Day 12

            Not much adventure today, I’m afraid.   Woke up to a chilly and rainy morning.  We decided to go to worship at the Schlosskirche where I preached last night (not to see if there was still an American sermon echoing around the building!)  I was hoping that we would get to hear more of the organ than we heard last night.  NOT.  The handbell choir was there again, and they played the prelude and postlude.  It’s not that they didn’t play well – they did.  But I can hear good handbell playing at home – I wanted to hear the organ!  End of rant!

            There were two people dressed as pastors involved in the worship.  One lady was the liturgist/celebrant, and the other lady preached.  Yup – two ladies.  Dea and I decided they both looked about 19 years old.  Actually, there was much in the service that we recognized from home – the basic outline, even some of the musical liturgical responses were the same.  I could figure out enough German to know that the Gospel and Sermon were based on Jesus’ parable of the banquet in Matthew 22.  Not quite our lectionary, though.  I think I even caught enough of the sermon to get a few ideas for when that pericope comes up again for us.

            After church, we tried to get into the Lucas Cranach Haus, but it wasn’t open yet.  Went back to the hotel.  Dea took a nap, and I did some Minnesota South District work to get a project wrapped up.  After Dea woke up we went to the Lutherhaus and Dea saw what she had missed yesterday when I went alone.  We both went through the cellar area, which I did not see yesterday – some very interesting things there.  We had been told that the handbell group was going to watch a movie about the Berlin wall, and we were invited to attend, but couldn’t find where they were.  So we came back to the hotel, rested a bit, then had supper in the hotel restaurant.  Very relaxing, nice and quiet, good food, and we didn’t have to walk very far!  Just to do something different, we decided to eat “European style.”  Fork in one hand, knife in the other.  Didn’t drop anything on my shirt, either!  The rest of the evening is for relaxing, perhaps playing some cards, etc.  We’re not quite sure what we are going to do in the next couple days.  Most museums are closed on Mondays, and we have just about finished seeing all that we wanted to see in Wittenberg.  So tomorrow’s edition will be a surprise for me as well as for you!  Hope all is well.