the cross and falls to the ground. Mary, seeing her son in anguish and remembering running to him when he fell as a child, again rushes to comfort her son. But he looks at her and says, “See, mother, I make all things new.”
What a marvelous theological statement this is, connecting the crucifixion with the coming in glory of the Son of Man. Indeed Jesus is glorified in his passion, and the cross is his throne. Did they not put a scarlet robe on his back, a crown of thorns on his head, and a reed in his hand? And did not the title above his head read, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews”? It is from the cross that Christ makes all things new, redeeming all of creation by spilling his innocent blood. Therefore, when we focus this Sunday on the end times, on the Final Judgement, on death and life, mortality and eternity, we do so rightly only in view of the cross of Jesus, who by his death has won for us life. Surely the dwelling place of God is with man, for the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Thus, when the Final Judgement comes, we who through faith have been bound to Christ, will reign eternally with Him in the new heaven and new earth, where death shall be no more.
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Now to updates on what I’ve been up to these last couple of weeks. Quite a bit, actually. There was a Student Convention two weekends ago and then the seminary’s annual theological symposium called “Dies Academicus” a few days later. Both events were very quite interesting, and I made a point of taking part in everything that I could. This included, during the Student Convention, a Bible study and round-table discussion with the current SELK leader, Bishop Voigt and, during the Symposium, several lectures from German, South African, and American theologians on the topic of “Mission and Apartheid” in South Africa. (Apartheid was a national policy of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa against “non-white” inhabitants. It was the law of the land from 1948 until 1994.)
Have I mentioned that there are several South African students that study here at the Oberursel seminary? Well there are, and they all speak German as their mother language. Confused? Let me try to explain briefly with a couple snippets taken from the website of the Free Evangelical Lutheran Synod in South Africa (FELSISA):
“The FELSISA was founded in 1892.The descendants of the German missionaries that were designated to spread the Gospel among the Zulu and the Tswana, were the nucleus of the first congregations.” […] “In the past the FELSISA usually called it's pastors from Germany.” But today, “students complete a BA (languages) degree at Pretoria University and then go to either the Luthersische Theologische Hochschule Oberursel … or to one of two seminaries of our sister church in America, the Missouri Synod.” (emphasis mine.)
So now maybe it makes a little more sense why this German seminary chose to discuss South Africa at its symposium. What made the symposium really interesting, especially for someone like me who previously knew nothing about South African Lutheranism, was learning that there are two separate confessional Lutheran church bodies in South Africa. They are in fellowship with each other, but because of cultural differences (in part, exacerbated by apartheid policies) they remain separate churches. The FELSISA is the “white” church made up largely of German immigrants, and the other church, the Lutheran Church in South Africa (LCSA), is the “black” church which “emerged through the preaching of missionaries among Tswana and Zulu people.” Representatives from both FELSISA and LCSA gave papers at the symposium, the FELSISA pastor in German (albeit “South African German”) and the LCSA speakers in English (albeit with a heavy accent). Therefore, as you can imagine, the weekend was, culturally and linguistically, very interesting.
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The symposium started Thursday (Nov. 10) and went through Friday evening. The next morning at about 4:48AM I rolled out of bed in order to hit the road with 8 other students for a soccer tournament called “Cup of the Brothers” (or as the Germans say, “Cup off zee Bruzzers.”) There were 20 teams, all made up of students from theological seminaries in Germany. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the play-off round, but we had a great time, anyway. The road trip was fun, too. On the way back, we parked our rented van at a little rest area in the woods and finished off the day with some beers and leftover schnitzels from the Symposium dinner.
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As for my studies, they are certainly keeping me busy. I spend a good deal of time in the library: reading German, trying to read 400-500 year-old German, and trying really hard to read Latin. When it comes to reading our Lutheran Confessions, the Book of Concord (400-500 year-old German), it actually goes quite well because I have English translations at my disposal with which to compare. However, for my class on Biblical Hermeneutics, I’m supposed to give a presentation in a couple weeks on a 1610 work by Johann Gerhard called Tractatus De Legitima Scripturae Sacrae Interpretatione. As you can see from the title, the work was written in Latin. There is no English translation, and the only German translation was written two years after the publication of the original and is, therefore, 400 year-old, very-hard-to-read German. This challenge alone is keeping me plenty busy for now.
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On Friday the seminary community celebrated St. Martin’s Day (it was actually last Friday, but we couldn’t celebrate it then because of the Symposium). This is a really neat German tradition that I had never experienced before. I’m running out of gas to explain it in depth, so you’ll just have to Google it to learn more. I’ll just say: candlelit chapel service, little kids with homemade lanterns, walking door to door singing St. Martin songs, fruit, goodies… you get the idea. For the adults, the evening continued with Glühwein (mulled wine, or glogg) at the history professor's house and then cheese and white wine at my Latin professor's house.
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Now for some pics and then good night!
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| Student Convention with Bishop Vogt |
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| Symposium |
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| "Cup of the Brothers" |
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| "Fröhlich sei das Fußballspiel! Fröhlich, Fröhlich, Fröhlich!!!" |
