Day 18

            It’s late, but I don’t want to miss a day.  We got a leisurely start to the day.  After breakfast, we worked our way down to the castle, which as you may guess, is next to the castle church!  Brilliant!  It is now a museum, and there is nothing on the inside to suggest a castle.  It is a natural history and Wittenberg history museum.  It was rather interesting – the lady selling tickets explained what was in the museum, but then cautioned us “There is no Luther in the museum!”  She was pretty much right.  It was Wittenberg history, not Luther in Wittenberg history.  On the third level was a model of Wittenberg from the early 1800’s, which was really very interesting.  What was most interesting was that Luther’s house (the former Augustinian monastery) was not in the model.  “No Luther in the museum” was right!

            We also went back into the Castle Church for a bit, to take a few more pictures.  Besides, we could do it, so we did!  It is a wonderful place.

            We came back to the hotel for noon snacks and siesta, and mostly to wait for Paul and Barb to arrive.  They got here safely around 3:00, and we had a great chat.  They saw some very interesting things on their travels before arriving here.  It’s really nice to have them here.

            Then it was time for church.  I got dressed (well, I was dressed before, but put on my clerical shirt and grabbed my vestments) and we headed the two blocks to the Stadtkirche.  The assistant Kirchenmeister showed me the sacristy where I could vest.  Then I went to find the organist, because I had to explain how the sermon was going to work.  We sang all 10 verses of “Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice” for the sermon, and I had commentary/explanation of each stanza before we sang it.  Those readers from Trinity will remember that I did the same sermon “back home” a couple months ago.

            The organist was a student.  I don’t think she could have been 18 years old.  She had played in the recital yesterday, and did a very nice job.  Her English was quite broken, but between us, I explained to her what I was going to do, and gave her a script to follow.  She really did very well playing for the whole service.  I was impressed.

            There were not quite 20 people in church tonight. A lot less than the 103 we had last week in the Schlosskirche.  But I did get to preach this time from the pulpit.  Luther himself never preached from this pulpit.  It was put up many years after his death.  Yet I know the previous pulpit was in much the same place.  It may sound weird, but I had a very strong sense of history, and even Luther’s presence, as I led worship.  This was even stronger tonight than last week.  It’s hard to describe the feeling, but again, awesome comes close.

            After church, we came back to the hotel, dodging raindrops, to “dress down” a bit, then headed to Tanta Emma’s for supper (Paul, Barb, Dea, and me).  Good food, good company, a very good evening.  We visited for a while.  Paul and Barb left a few minutes ago, and I’m trying to fill in the blog.

            Tomorrow morning we’re headed for Torgau.  I’m really excited about this side trip – I know there are some really interesting things there.  Plus, we need to get back by 5, since there is “evensong” in the Castle Church then, and I want to hear it.  More tomorrow.

            P.S.   Dea’s arm is really doing quite well,  It twinges once in a while, but on the whole, it is much better than it was