Day 86 - Lessons From Church

Messiah Lutheran Church and Preschool
image by Dick Kruse

I am not sure children learn what their parents bring them to church to learn. I think parents expect children will learn about the wonder of the story of Jesus' birth, of the miracles performed by Jesus, of his death on the cross to take away our sins. And while I remember those stories, I also recall not having had enough life experience to know what wonder was. Every day someone - Mom, Dad, teachers, Grandmas - every day someone told me stories that were full of fantasy, of wonder. They were fairy tales, myths, story book tales. I could not distinguish between the truth of Bible stories and the fantasy in fairy tales.

The Christmas story is a good example of how I heard the words without understanding their significance. There were so many new words. Words like "manger." The only context I ever heard that word in was the Christmas story. Jesus was born in a stable and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and put into a manger. I had never heard anything else referred to a a stable, although I knew what a barn was. I didn't know what swaddling clothes were, although I knew what a receiving blanket was. And I had no idea what a manger was. I am sure a Sunday School teacher explained that a stable was like a small barn and a manger was like the feeding trough. But by then, I was so used to the story that the wonder of the details no longer conjured up any wonder. They were already routine.

I didn't undertand the symbolism of Jesus as the Good Shepherd until I lived in Romania where I saw shepherds living among their sheep for weeks or months at a time. It really hit home when we drove around a curve on a highway in Transylvania and had to come to a quick stop because a truck had collided with a flock of sheep that were crossing the road. There were dead sheep all across the road. And the shepherd was sitting on the slope of the hill on the side of the highway, his head hung down in his hands, crying.

There are other lessons from going to church that I didn't realize until I returned to being a regular church attender. There are four lessons in particular. I learned the value of ritual. I learned the beauty of poetry. I learned about new vocabulary and spelling and syllabification rules. And I learned how to read music.

First, rituals. Rituals permeate church services and the church year. The church calendar begins with Advent which begins in late November or early December. I know the timing of the celebration of Christmas is tied to the pagan traditions of the early church, not to the known or presumed time of year of Jesus' birth. I understand the reasons for observing Christian holidays during the time of pagan holidays was not an attempt to lure the pagans into Christianity; it was to maintain a low profile during the times when being known as a practicing Christian was dangerous. I find it uplifting that the church calendar provides a second opportunity in our twelve-month year to observe a new year, a rebirth, a renewal. And the fact that the new year of the church calendar coincides so closely to the beginning of the season of death - winter - makes the renewal all the more striking.

Rituals also provide something familiar to hold onto, or in my case to come back to. The music of the liturgy had changed a great deal in the nearly 30 years since I had previously attended church regularly. But the order of the service was the same, familiar, something that anchored me.

Second, poetry. All those hymns we sang during Sunday School and in the church service were poetry set to music. Many were translations from German, Luther's native language, which has a different normal word order than does English. In German, the verb is always second in a sentence, but if the verb is a compound verb, such as future or present perfect tenses, the helping verb is in second position with the rest of the verb forced to the end of the sentence. Sometimes the German word order is maintained in the translation, with the result illustrating poetic license. Most hymns rhyme, illustrating the usual form of poetry. Through hymns and the Psalms, and much of the prose in the church service liturgy, I learned there are other ways to use language to express ideas, although no one labeled going to church as a language lesson.

Third, vocabulary, spelling and syllabification rules. Because hymns are poetry in music format, nearly every hymn introduced new vocabulary, without a glossary at the back of the book to explain the meaning. I either had to ask what the words meant or figure it out from context. The words of the hymns appear under the musical staff in the hymnals. Words of more than one syllable are separated into syllables with hyphens between them. This separation of the syllables familiarized me with where words can be broken at the end of a line while writing. The separation into syllables also helped me recognize the many ways sounds in English are represented in letters. The word chorus for example begins with ch but those letters do not represent the same sound as they do at both the beginning and the end of the word church. Reading the words while singing requires my eyes and brain to look ahead of what I am singing in order to know just how to pronounce the next word. I learned to recognize the spelling and pronunciation rules through singing hymns, although no one labeled singing hymns as a vocabulary lesson.

And last, music. I know that the elementary school I attended had one of the most dedicated music teachers, Miss Ingram, who taught us more about music in six years than I think many of my contemporaries learned in 12. I did learn to read music in school, from Miss Ingram and from Mr. Pullicicchio (about whom my dad teased me by calling him Mr. Polly-chicken-toe), but every Sunday I got practical experience through singing the hymns and liturgy. In school, the music we read when we sang was just one melody, just one set of notes on a single musical staff. But in church, the hymns were printed with several lines of melody on two staffs, the treble and bass staffs. So while I could only sing one line of the melody, the soprano melody, I learned to recognize the harmonies corresponding to the alto, tenor and bass parts as well. In church I learned ways to use music to express ideas, although no one labeled going to church as a music lesson.

I enjoyed excellent schools and exceptional teachers in my first 18 years of living. But on my return to regular church going, I came to believe that attending church and Sunday School reinforced what I learned at school, giving me an advantage over my classmates who did not attend church regularly. Lessons in school, practiced in church.

And there are also all the lessons in morality, in ethics, in citizenship, in respecting others that were learned primarily in church. Lessons in church, practiced in school.

Everything is in balance.