... "This day shall be for you a memorial day,2 and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generation you shall observe it as an ordinance forever." (v. 14)
Dear friends,
Today, beginning this week, we here in Canada have a most special week, and that is because tomorrow is a special holiday, namely "Heritage Day." And by that is meant that day, or week, where one remembers especially his or her national or ethnic heritage....
It is, indeed, interesting the way that we have these holidays in Canada: First, in the month of May, there is Victoria Day - where especially the British3 think back to their golden age under Queen Victoria.
Then, in the month of July, there is Canada Day, where we can consider the fact that we are all Canadians.
And then, finally, as a rather new holiday - and, I have to say, still not 100% established4 - we have Heritage Day - where everyone can remember where he or she comes from, and what he or she brings along as a heritage: Scots, Ukrainians, the French, the Chinese, and, yes, also the Germans.
Thus, this day is, especially for us, especially for us gathered here - of very great importance - because, for my part, after some experience in the area of history, I am convinced that we still have something to contribute - indeed, that we have a lot to contribute. And, indeed, to both groups: to the Church in Canada, regardless of which language she is speaking, and, also, to those people who identify themselves with German culture in Canada, whether they are Lutherans or not.
Yes, we have, perhaps, even more than ever before ... something to contribute. But why? Why today especially? Because somehow the conditions of our time are creating strong demands within the inner beings of people.5 For we live, indeed, in a perplexing and confusing time - We have everything; and we have nothing. We have great possibilities: Technology is highly developed; and the chances that our children might go to the university or to a good technical school - these are also great. But, on the other side: Our children today can hardly learn anything by memory anymore: Not the catechism, not the Bible verses, nor our proverbs, nor our church hymns, nor the folk songs,6 nor the stories of the past - the way it was once done.
Yes, it seems true what I heard expressed a week ago in the Ideas program of the CBC: "We are, today, actually one of the poorest cultures in history ... We have everything in the area of technology, but next to nothing in the head." That is, no oral tradition to pass on to the next generation.7
... Everything in the computer and nothing in the head ...
Thus, when a human being has nothing - and I mean in reality nothing, although he might think that he has everything - when something essential is lacking there, then that person becomes restless, and there gets to be an inner desiring - for what exactly he does not know.
People today are searching for something, but they don’t know exactly what for.
I’ve heard that a person can also see something like that in animals, in livestock. For example, when there is a deficiency in a trace mineral, such as phosphorus for the bones,7 or magnesium, or, in our area, selenium, then that animal can have a lot of feed, the nicest looking hay and this and that, but still, there is something lacking. And he gets restless, and I have heard that some go around and even chew on tree trunks. Crazy behavior, isn’t it? But, if you know that something essential is missing, and can’t be gotten just by normal eating, then that funny behavior makes sense!
Thus, today, people are searching also in the past because there is the feeling that something from the past is missing.
And - this thing becomes more serious. Familiar to some of you, I’m sure, is our Provincial Archives. That is, in Edmonton, that place where they have all of these old documents. And it is fact that in the past several years, many, many people have been busy researching their family trees. That is, today, a big phenomenon and thousands of people are doing it. But this matter gets yet more serious. I have a friend at the archives, who has been working there for several years now. And, over the years he has noticed just how the number of researchers has been increasing: People, who are looking for their great grandfathers and great grandmothers. But today, today, there is a new phenomenon: Especially moving, he says, are, today, the children who come to the archives to search for their parents.
We have, today, everything; and we have nothing.
On the one hand, we have computers which can hold hundreds of names, and, on the other children who must come to the Provincial Archives to find out who their parents are!
Thus, Heritage Day - a time, when we can remember where we come from, and what we have brought with us, and what we have to contribute. And we can be thankful to our government, that some people there have been able, in a public manner, to point our searching into a healthy direction.
Because people are going to search no matter what. Some will seek that missing element in the Shopping Mall. Or some, in the drug culture. Others, however, will come to the insight that the problem lies in the profound loss of a religious tradition, for, yes, we all have the Bible - that, certainly - But, how do you know what is in it? How do you understand all of those things that are there? And, yes, here we are sitting in a fine church.9 But who built it? And, what was their purpose, their intention? And, what did they want for their children and grandchildren?
Dear friends, these Lutheran congregations that we have in western Canada, they have not come to be just by chance. It was not just by chance that the French Catholics settled in St. Albert, that the Ukrainian Orthodox were in the Vegreville area, and that the German Lutherans were at Ellerslie (at that time Lutherhort) and here at Gnadenthal. That was not just chance. No, that was an intention of people who believed: that they would act, that they would do something, that they would build something, and that, if possible, they would do these things according to the will of God.
