Yesterday, I was on a little tour of the internet (or maybe rather "detour"). Basically, I was trying to find something from Luther's commentary on the Sermon of the Mount, but had no success. (Last year I borrowed pastor's book and read it, and now I don't have it. This is what happens when you don't just buy a book. Then you don't have it when you want it. That will teach me to buy more books.) So, therefore, I ended up on places that were selling Luther's collected works on CD (well, who can read something like that on a computer screen? Anyone?) Well, the best deal for that was a German edition for 45.00 Euros. Nice. Maybe. Too much computer. But here is the site. You can get it for even cheaper other places. The point I am getting to from that site, called "churchnight", you can buy all kinds of Luther things (I note with chagrin, however, as Bror has pointed out, the cross they sell has a lovely dove on it.)
So what is "churchnight". It appears that various ev. Christian youth organizations try to promote reformation and church on the 31st of October as a youth event in church, to some degree to counterbalance the trend of introducing Halloween, which used to be completely foreign there.
Here is the promo video for "ChurchNight 09".
It's only 2 min. long. Translation: just a little below.
You may not like all the aesthetics and "Church Night" sounds lame in English (maybe "cool" in German), but it does combine the idea of "All Saints" and "Reformation" simply. Also, in the promo one hears little of substance. Jesus, sin, death and the devil don't make it onto the video much.
My thought is: maybe we can get into the habit of having something special for our youth on Reformation Day. (alert the reader: that was the topic sentence in case this is too meandering.)
Translation:
First the German for those who are still practicing theirs.
Churchnight. Hell. Wach. Evangelisch.
Churchnight. Was ist das?
Young woman: Kreativ, mit viel Musik, mit Theater, mit vielen anderen Jugendlichen.
Wiel die Meisten halt denken nur alte Leute gehen in die Kirche. Aber so ist das nicht.
Woman: Die Chruchnight ist total cool. Weil jeder im Grunde genommen seine Ideen einbauen kann. Er sieht was dran ist. Die jungen Leute kriengen einen ganz neuen Eindruck von der Kirche, eine volle neue Eintrittskarte in die Kirche.
Young man: Churchnight ist bunt; es sind viele Menschen da. Gemeinschaft. Man lernt Neues kennen, erfaehrt Neues und Spannendes und wird unterhalten.
"31. Oktober. Martin Luther. Seine 95 Thesen. Geburtstag der evangelischen Kirche. Wir wollen kein Halloween. Wir wollen Reformation feiern. Nachdenken, froehlich sein.
Zwei gute Gruende zur Churchnight su gehen?
Young man: Das das Durchschnittsalter der Anwesenden eindeutig geringer ist als Sonntags morgens in der Kirche.
Young man: Weil es der 31.10. ist und man dann nichts zu tun hat.
Also, bis zur naechsten Churchnight.
Ok, now in English:
Churchnight. Bright. Awake. Evangelical (lutheran).
Churchnight. What is it?
young woman: Creative. With much music. With theatre. With many other young poeple.
Because so many think: only old people go to church and that's not true.
woman: Churchnight is totally cool because basically everyone can utilize his own ideas and see what it's all about. The young people gain a completely different impression of the church and a new way to enter it.
young man: Churchnight is colorful. There are a lot of people there. Fellowship. One gets to know many new things, experiences new, exciting and entertaining things.
31st of October. Martin Luther. His 95 thesis. Birthday of the evangelical (luth.) church.
We don't want Halloween. We want to celebrate the Reformation, we want to think, be joyful.
Two reasons to attend Churchnight?
young man: Because the average age of the attendee is significantly lower than on Sunday morning.
young man: Because it is the 31.10 and I don't have any other plans.
Well, then, til the next Churchnight!
What do you think? Some good ideas or not? What I find interesting is that the site also promotes a lot of Luther written materials to be used and sold on that day. In my days, I did not feel I had access to such.
Ok, comment. I won't be here for a little while, sorry. Tante Ilse: can't you comment, yet? What kinds of things might the SELK do? Do you have links for literature and catalogues? (You can just e-mail, too. Love, Brigitte).
4 comments:
My dad bought me Luther's works on CD. Rom. the one CPH put out. I have a hard time reading it at all in that format. Sometimes it works to find a quote. But then there is also the problem that CPH marketed it. That means invariably that they messed it up somehow. (Not that I don't have a bias there.) But when you copy a section they have feature that is supposed to do the foot or endnotes for you, and they are in the wrong format! Me being lazy, I wouldn't check that on my seminary papers, and got dinged for it. Well, I started to check it. But seriously, I keep just asking my dad for his hard copies. I could print them but that would cost as much as buying!
We're back from driving to Vancouver, Alberta British Columbia District LCC convention. (Is it ever nice in Vancouver.) CPH was there, too, and they got a few suggestions from some of us there.
I think you said your dad had his books in boxes. Now, that is indeed a shame. Keep begging hard, I'd say.
CPH is coming out with a new translation. One book per year. By the time we're grandparents we'll have a few... You'd think they could put more than one guy on the project? He'll be dead by the time he's done. Sorry, I should be going to bed.
Brigitte,
They do have more than one guy on the project. They have translators all over the place. But they have one guy in charge. And I don't know that I would like to work with him. Knowing of him, and the few brushes I have had with him, well it's CPH.
Ooh-keeh.
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