Come back with me to March 29, 1988... you are at Grace Lutheran Church, Round Rock... and you are sitting near the pew of Barb and Kari Roy and Patti and Courtney Luebben. It is the pew of two VERY NEWLY confirmed young ladies and their dashing mothers... and it's Good Friday worship service. Otherwise known as, "The Day the Wrath of the Mothers Came Uponeth"...
Kari and Courtney were known for a law-abiding trouble making, all within safe boundaries of getting in trouble with their mothers, but nothing so terrible that any law enforcement would be included in the punishments. But on this particular occasion, as the worship service was nearing an end... a wild hair came upon the young ladies...
The altar was stripped, the lights were dimmed, the symbolism of the closing of the tomb had occured, and the piano began playing Hymn 92 in the Lutheran Book of Worship, "Were You There," which might I add is an old African Spiritual. Which, in the Lutheran world is song rather reverently, and DEFINITELY not in the original context to which it was written. No swaying, no hands, no praying, no harmonizing... just standing still, following the tune and singing the words, AS PRINTED! We, Lutherans, do not deviate from the black ink on the page.
EXCEPT this particular Good Friday, in that third pew, in the two seats containing Kari and Courtney.
The song begins, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, oh, oh, oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?"
The song continues through a beautiful journey of Christ, as he is nailed to the cross, laid in the tomb and risen from the grave. Each piece of the journey taking on it's own verse and amazement.
But, as I continue to allude, this day, the song was different. Kari and Courtney belted out with grace the song, adding in motions of swaying and trembling (shaking what our Mothers gave us), and singing backup with each other and off beat "WERE YOU THERE" at the most appropriate times... times in which, we predicted, the writers of the song had originally intended.
Now... this was going along just fine, until our mothers caught us in the swaying and praying act. And it was going fine, until we found ourselves OUT OF CONTROL in laughter!!! I'm not a quiet laugher; nor do I do well to calm myself down...
(i'm one of those that's been known to fall out of a chair in laughter!)
And so... every year, on Good Friday, Kari and Courtney connect through phone, email, fax, smoke signals or whatever, to join together in singing "Were You There" with the utmost reverence and care for our favorite song (oh, and we graduated in '92, so the hymn number has always been VERY easy to remember.)
So... on this anniversary, I send my voice across the miles and across the pond to the suburbs of Amsterdam, Holland to my best friend's home and sing with a smile and a laugh, "Were You There When they crucified my Lord?" Happy Good Friday My Very Best Friend!
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2 comments:
I waaaaas theeeeereeeeee! Let the tradition continue- I plan on teaching Megan the fine art of acting up in church!
Just try to avoid the "knee squeeze." If you've fiddled around in church enough to get the knee squeeze, which is significantly more serious than "the look," it isn't good.:-)
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