Day 9: "Ich bin ein Berliner"

This morning the shuttle buses left Wittenberg for the airport at 5:30am.  Since that is an ungodly hour, and I had no flight to catch, I decided to venerate St. Mattress for a few more hours before taking the high-speed train from Wittenberg to the centre of Berlin.  We need to get a few of these in Canada.  What took 1.5 hours to drive took a little more than 30 minutes by train.  And the coffee they served was actually drinkable.

I found my hotel and checked in.  It is literally a block away from the famous Check Point Charley.  I hope to visit that location and its museum tomorrow (many of the museums are closed today--Monday).  The room is a single, and is little more than a walk in closet, but it is clean and has a funky European design.

Right outside my hotel is this cool work of art.  It is huge (check out the car behind it).  In Saskatchewan we seem to weld a few hunks of metal together and let it rust and call it art.  I think I prefer this.

As I was touring around on the subway system, I came across the TV tower.  This tower was built by the communists in East Berlin.  It was built near a beautiful church will a tall steeple.  The idea was to show how this "new order" would tower over the "religious past."  It is an ugly building and truly towers over everything.  Once it was built, however, they realized that when it reflected the sun a bright cross is created.  (It is not quite as distinct in the picture as in person.  There is no mistaking that this building is constantly glowing in the shape of a cross.)  The communist government was not happy with this, and tried many things to dull the image, but nothing worked.  I guess they underestimated who they were dealing with.

As I was walking down the street I could hear these guys from about a block away, partying and singing.  It is a bar on wheels.  Leave it the Germans to turn drinking and driving into a sport!

Tomorrow I go to museums and churches.  

Day 8: So long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye.

Today was the last day of the Luther 500 Festival.  The morning began with a "Sunday School" class where Gerald Coleman, author of the song, "The Lamb, The Lamb," which is included in our hymnal, led us in a session that assured us of God's love for us no matter what we have done.  He then gave us some paper and an envelope that were were to address to ourselves.  The idea was to write down some of the special moments from this festival.  Sometime later these envelopes will be sent to us and we reminisce about the times we had here in Wittenberg.

After lunch we gathered for our closing worship.  The theme for the day was "I am Baptized," a phrase that Luther used often in troubled times.  In his sermon, Rev. Scott Moore reminded us to "remember our baptism" and gave us an opportunity to do that during the service.  

Congregants were encouraged to come forward, dip their fingers in the water and make the sign of the cross to remind them that that have been baptized and made an heir of heaven.  A fitting end to a festival full of God's grace.

After the worship service ended, the young adults from Saskatoon went on to Berlin and then to Fankfurt.  I stayed one more night in Wittenberg and joined the remaining travelers for a boat cruse on the Elbe River.

We had some fantastic and unique views of Wittenberg from the river.  It was a good time to unwind, enjoy a beer, and visit one last time with people from the four corners of the world.

Pictured with me here is Victor.  He came all the way from South Africa to attend the Luther 500.

With all being accomplished we bring this memorable festival to a close.

Tomorrow I travel to Berlin by train, and in the next few days, plan to visit a number of interesting sites including The Berlin Wall, Check Point Charlie, and the Pergamon Museum.  I hope to be able to blog about these places as well.

Gute Nacht.

Day 7: "I get to do what?!"

Today offered quite a unique experience.  While Wittenburg is a community that speaks little English as a first language (German of course is first, but many around here grew up also learning Russian during the era of "East Germany") there is a ministry that is offered to those who speak English, both the tourist and the residents.

They offer a weekly worship service on Saturday evenings.  The pastor who is covering for these two weeks offered to let me read the Old Testament lesson for the worship service at the Town Church.  This is the church that Luther preached at most often.  It was very humbling to publicly read the Word of God in this historic Church of the Reformation.

One of the groups performing at the Luther 500 was Alathea, a fantastic duo from Tennessee.  Check them out at http://www.alathea.com  

We then ended the night with Evening Prayer in the Convention Cetnre.  Not nearly as aesthetically appealing as the Castle or Town church, but none-the-less, the word of God was proclaimed and heard, and souls were fed.


Tomorrow the festival will officially end, and I will move on to Berlin for a few days.  I hope to post from there as well.

Day 6: No Bull

After Morning Prayer in the Castle Church I headed over to a session on rare reformation books and the process of restoring them.  This took place in the Luther House which is pictured above.  This house was a wedding gift to Luther and Katie from Fredrick the Wise.  -Crock pots were not a wedding gift option yet.

One of the books they showed us was an early edition of Luther's Works.  It was printed in 1570.  They even encourages us to touch the pages, without gloves!  It seemed very wrong, but I wasn't about to decline the offer.  The archives here store about 30,000 books, many of them in rough shape, not so much from the effects of time, but from overuse.  The pages are holding up considerably well, due to the high quality of paper, but the covers are very worn and damaged; "Kaputt," was the word of the day from the archivist.

