Read Online Journeys Home by Marcus Grodi - Free Book Online Page B

truth about the parties!
I was repulsed by the (mistaken) conclusion that such "pre-sin
confession" was an accepted Catholic practice.
    These warped notions of Catholic doctrine were reinforced when
I attended catechism classes in preparation for confirmation in
the E.U.B. Church. The pastor's wife, while teaching us about
different Christian denominations, gave the following definition:
"Catholics are Christianized pagans who worship statues of Mary."
    A basic exposure to the Holy Scriptures at Sunday school enabled
my faith in Christ to begin to mature, but only to a point. I
understood Jesus as my heavenly best friend. What it really meant
for Christ to be my Savior and Lord was obscure.
    I wanted to be close to God, but I didn't know how. Every time
I watched a Billy Graham crusade on television, I would accept
Jesus into my heart again. I knew that the journey began with
accepting Jesus, but where was I to go from there?
    In the fall of 1973, I enrolled as a freshman at Ohio University
in Athens. While taking a course in Western civilization that
autumn, an uneasy realization began to grow: The denomination
of my childhood lacked any real historic roots.
    Christian history, I learned, reached back almost two thousand
years. My Methodist heritage was barely two hundred years old.
In our Sunday school classes, we discussed only what God had done
in the first century. Sometimes there was a comment about His
actions in our own church in the last couple of centuries, but
even that was rare.
    Could it be that the Lord had taken a vacation for sixteen centuries?
Of course, such a belief was never voiced by the people. It was
just a living, working assumption that we had never questioned -- but now I was!
    I didn't like the uneasy, precarious feelings these questions
produced in me. I was uneasy because I could think of no answer
that satisfactorily answered my inquiries. At this time, it was
only a faint uncertainty, forming a crack in the wall of my Protestant
worldview. Yet little did I know that this uncomfortable feeling
would be the beginning of eight years of growing questions and
surprising answers.
SOJOURN AMONG THE LUTHERANS
    The next major step in my spiritual journey was a sojourn among
the Lutherans. My introduction to Lutheranism came through my
best friend, Brian, who invited me to his church on Easter Sunday,
1974. It was here that I first experienced the majesty of the
Lord in liturgical worship. Since up to that time I had attended
only Methodist Sunday school, the beauty of liturgical worship
came as a very pleasant and unexpected surprise. Sitting in the
back pew, I began to wonder whether the pastor had failed to show
up. The music had begun, the people were standing and singing,
but there was no one up front in the sanctuary. Where could he
be? I thought.
    Then I heard singing coming from behind me, and in processed the
crucifer, the junior choir, and the senior choir, followed by
the pastor. So that's where he was! The Easter liturgy that followed
awed me.
    Methodist Sunday school had taught me that Jesus is my Savior
and best friend. This Lutheran liturgy was teaching me the beauty
and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only Savior and
Friend, but also the Lord and King of the universe! The Lutheran
liturgy began my training in what it means to worship.
    While receiving instruction from Pastor Lueck in Luther's Small
Catechism, I remember telling him that I wanted to belong to a
church with a heritage and roots deep in history. I told him that
my only other option was Catholicism, but because of their idolatry
they could not even be considered. So the Lutherans were my only
choice. I became a member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church (a member
of the former American Lutheran Church), in Logan, Ohio, on the
first Sunday of Advent, December 1, 1974, which was also Communion
Sunday.
    As a Lutheran, I was learning much about God, Jesus, and the Bible.
The Lord, however, had still more in store for me.