Thank you Wittenberg, Hello Wartburg Castle!

In the gospel I preached at last night’s service (Luke 8) at Wittenberg’s Town Church, Jesus’ closing charge to the healed man was “Go back to your home town and tell the people what great things God has done for you.” That’s a very appropriate charge to the Wiese family as well after a terrific week and a half in Lutherstadt Wittenberg!
We depart with new learning, energy, and memories. What an honor it was to preach the gospel and lead worship for faith pilgrims from multiple countries gathered in both the Town Church (St Mary’s), where Luther preached 2500 times, as well as the Castle Church, where Luther posted the 95 Theses and where he and Melanchthon are buried. God has blessed us with time to explore the new, interactive museums of the Luther House, the Phillip Melancthon House (author of the Augsburg Confession, known as the “Professor of Germany,” and sort of the Thomas Jefferson of the Reformation), and the Lucas Cranach House (the town artist, responsible of bringing the Reformation writings to life for the people, especially the illiterate). With artwork and artifacts right in front of your eyes, along with terrific explanations of the historical currents and confluences, there have been many epiphany moments. Luke was camera-man for me for a day and we tried to take a lot of video, along with still photos, which we hope will serve as the basis for a DVD that we can use for a course on Lutheranism at Epiphany.
We’ve made new friends from around the world, being welcomed for tours and meals by a Wittenberger named Lutz, and Luke being fascinated by the WWII and communist era stories of Walfred and Margaret. We’ve learned from Professor Paul Lutter from Luther Seminary, here for the summer studying Luther’s later Christology, plus been welcomed at the home of Jean and Steven, the co-directors of the ELCA Wittenberg Center. Each has made our trip richer.
Of course, we’ve spoken in a previous post about the other adventures: driving 128 miles per hour on the autobahn, exploring the charming island city of Worlitz, swimming at the local pool, eating out every meal (to LuAnne’s delight especially), seeing " sights of Berlin, sweating in the hotel sauna, learning bits of a foreign language and culture, and having a fantastic time as a family on new adventures.
So now it’s “Thank you and goodbye Wittenberg, on to Wartburg!” (the castle near Eisenach where Luther hid out for a year when things were too dangerous, and he translated the New Testament into vernacular German.). More to come later.