Much of the Luther House displays artifacts from the reformation, but one of the most interesting rooms had almost nothing on display in it.  This was the living room where Luther and his house guests would gather after a meal and discuss theology and other matters.  Much of the "Table Talk" writings that we cherish (and chuckle at) came from this room.

A short walk from the Luther House is the place where Luther burned the Papal Bull announcing his excommunication.  This is a peaceful garden now, but the action he took here was very controversial and viewed as attack against Rome.

In the evening we gathered at the convention centre, and were joined by German youth who will be with us now for the weekend.  I'm not sure if we impressed or shocked them when we prayed the Lord's Prayer in German.  Possibly it wasn't even recognizable the way we said it.  The picture above is the view from the balcony.

Here's a picture of the guy hanging out in the balcony.

Tomorrow we spend more time in large group sessions, and then I plan to attend a session on Taize singing.

Day 5: Taking it to the Wall

The day began once again with Morning Prayer in the Castle Church.  (I took some video footage of the service and will post it in a few days when time allows.)  This morning the sun was shining brightly and landing on the tombstone of Martin Luther.  He is buried in the church right below the pulpit.

Then we boarded the buses and traveled 90 minutes to the capital city of Berlin. The first place we visited was the Brandenburg Gate. It is an impressive structure that was built from 1789-91, and was an impressive entrance to the city.  It has been a backdrop for many significant events and dignitaries that the city has hosted.

A short walk from the gate will bring you to another familiar site.  Here is our tour guide, Christian Upatel of Terra-Lu Tours, explaining the beautiful Reichstag building which houses the German Parliament.  It was built between 1884 and 1894 and the interior was burned by the Nazis in 1933, but they put the blame on the Jews.

This is also the area of the infamous Berlin Wall.  Only a small portion of the wall remains on display (I will be viewing it later next week), but where ever the wall existed it is now marked by stones in the pavement as a reminder of this barrier.  Here you can see the cobblestone marking the wall in the middle of the street.

From here we spent some time shopping and did our best to support the German economy.

We returned to Wittenberg to have Evening prayer in the Town Church.  The have made a special point of ringing the bells to announce our evening service. I also talked to the pastor who is leading the English service on Saturdays (they do this for the tourists, the regular service would be in German on Sunday morning.)  Now I will be reading the Old Testament lesson for that service that will be held in the Town Church.  Very cool.

Tomorrow we continue our small group electives in various places in Wittenberg.

Day 4: Rockin' the Wartburg

  

Today we traveled about three hours by bus to the Wartburg Castle.  This is a very old castle that is believed to date back to 1087 A.D.  It has been constantly modified and enlarged over the centuries.  The reason we were interested in it was that this castle played a very pivotal role in the reformation.

At the Diet of Worms Martin Luther refused to recant his writings.  This is when he said, "Here I stand.  I Can do no other.  God help me."  As a result of his firm stance his life was in danger.  Plans were made to ensure Luther would never make it back to Wittenberg.  In a "pre-emtive strike" Luther's friends kidnapped him first, and took him to the Wartburg for his own safe keeping.  It was in this little room that Luther stayed for 10 months.  During this time he wrote a number of Bible commentaries.

Soon he returned to this very room so that he could translate the Greek New Testament into German; a language the people could understand.  Luther realized that until the people could have the Bible to read themselves, they would still be dependent on a church hierarchy that had proven itself to corrupt God's word.  The footstool in this picture is actually the vertebrae bone from a whale.

There was a famous “inkspot” in this room where it is said that one day the devil was tormenting Luther so the reformer threw his inkwell at him.   The result was a memorable stain on the wall not far from Luther’s desk.  You can see here where in past centuries people have cut away the wood to take home a sample of the ink-spot.

In the afternoon we made our way to Erfurt.  Luther spent much time here earlier in his life as this was the location of the Augustinian Monastery he joined when he became a monk after his lightening storm experience.  Pictured here is the door to the room where Luther was ordained.  Since the room is located in a Roman Catholic Church, there is no interest by the church in developing it for tourist use.  It is simply used as a classroom these days.

A few blocks away, the altar in the Augustinian Church plays an important role in Luther’s life. It was front of this altar that Luther laid prostrate on the floor in the shape of a cross as he took his vows to become a monk. Later, after he was ordained, he consecrated the elements of the Lord’s Supper for the first time at this altar. It is said he was so nervous about doing this that he spilled the wine during the ceremony.

Unfortunately the huge stained glass windows have been taken down to be restored. This alone is a $1.5 million dollar project. There are many building restoration projects going on at the Luther sights to be ready in time for the 500th anniversary of the nailing of the 95 thesis. While the windows are away, large prints of the windows have been hung for those who visit the church.

