Oppenheim (Maundy Thursday)

I'm currently sitting at my desk on a cold, wet afternoon, indulging my latest obsession - green tea - and I realize now that I have to run to the store before it closes. Tomorrow is Good Friday, or "Karfreitag." And, as I've learned (the hard way of course), Germans shut everything down for holidays - even church holidays . . . Being on break, this morning Thomas, Matthias, Ryan and I hopped the train to the small town of Oppenheim. Oppenheim sits on a hill between Mainz and Worms on the south bank of the Rhein River. Their Katharinenkirche is known as a prime example of late-Gothic German architecture. On our way up the hill Matthias noted a sign indicating that Martin Luther spent the night here on his way to and from the Diet of Worms in 1521. We also observed their strange fascination with frogs - brass and concrete sculptures of the amphibian on nearly ever corner - though we still don't know the story behind that. But perhaps the most interesting feature in Oppenheim is the "bone house" - a cellar underneath a small chapel just off to the side of Katharinenkirche. The cellar houses the bones - visible through an iron door - of 20,000 people collected between the years 1400 and 1750. Interesting.

Perhaps Spring must wait...

I awoke this morning startled by the brightness of the world outside my door. It reminded me of being a kid and knowing the forecast the night before called for snow, and when you awoke, you could tell by the light coming in through the shades that there was snow on the ground reflecting the pale morning light. Though, being completely unaware of the forecast, this morning was a pleasant surprise.




It is late in an afternoon
More grey with snow to fall
Than white with fallen snow
When it is blue jay and crow
Or no bird at all.

(Robert Frost, from "War Thoughts at Home")

Peace to you.

Ishmael Beah

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book reading by Ishmael Beah in Frankfurt. Ishmael's book is called, "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier." [Reflection to follow.]

Kleinostheim

I looked for Kleinostheim on my map of Germany - couldn't find it. But I spent just over two hours there this morning. I can tell you it's somewhere between Hanau and Wurzburg, but nowhere near Amberg (my intended destination). I left Oberursel at 6:30 this morning, intending to take the train to Amberg to visit my sister-in-law, Michelle. It's about a five-hour trip, one-way. Before I even got out of Oberursel, I had that sinking feeling you get when you fear you may have left the coffee pot on. (For good reason; more than once I've left the coffee pot on all day, only to return home to the smell of burning coffee - including the last time I saw Michelle.) My trip was downhill from there. I tried to suppress images of my apartment building burning down and decided I'd try to call my friends (and authorize a break-in) when I got to the train station in Frankfurt. Of course, then the phone there wouldn't accept coins; "no problem," I thought, "I'll call when I get to Wurzburg, since I have a 35-minute wait for the train to Nürnberg." When I got into Frankfurt Südbahnhof shortly after 7:00, a freak thunderstorm blew through Frankfurt (apparently it hit England pretty hard yesterday). When I boarded my train, we were informed that a tree had blown down over the tracks, but that it didn't sound like it would be a problem. Well, apparently it was. By the time we stopped in Kleinostheim at 8:19, they realized we weren't going to make it to Wurzburg that way. Let me rephrase that - after sitting in Kleinostheim for two hours, they realized they weren't going to make it that way and turned the train around. This drove four strangely costumed German girls to hysterics, as they weren't going to make it to München that afternoon. (One girl was wearing a bathrobe and had strange eye makeup; another was wearing a homemade cheerleading outfit and platform shoes with a pink wig; the others were also strangely attired, with unnaturally colored hair, but not quite as unusual as the other two.) The attitudes of the rest of my fellow passengers ranged from apathy to anger. As the conductor worked his way through the train, he instructed us that the train was going back to Frankfurt, but that we couldn't sit on the train while he turned it around. There was a Japanese couple in my car who apparently didn't speak German. But they did speak enough English that I was able to (clumsily) translate for them. The conductor didn't speak English, but asked if I could help them off the train. I was reasonably sure I was able to tell them what was going on, so I stepped off the train and waited for them. They had a lot of luggage and were able to gather all their belongings just in time to see the doors close before they could climb off the train. As the train pulled away from the platform while the Japanese couple now trapped inside unsuccessfully pressed the button to open the door, I could only whisper to myself that I hoped the train didn't have far to go to turn around. Thankfully, less than five minutes later the train was back and my new Japanese friends were still there. When we got back to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, I was able to direct them to the travel office - where I learned that I couldn't get a refund, but the next train to Amberg was leaving in ten minutes. I quickly did the math and decided that 15 hours on trains (with about 10 connections for the day) was not worth the 45 minutes I'd get to see Michelle (five hours after we were supposed to meet) (and, I was still worried about my coffee pot). Yet even then, as I took the S-Bahn back to Oberursel, I thought, what else am I going to do today? But by then it was too late. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I might make it back in time to prevent my building from becoming a raging inferno. Almost exactly six hours after I left, I was back in my apartment. The coffee pot was, in fact, safely unplugged. And, in case you were wondering, "Kleinostheim" means, appropriately enough, "Little East Place."

Frühling is Coming!

Peace to you.

Frankfurt am Main

Dreikönigskirche (10.02.2008)

This morning, Thomas and I accompanied Roland to the Dreikönigskirche ("Epiphany" - literally, "three kings"), a large Protestant church on the banks of the Main River. Apparently, the guy who was the organist in this church from the 50s to the 80s was a world-renown Bach scholar . . . and this ginormous organ was a gift by the city of Frankfurt to the church. And, incredibly, this famous organist, by the end of his tenure, was almost completely blind, so he played all Bach's works from memory! Roland said the combination of the history behind the instrument and the sheer size and quality was like "being handed the keys to a Ferrari." The hymns selected for this morning were a treat - as well as the Bach pieces Roland played as a prelude and postlude. After church, Thomas and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and walked along the Main and crossed on a footbridge to the main part of downtown Frankfurt.

