The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
     Genesis 11: 6-7

In 1992 I retired. Since then I have done a lot of things I had never found the time, or perhaps the interest, to do during my "career days": watercolor painting, for example, which stimulated an interest in art history, and this, in turn, provoked a desire to travel and visit museums, religious structures, one-time palatial residences, and the like, which house wonderful works of art. No sense in going about it half-heartedly, I thought! So, this is how I happened to be in Florence, Italy for eight days this past November, participating with a small group of ten other Americans studying Renaissance art. One of the great Gothic cathedrals in the world is in Florence and we spent considerable time there studying its frescoes, paintings, sculpture and stained glassed windows, as well as its unique external and internal architecture.

On Sunday, November 13th, not knowing of any Protestant churches in the city, I attended worship services at this magnificent cathedral. As I entered I picked up a printed guide to the liturgy... in Italian, of course. Arriving early I took a seat discreetly halfway back in the cavernous nave. As the great organ played a prelude, a jovial priest (he looked a lot like Pope John 23rd) came forth and beckoned us to come up forward; so I ended up sitting in the second pew in the apse! He then circulated among us shaking hands and chatting in English with many of us Americans. (I later guessed that many were non-Catholics, like myself.)

Naturally, the entire service was conducted in Italian which I could follow and in which I could participate since, after all, I had the printed guide. As we all know, our own Lutheran liturgy varies little from that of the Roman Catholic Church, our religious progenitor; thus, I could easily follow along. The liturgy is the lingua franca that enabled me to feel a part of - not apart from --- the service. In this instance, clearly we did speak liturgically the "same language." (For theological and hierarchical reasons I did not receive communion.)

A week later I rejoined my wife in Germany --- there visiting her mother on the occasion of her 91st birthday. The following Sunday we all attended worship services at the Evangelischen Lutherkirchengemeinde. The first few syllables of these two words will tell you I felt denominationally "at home." Here, too, they made available a guide to the liturgy... in German, of course. Yet again I felt comfortable in participating in, and with, the familiar liturgy, the "common denominator" of us Evangelical Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians.

The foreign languages might have "confused me" as foretold in Genesis; the liturgy albeit in foreign languages did not. Martin Luther observed, "We all have one and the same God, and we are one in the unified worship of God, even if our works and vocations are different." I hope Dr. Luther will forgive me for adding, "and languages."

Thank you, God, that in your love
there are no limitations, only possibilities

Contributed by Jack
Sunday January 1, 2006
Liturgical Year B Week 6