Being Lutheran

I was born Lutheran. My parents were Lutheran, my grandparents were Lutheran and my great-grandfather was a Lutheran Pastor. I was raised in the Lutheran church (Missouri Synod – more on the distinction later) and went to Lutheran schools up until 9th grade when we moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. At the time, Lincoln didn’t have any Lutheran High Schools so I not only had to deal with the culture shock of going from a major city to a small city that had more of a feeling of a small town, but I had to deal with going from parochial school to public school. Since my only idea of public school was based on the ones in Detroit, which weren’t the greatest, safest schools in the world, going to public school was a pretty scary prospect. But I did go to public school and it was ok.

I did leave the Lutheran church as an adult and either didn’t go to church at all or went to non-denominational churches. But eventually I found a Lutheran church that was more to my liking and have been going there for almost 12 years. This church is ELCA, which means it is more liberal than Missouri Synod and, although much of the liturgy is the same, much of it is different and it seems, how shall I put it….less guilt driven. I feel guilty enough most of the time, I don’t need the church driving the point home.

This background being laid out, an interesting thing happened at the grocery store today. I was “helping” (as in telling) the bagger how to bag my groceries and he said to me “Lutheran?”. But he didn’t pronounce it correctly. He did a short U like in the word bug. I didn’t quite understand what he meant until I noticed he was looking at my t-shirt. I was wearing the shirt I purchased at the Synod Assembly that has a picture of a little chick on it and it says “Lutheran Chick”.

So I look down at the shirt and look at him and say “no…Lutheran”, pronouncing it the correct way. He said “oh…what’s that?”. I said “Lutheran…as in the Lutheran Church”. He looked puzzled and said “oh” and went back to bagging my groceries.

What I find interesting about this is not so much that he didn’t know how to pronounce it but that he didn’t seem to have heard of a Lutheran Church. In Detroit, in the 70’s, there were so many Lutheran churches that there was a whole system of sports teams that played each other. We didn’t play the Catholics or the Methodists or the Baptists but the basketball, football and baseball teams for each school played each other and there was a Lutheran league. Everyone in my family were Lutheran, my friends were all Lutheran, and my whole life revolved around the Lutheran church. To actually meet someone who not only didn’t know how to pronounce Lutheran but didn’t know what it was is a completely unique experience for me.

I guess it just reminded me, as experiences like this are apt to do, that the world is full of diverse people and, obviously, not everyone has the same experiences as I have had or the same influences. Yet, deep down, I think everyone is essentially the same. We all need to eat, drink, sleep, etc. No matter the social, economic, educational, or religious status. I think this is something we all need to be reminded of on a frequent basis. Even from the bagger at the local supermarket.