REFLECTIONS ON A LONG AND BLESSED LIFE N0. 36 GRADUATION/ENGAGEMENT

 I know that I graduated from college even though when I just now searched for it I could not find my diploma. But I found the diploma for my wife Jane and she and I graduated together. And her diploma clearly lists our graduation date as June 9,1950. Frankly I remember very little about the ceremony or the words of the speaker.

I suspect that the reasons my diploma and graduation ceremony are not clear is because that date was more important to me for a different reason. That is the day I gave and Jane accepted her engagement ring. The ring itself has it own little history. My parents had met, admired Jane and were very pleased about our relationship. They knew we hoped to be married. They also knew that I was a flat-broke student who could not afford to buy an engagement or wedding ring. So my dad had a proposal. The Lutheran “teacherage” in which they lived outside Walburg Texas had about 10 acres of pasture around it. Dad offered and I bought for $10.00 a newborn heifer calf. It pastured on the grass and after about 10 months it was sold at auction for the wonderful price of $110.00! So I had $100.00 with which to buy an engagement ring.

Fortunately Jane’s mom and dad also approved of our relationship and when I visited with them the Easter before our graduation her mother wisely suggested that I spend a little time with some very good friends of theirs who happened to own a jewelry shop. And there I found it: a one--quarter karat gold solitaire engagement ring! Cost: $100.00.To me it was as amazing and beautiful as any million dollar giant sparkler.

The time and moment of me giving the ring to Jane does not reflect well on my romancing skills. It was a couple hours before graduation. I was saying, “see you” to Jane as she went to her dorm room to put on her graduation gown. I handed her the ring and said “Here is a little something for you.” Of course, when she got to her room and opened the package she screamed and all on the floor came to gush and admire.

I now have some regret that I did not handle this in a manner more worthy of her. I wish I had formally asked her to become m wife. That formality never occurred. We just grew into it. I had, however, very formally asked Jane’s dad for permission to marry his daughter. In fact I did that just an hour before I handed her the engagement ring.

As mentioned above, we then went to the graduation ceremonies. After that we did an unusual thing: We all went out for a late dinner at Nieman’s Restaurant on North Avenue with her parents, grandmother and my folks. This was unusual because we were both so broke we simply could never go out for a nice dinner and it was unusual, because my mother actually joined in the celebration by drinking a cocktail, another first. And, of course it was the formal announcement of our engagement It was all great.

It is now more than 66 years since that graduation/engagement event. The ministries made possible because I have that college degree and because Jane accepted that ring have been wonderfully blessed, amazingly interesting, and still going on at a fairly respectable pace!

REFLECTIONS ON A LONG AND BLESSED LIFE NO.35 CALL /JOB ASSIGNMENT

 Like at every other student at my college I was there to prepare to serve as a teaching minister of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. We knew that if we were certified for service we would receive our “assignment” from the church through the school’s placement office. This assignment was to a teaching position in a specific Lutheran school. Our Director of Placement was Dr. Albert Maurer. As part of the process each of us graduates did have a one-on-one interview with him regarding our “placement”. He was very clear that while he might listen to our ideas and wishes, the responsibility for our first position rested with “the church” not with us.

I explained that I was eager to serve. It did not make much difference what grade level I was assigned. I explained that I could not serve as a church musician but all other options were open. My assumption was that I would be assigned to a congregation in the state of Texas. Texas is where I was proudly from. Most Texans were assigned back to congregations in Texas.

The day of assignments arrived. About 150 of gathered in Room 105 of the Administration Building. I do not even remember that the occasion opened with a word of prayer. The Placement Director had a big pile of envelopes that contained the info for where each of was to go.

Our assignment came after a meeting with the Placements Directors of the two LCMS teachers college with the appropriate Director of Schools from the various Districts of the church. Each of those District Directors made their case for their respective vacancies and then an “assignment of candidates” was negotiated

I dutifully awaited the calling of my name, then went up and took an envelope. I hastily opened it. The assignment stared me in the face “St. Paul Lutheran School, Tracy, California, teacher of Grades 4-8 and principal of the school. Additional assignments: Director of Youth Ministry, assistance with Sunday School, remuneration: $200.00 per month. The school was only 4 years old. Total enrollment about 70 in grades 1-8. The other teacher was Mrs. Rosa Bush, wife of the congregation pastor.

This assignment was fine with me. I was surprised it was not to Texas, and that I was to serve as principal but was quite naive as to what the duties of the principal were and so was not overwhelmed by that.

More important: where would my girl friend (soon to be my fiancé) Jane be assigned? As I recall we were seated in alphabetical order and I had to wait until all had received their documents. Then Jane and I hurriedly met and disclosed to each other where we were headed. Jane was assigned Grades 1 and 2 at Peace Lutheran School in Saginaw Michigan. (She had been requested by name by the principal of that school and by the Superintendent of Schools for the Michigan District, Sam Roth,  who was very influential and almost always got the persons any school in his District sought.

So that was it and that is where we served, I in California and Jane in Michigan. She served there for only one year. Then we married and the two of us shared our ministry, first in Tracy, then around the world for more than 65 years.

As I reflect on this whole process I feel okay about it. We trusted the Holy Spirit and the responsible church people of the day. And I think everything worked out just the way it was supposed to!

REFLECTIONS ON A LONG AND BLESSED LIFE NO 34 COLLEGE DAYS MUSIC

 It is a great pleasure to recall music from earlier days of one’s life-and I have lots of wonderful memories of the music of 1945-50, the years I was in college. Being a Texan I carried with me the classic country western melodies of “I’m An Old Cowhand”, “The Yellow Rose of Texas”, “Pistol Packin Mama”, ”Cotton-eyed Joe” and all the rest.