Thus, we can be thankful to our government, that with Heritage Day we are pointed into a good direction.
Now, Heritage Day, that is not the answer. It is not the "last word," for we still have the question: But what is actually our heritage? But, at least, we are pointed in a good direction.
For, I wouldn’t go looking around too much in the Shopping Mall; and I wouldn’t go looking at all in the drug culture. But, if a person, for example, begins to look into a French heritage - then perhaps that person might find God in the Catholic Church. And, if a person, for example, begins to look into Ukrainian culture - then perhaps that person might find God in the Orthodox Church. And, if a person, for example, begins to look into German culture, it may be that perhaps that person might find God in the Lutheran Church.
But, not necessarily.
When I was in school (many of the professors were not Christian; and further, I had the feeling that for some of them, the church was an embarrassment) that somehow the relationship was not good. We heard much about Goethe and Schiller and Hegel and Nietzsche, but not a great deal about Luther and, I think, in eight years, scarcely one word about Paul Gerhardt.
Yet, even there, where many were not Christian, I shall still have to say: It was in German class where I learned "A Mighty Fortress" by heart, not in the Sunday school. And it was in the German lessons that I also learned something of what a real church bell does: "Strongly anchored in the ground stands a form of hardened clay ..."10 (Friedrich Schiller) And a person could go on: For example, it is from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia11 (Edmonton chapter) where today I hear the most about our brothers and sisters in Siberia (people who now, finally, under Gorbachev are receiving permission to emigrate).12
Thus, Heritage Day and our heritage: There are possibilities to come back to the Christian tradition, and I would want to say especially here in Canada where our forefathers were mostly Christian.
Thus, now, I want to get to the matter at hand and say something - a little - about our Christian forefathers, and then about what the Bible has to say to us. In the end, the Bible must have the last word.
So, to begin with, that fact that there are Lutheran congregations in Ellersiie, Hay Lakes, Rollyview13 and Gnadenthai - is not simply by chance!
The people at that time, the time of settlement, those people (that is, the people who wanted to stay in the church - those who didn’t always go to Calgary and get a job)14 showed three major characteristics. Three special things characterized their way of life, and I want to name each of them:
1. First, they knew where they came from. They knew that they were Christians, and they knew that they were Lutherans. Bible verses, church hymns, the liturgy, and the catechism - these things they knew from memory. These things were in the memory and in the heart. This was not "the poorest culture in history," as some have called ours today! Rather, these people had something which they could pass on to their children. Thus, the people of that time lived from a tradition, but they also lived into the future.
2. Second, our forebears wanted to stay together. They wanted to be able to form a viable congregation.15 The government at that time was not 100% in agreement. Earlier, in Manitoba, they had allowed the Mennonites to set up colonies on a legal basis (otherwise the Mennonites would not have come from Russia). And, somehow, they also allowed the Icelanders by Lake Winnipeg to form a colony with some self government. But later - 1890, 1900 - some German Lutherans also tried it; and the government did not want, officially, to say "yes."
Those, at that time, had little interest in congregations; they had more interest (on the part of the CN and CPR16) in land sales, in wheat harvest, and in selling farm machinery.
Thus: "Why don’t you spread out a bit more?"17
"Why don’t you go along with the rest of society a bit more?"
"You can harvest just as much grain!"
But, somehow, our fathers managed to do it anyway: settled so that their people stayed together, so that they could form good, viable congregations. Not so much by legal means, but rather by help for the immigrants, by encouragement here and there so that most of them could stay together. Thus, our ancestors: 1. knew where they came from (and brought along a living Lutheran, a Christian tradition); 2. wanted to stay together; and 3. (now) wanted to do something; They wanted wanted to build something.
Oh friends, that is so important for a Christian person that he or she does not come into church with a sour face as if it were a burden to show up here on Sunday morning, but, rather, cheerfully, because the Christian wants to do something.
Dear friends,
Last September, we were gathered in the German Interest Conference of our church in Philadelphia. And there we elected our president, and afterwards he said to me: "John, I am really busy - the congregation in New York and also the work in New Jersey - that is a lot. But I accept this office because I want to do something."18 "Because I want to do something." That was like music to my ears, for that is an important part of being a Christian. The Christian wants to do something. And for our ancestors, too, this was the case. They, too, wanted to do something. And, according to their means they did do a lot. Thus for us, too, for us who are sitting here today - we, too, should be wanting to do something:
That is a part of being a Christian.
That is like the good fruit that the tree wants to make our good works.