Bundesliga Aktion (08.02.2008)

Friday evening, after we had taken Roland's uncle to the airport, Roland, Helmut and I met our friends Thomas, Mathias and Andreas at the Stadion for my first-ever Bundesliga Fußball match! It's funny, it was Andreas' idea (Eintracht Frankfurt is his favorite team), but he was the only German in the group, as the rest of my friends are South African. Our seats were in the sixth row on one of the corners, opposite the fenced-in area where they keep all the hooligans. I've not been to a major college football game (I don't count the Gophers in the Metrodome), but that's what I might try to compare it to. The "hooligans" had drums, crazy huge flags and sang through the whole game. We were treated to a 2-1 victory. And, after the game, the beer drinking and singing spilled outside the stadium and lasted the whole way back to the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt, where we changed trains back to Oberursel.

Mainz II (08.02.2008)

Friday afternoon, I tagged along with my friends Helmut and Roland and Roland's uncle. We caught the train to the nearby city of Mainz, just west of Frankfurt. The sun was shining (a rare occurrence in Winter) and we wanted to check out Sankt Stephanskirche, renown for the bright blue stained glass windows, designed by the French artist, Chagal. The windows lived up to billing. And, afterward, we enjoyed a Cappuccino on the plaza outside the cathedral, then walked to the Rhein with the sun setting behind us, silhouetting the cathedral.

Fulda (26.01.2008)

One Saturday, with nothing planned at the Hochschule, I set my alarm and boarded the train for Fulda. A bit off the beaten path, Fulda is known for a couple things: it's beautifully preserved Baroque Quarter in the old part of the city, and also being the final resting place of Saint Boniface, "Apostle to the Germans." As often happens to me on my travels, upon arrival in Fulda, within a couple blocks of the train station, I stumbled upon something interesting. Suddenly hearing a marching band behind me, I turned around and followed them to a political rally. All the big political parties in Germany were represented. And what rally is complete without cheerleaders and a German brass band? But the highlight for me were the Bratwurst mit Brötchen for one Euro! (I ate two.) Overall, however, the highlight for me was nearing the edge of the Baroque Quarter and seeing Sankt Marien Kirche for the first time. It was a beautiful day, and in the sunshine under a bright blue sky, St. Mary's was impressive. There is a cobblestone plaza in front of the church that is probably 300 meters in diameter. Across the street was the church where Boniface is buried (unfortunately, closed to tourists in January). After taking a nice long look inside St. Mary's, I sat outside on the plaza and enjoyed an apple and some water and just soaked it all in . . .








I spent nearly five hours on the train that day, too, but it didn't feel like it. I had picked up "The Kite Runner" by Khalid Housseni the previous afternoon and couldn't put it down. If you haven't read it, it is probably one of the three best novels I have ever read. It is intensely emotional. And Housseni has an incredibly vivd way of setting the scene - yet with such an efficiency that you can hardly tell he's using adjectives (if that makes any sense). I almost missed three train stops because of this book - including my own when I came home, and that was after I had finished the book. I finished it barely 24 hours after I began. Read it! I'd love to talk to you about it.

Peace to you.

Studienfahrt, Heidelberg (23.01.08)

January 23rd, the students and faculty of the Lutherische Theologisch Hochschule took a field trip ("Studienfahrt" auf Deutsch)! We took the train to Heidelberg where we met the faculty of the theological department at Heidelberg University, one of Germany's oldest. After lunch, we took a walking tour through the city, followed by a tour of the famous castle, perched on the hill above Heidelberg.

sinner

Das ist gewisslich wahr und ein Wort, des Glaubens wert, dass Christus Jesus in die Welt gekommen ist, die Sünder selig zu machen, unter denen ich der erste bin. 1. Tim. 1,15 (Luther Bibel, 1984)

[The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Tim. 1.15 (ESV)]

Marburg (19.01.2008)

Today's trip began the way most of them do: with a wet, muddy slog down the hill to the platform at Glöcknerwiese. Any effort spent cleaning my shoes is usually undone by the time I get to the bottom. It was misting. I almost called off the trip to Marburg because I knew it would be overcast and probably rain most of the day. I'm glad I didn't.

Marburg is an important Reformation site. I don't feel like retelling the story myself, so here's Wikipedia's version (http://wikipedia.org):

"The Marburg Colloquy was a meeting which attempted to solve a dispute between Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli over the Lord's Supper. It took place between October 1 and October 4, 1529. The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended at the behest of Philipp I of Hessen. Philipp's primary motivation for this conference was political; he wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important constituent. After the Diet of Speyer had confirmed the edict of Worms, the need was felt to reconcile the diverging views in particular of Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli to have a unified Protestant theology. . . . Although the two prominent reformers, Luther and Zwingli, found a consensus on fourteen points, they kept differing on the last one on the Eucharist: Luther maintained that by Sacramental Union, the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord's Supper were united to the true body and blood of Christ for all communicants to eat and drink; whereas, Zwingli considered bread and wine only symbols of the body and blood of Christ. On this issue they parted without having reached an agreement."

Meatloaf said "two out of three ain't bad." But, when we're talking about the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, 14 out of 15 ain't good enough. Luther is famous for getting so (and rightly so) adamant that he carved the word "est" (Latin for "is") into a table. "This is my body . . . This is my blood. . . ."

Here are some of my photos from Marbug:








(The room in Marburg Castle where Luther and Zwingli actually went at it.)



I thought this was a good one to end with . . .
Peace to you.

Bremen