Quinquagesima - Sunday before Lent with the Lutherans

2/22/09

Today I have arranged things so that Erik and I are both free of responsibilities in the morning service at our church. It is the last Sunday before Lent...where shall we go this morning? We wanted to attend a new Anglican church plant in Omaha but got our map directions wrong and were not able to make it on time. So we settled on St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Council Bluffs. http://stpaulslutheran-cb.org/

St. Paul's is a Lutheran Church in the Missouri Synod. It doesn't have much to do with Missouri, other than being headquarted in St. Louis. It is smaller and more conservative than the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. We arrived just as they were getting started with the Christian Education hour.

Since Erik is 17, I gave him the option of attending a youth class but he chose to stick with me in the adult session. We met in a fellowship hall and it was very well attended. I noticed a variety of ages in attendance. We joined a table at the back and the people nodded their welcome since the class was beginning and they didn't want to interrupt the speaker.

Our teacher was the pastor, Rev. Nathan Sherrill. He was younger than I expected and led us in an opening hymn "The Son of God Goes Forth to War." This was a new one to me but the group sang it with gusto and it was easy to join in. Erik liked it.

The class was beginning a study on the book of Galatians and after opening comments from Pastor Sherrill it was announced that we would read the entire book together as a group with a volunteer leader for each chapter. I love the book of Galatians and after sitting through the other readings I decided to be quite bold and stood to read the sixth chapter. I was a little hesitant as all the other readers had been male and I was not completely sure, as a female, that I wouldn't be out of line but no one seemed to be bothered by a female guest participating in the reading. At least, if they were, they didn't mention it to me.

The pastor then opened up the floor for Q & A and I was very impressed with the biblical literacy of the class. The questions that were asked were thoughtful and I could tell that the group was accustomed to discussing meaningful topics. There was no cotton-candy, seeker-sensitive stuff here. These were mature believers looking to discuss and interact on principles of Scripture. I wasn't ready for the class to end when it did.

We went up to the beautiful sanctuary for the service. According to the bulletin, this was Quinquagesima - refering to the 50 days before Easter and being the first Sunday before the beginning of the Lenten Season on Ash Wednesday. This wasn't explained too well; I had to look it up. However, the theme of the service was outlined in the bulletin. I liked that. Sometimes church services seem to be a collection of organized chaos...I liked that the theme of what we were focusing on that day was easily available to me. The focus of the day was on the understanding that following Jesus in His death is what wins the battle against "the old evil foe." The hymns and the sermon all focused on "The Church Militant." Quoting from the bulletin: "Satan would love to orchestrate a theological lullaby in our church, but Christ's people can remain vilgilant." Honestly, I wasn't expecting to hear that in a Lutheran church at all. It's refreshing to be reminded that spiritual warfare predates C. Peter Wagner.

The other worshippers could see that we were rather "lost" in the liturgy and very graciously showed us which page to go to in the worship book. The lady sitting next to us was a German immigrant and was very enjoyable as a "pewmate." She spoke to us both before and after the service.

I noticed that they prayed specifically for members of the church who were in need...especially those who were sick or in the armed forces. I got the impression that this is done every Sunday. It's also good to be reminded that belief in the healing power of God predates the pentecostal movement.

We read quite a bit of Scripture and the sermon on the militancy of the church was well presented. I have heard us Pentecostals remark that the mainline churches are ignoring the scriptures but that was certainly not the case here. There was more scripture reading in this service than I am accustomed to. I liked reading together as a congregation. It made me feel like an active participant rather then just a passive listener.

The pastor took time after the service to speak with us personally. I like that. So many churches we are herded in and herded out and never speak to anyone resembling a pastor. This was not the case here. All in all it was a good morning and a great way to begin the Lenten Season.

The bulletin was full of activities to attend...some of which I was tempted to add to my already over crowded calendar. However, I let the idea of attending the pork and sauerkraut dinner go by the wayside...apparently there's still a lot of Germany in the Lutheran church.