And the doing, that doing, comes from life.
But what, what to do and how? What should we be doing today?
And here, now, I want to finally return to our sermon text, to the Word of God, to that story of ancient Israel. For the people of Israel also wanted to do a lot; and they did do a lot. You will remember: How the people came into Canaan, and conquered the land, and made the land fruitful, and built houses and schools, and a wonderful temple. All of that they did.
But first of all God told them: This you should do and not forget.19 "on the tenth day of this month [you] shall take ... a lamb ... your lamb shall be without blemish ... [And] the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill their lambs in the evening ... [You]20 shall eat the flesh that night roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs ... And you shall let none of it remain until morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn."
Note all of these details, the instructions!
And then, further, verse 14:
"This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever."
And further, verse 24:
"You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever."
And when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.
And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he slew the Egyptians but spared our houses.’
... And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
Do you want to do something? If so, then you must go back, must return to origins, to the foundation, to God and, indeed, to God as he has revealed himself in the past. That’s the way it was for the ancient Jews and that’s the way it must be for us Christians today! For we Christians have our Passover, as well - and that which we, too, must do.
For our Lord Jesus has taken the old Passover and has put himself there in place of the lamb. That is, for us, now, the Lord’s Supper. And this, too, with the same command: "Do this in remembrance of me." That means, now:
If you intend to do anything with your life, today, then you must also go back into the past, back until you come to the right foundation, back until you come to God and to his grace.
"Seek and you will find" ...
For only where you experience the grace of God, there where he frees us - not especially from Egypt, but more, from sin, from death, and from the devil, throughout the world - Only when you return and come to the Cross, and can thankfully receive what God has done for you, only then can you again put your life in order, only then can you really do the right thing. Amen
1. This sermon, with only slight modification, is a translation from the original German delivered on July 31st, 1988, at Grace Lutheran Church, Gnadenthal (RR#1, Leduc), Alberta. Americans wishing to incorporate these ideas into their own sermons may wish to focus on the Fourth of July and other American national holidays.
2. In Luther’s German, literally, "You shall have this day for the memory."
3. "Die Briten," colloquial in Canada for those (also in Canada) of more pronounced (European) British origin.
4. The writer has seen this day designated on some Canadian calendars simply as "Civic Holiday," although the Heritage Day theme seems to be quite strong in Alberta.
5. "im inneren Menschen," literally "in the inner man."
6. Volkslieder
7. The quote is for purposes of homiletic style. Actually, the statements are paraphrased and "a week ago" is only approximate.
8. Likely more than a trace, properly speaking.
9. Built, as I understand it, in the 1940s, it is a late example of the nineteenth-century Gothic revival, outstanding for that area and time in Alberta.
10. "Fest gemauert in der Erden steht em Form aus Lehm gebrannt" is the opening line of Schilier’s "Lied von der Glocke" describing the scene where the church bell is to be poured. Printed in its entirety in the June/July 1987 issue of Kirchliches Monatsblatt (Winnipeg), the editor, Hans-Martin Steinert, later noted that scarcely any other item drew so much response (both positive and negative) from the readership as the printing of this poem. (From comments at the German Lutheran Conference; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; September, 1987; attended by the author.) In Schiller’s work the church bell is seen (and heard) as it accompanies the villagers through a multitude of life-situations. Obviously an important sign of public Christianity, the era of Schiller’s writing, on the other hand, was also a low one for the church itself in Germany. (See Conrad Bergendoff, The Church of the Lutheran Reformation, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1967, pp. 175f.)
11. Many in this congregation are descendants.
12. In May of 1988 already a record, 30,000 are expected to have emigrated back to Germany by the end of the year. This is out of an estimated two million still living in the Soviet Union. (E. Schmidt, Deutschland-Nachrichten (Ottawa) (May 18, 1988, p. 3)
13. Other places in Alberta not far from Gnadenthal, all a part of the same general settlement pattern.
14. "Job." In German "Job" (pronounced somewhat as in English) has a negative connotation contrasted with "Beruf" (or "calling"). A person with a "Job" is working for money.
15. "Gemeinden." The same word in German is used for both congregation and community which were often coterminous.
16. Of course, that the railroads were not totally indifferent to the question of settlement patterns is evident by Robert England’s book The Colonization of Western Canada (London: P.S. Kind and Son, Ltd., 1936). The point for homiletic purposes is the question of priorities.
17. Quotations are for homiletic purposes only.
18. Actually paraphrased.
19. Emphases throughout this quotation are mine.
20. A literal translation from the Lutherbibel.