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Being in love left me wide open to be stirred by “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, I’ll See You in My Dreams”, “You Never Know Just How Much I Love You”, “Sentimental Journey”, etc, etc. I never had a portable radio or record player but managed to hear all those great popular songs by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Glen Miller, Perry Como, etc., etc.

Religious and classical music were new to me in those days and I am forever grateful for those who introduced me to them. I sang in the college choir under Director “Tante” Beck (who let me join the choir because he remembered singing with my father in college 25 years earlier). He even asked me to become the Manager of the Choir Tour and in my sophomore year I arranged for an on-road choir tour of some 10 days that took us to many parts of the Midwest. Of special blessing was what we simply called our Mass Choir because it had well over 100 voices and was directed by Dr. “Kelly “ Waldschmidt. We did Handel’s “Messiah” and Bach’s “St. Matthew’s Passion”. This was accompanied by a full orchestra and professional soloist. Again, wonderful memories.

The student body at the time included an incredible number of musicians who helped shape Lutheran liturgy and music for the last 60 years. Thy included Richard Hillert whose liturgies are sung every Sunday now in hundreds of Lutheran churches, Carl Schalk whose choir compositions continue to be top-sellers, “Pinger” Pelz who for many years was chief organ instructor at Bethany College, Ralph Schultz who continues to compose and direct orchestra and church masterpieces, etc., etc. And I will include my wife Jane in that list. She was a top organist among that elite group. (Later she made the switch from multiple rank massive pipe organs to playing the portable knee-pumped little instruments we carried from chapel to chapel in Hong Kong.)

Surrounded by all this great stuff I was an abysmal failure. After 4 unsuccessful years of piano instruction during my high school years I kept up the poor piano performance for 2 more years at college. At that point the piano teachers were so frustrated by this non-practicing pianist that they turned me over to Dr. Carl Halter for instruction in playing the organ. To no-one’s surprise my inability to find time for practice resulted in my reaching my peak performance skill as being able to play “Glory Be To Jesus” and forgetting about the foot pedals!

So I gratefully carry all that musical heritage with me and am still stirred by great music and its incomparable power to enrich my life and to help me experience the deepest emotions of faith and life.

REFLECTIONS ON A LONG AND BLESSED LIFE NO 33 COLLEGE THEOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY

The Good New: Religion, church and doctrine were all important at Concordia Teachers College) CTC in the late 1940”s. We were never to forget that we were being trained to serve as “ministers of religion” serving as Commissioned Teachers of the Church. The big thing was Lutheran doctrine (specifically The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod version). We knew that in our oath of office we had to swear faithfulness to Lutheran doctrine as explained in the creeds found in The Book of Concord.

We took an overview course on the Bible and studied selective books of the Bible in courses devoted exclusively to the various individual books. We had a course in Church History and another on The Lutheran Church in America. All courses (not just those in religion) were taught by duly authorized ministers of the church.

Worship was deemed important. Even at the college level daily attendance at morning chapel services was compulsory and attendance checks were taken. Attendance at worship every Sunday was assumed to be the practice of us all.

I am grateful that I really knew the official teachings of the church. I am glad that worship attendance was stressed. I appreciated the efforts of those in the church who came before me.

The bad news: In retrospect I think my religious training at CTC was very inadequate in many respects. The teaching methods were most unfortunate. Especially our courses in Christina doctrine were all taught in very rote fashion. We learned “A Summary of Christian Doctrine” from a book taught by the book’s author Doc Koehler. He was kind and paternalistic. He called male students “sonny” and women students “honey”. He told us when to pick up our pencils and exactly which phrases in the text to underline, some them twice and he came to our desks to make sure we had exactly followed directions. Of course, there was no discussion. He told us exactly what “the word of God” was re each matter and our duty was to know it, believe it and correctly state it at exam time.

In retrospect I find it amazing that while the religious world of the day was facing the rise of “the historical-critical” approach to Biblical interpretation I never once heard that term in any of my courses. The possibility of ecumenism was never broached. Our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church were seen primarily as purveyors of “false doctrine”. Discussion in class was, in my memory, never substantive and the big argument was whether “engagement between a man and a woman” was “tantamount to marriage.”

Especially disturbing to me now (though I admit it did not bother me at the time) was our introduction to the creeds other than The Apostles Creed and The Nicene Creed. We were instructed to read the creeds according to a schedule and to then write a summary of the key teachings expressed in that creed and “hand that in”. It was soon obvious that no one ever read our summaries. To prove this some of my colleagues wrote the appropriate doctrine name in the title and then copied sports reports from the newspaper into the body of their “essay’. This was done more than once and no student was ever “caught”.

Daily chapel worship fell far short of its potential. It was always led by staff (never by students). The “order of worship” and liturgy never varied. I remember absolutely not one single service in which silence was called for; no service in which prayers or prayer requests from those assembled were asked for; no special music, only the wonderful organ music. The tragedy is so that so many opportunities were missed.

In summary: I am grateful that I really learned the teachings of the Church. I am grateful that worship was just a normal, yet essential part of life. I learned well to appreciate the great choral music and hymns of the Lutheran tradition. Even though he taught by rote I knew that Doc Koehler really cared about his students and he had a special interest in me as he had taught my father 20 years earlier. And he knew that the method he used for my father was also the absolutely best for me.