This famous church was also our location for Evening Prayer this night.  Once again it was a privilege to sing and prayer this service in the same place that Luther himself would have done so.

Local News Video

A video journalist from the Wittenberg media did a story on the first day of the festival.  It is in German, but worth watching for the views of the Castle Church at the end, and the beautiful singing by the festival participants:
Local Media Coverage

Day 3: Paintings, Printings, and Panting (Up the Stairs of the Tower)

Day three began with Morning Prayer in the Castle Church.  This is the same church we closed yesterday off with evening prayer.

Today in the morning light the tall stained glass windows were brilliant.

We then broke into our elective sessions.  Christina went to one on Taize singing, and Johnny, Alex, and I went to a session on the famous Lucas Cranach paintings that adorn the Town Church of Wittenberg.  It is difficult to get a good picture of this church since it  is so big, but is closely surrounded by other buildings.

This is not a good picture to view the art work on the altar piece by Cranach, but I include it to show the size of the work compared to the people behind it.

The top three pictures deal with the way God personally comes to His people in the sacraments.  On the left is Baptism, the middle is Holy Communion, and the right side is Confession/Absolution.  Below is Luther preaching to his congregation, and his words clearly point the people to Christ crucified for their sins.  There are many small details in these paintings that we will take time to learn in a bible study some time this fall.

Before lunch we took some time to clime the tower of the Castle Church.  The look-out platform is where you see the windows just above the gargoyles.  It is about 65m above ground level.  This is also the level where the bells are located.  Pigeons keep the bells company.  The words just below the viewing platform are from Luther's famous hymn: A Mighty Fortress is Our God.   

This is the view from the tower.  You can see here the two main downtown streets, and the Town Church (where the Cranach paintings are located) in between the two streets.

The next session dealt with church architecture and function.  The large metal baptismal font in the Town Church was quite interesting.  It is surrounded by the apostles, but below it, trying to crawl up the legs of the font are evil creatures.  They cannot, however, get to the person because the Christian's baptism impedes the intentions of the evil creatures.  Very cool.

Next we visited the house of Lucas Cranach.  There is a statue of him drawing just outside his house.  This was the print shop where the 95 Thesis were produced.  Cranach also created many woodcuts and paintings of Luther and other reformational figures here.

Still, to this day, the Cranach house remains an art studio on one side and a print shop on the other.  Here we are trying our hand at printing cards from woodcuts by hand.

We brought the day to a close with Evening Prayer in the Town Church.  Wonderful singing in a historic and holy setting.


Tomorrow we go to Erfurt and visit the Wartburg Castle.

Day 2: Let's Get This Festival Started

We had some time this morning and early afternoon before the welcome BBQ began so we walked around downtown Wittenberg. 

In the centre of town is the Market Square where one of the most famous statues of Luther is located.  In the background is what was the town council building but is now a museum.   

We did some shopping and had a great meal served with a small sample of the local beverage.

We still had some time so we asked ourselves "What Would Luther Do?"  And the answer was: Play bocce in front of the Castle Church.  So that is what we did.

After the opening BBQ the first main session began.  Lost and Found sang and then we heard about the reformation from Luther Himself.  Tomorrow we will see some of the sights of the events he described.

The evening officially ended with Evening Prayer in the Castle Church.  This is the church where Luther nailed the 95 thesis, and the place where he often preached from.  He is buried beneath the pulpit (more about that another day).  The acoustics were incredible here and it was a wonderful experience to hear the Word of God, pray, and sing in this church.

We have only begun, but the trip has already been very rewarding.  Tomorrow we break into small groups for plenary sessions and will learn more about the reformation and the people of it while we visit some of these historic sites.

Day 1 We Enter The Time Warp

Like all epic trips, this one began at he Tim Horton's at the Saskatoon International Airport.  From that sacred place the four of us traveled countless hours in the air until we eventually touched down in Berlin, Germany.  From Berlin is was a little over an hour drive to Wittenberg, the town made famous by Martin Luther.


We were pleasantly surprised to see that we had arrived in the middle of the Wittenberg Festival, an event where everybody dresses up in medieval gear, cooks meat over fire, and stands around drinking beer.  Pastor Dressler thought this could possibly be heaven.

Something that was really cool at this time warp event were the amusement rides for kids.  They are just like the ones you find at the exhibition grounds except they are medieval versions; that is they are made of wood and they are run by human power.  The first picture is of a ferris wheel that the operator pumps with his feet.  The second photo is the swings ride.  This one the operator cranks with his hand.  One would think these would be pretty lame, but they worked amazingly well.

While here we noticed that the children were very well behaved.  It seems they have an effective discipline system:

Tomorrow the Festival gets started, but we will have time in the morning to see some more of the town.