March 28, 2024

Martin Luther interpreter returns Sunday

The Rev. Don Rothweiler, who paid a visit to both Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Newton, and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in rural Sully, in October last year will return Sunday at both services.

Rothweiler previously spoke on the topic of “Christian Suffering and the Cross.” In May he will reflect on Martin Luther’s thoughts regarding the vocation into which baptism calls believers.

Vocation refers to more than one’s occupation. Vocation, in Luther’s thinking, refers to all relationships, situations, contexts and involvements. People often divide their lives into separate categories. Leisure is separated from work, religion from politics, family and friends, etc. Luther, however, eliminates the separations by seeing a Christian’s baptismal identity as the vocation of reflecting Christ, wherever one is, whatever one is doing, and with whomever one is gathered.

The appearance is another event in a year when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is celebrating the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation.

Rothweiler, a student of Luther and a graduate of university studies in Germany, was inspired by the performances of Hal Holbrook’s one-man show, “Mark Twain Tonight.” He reasoned that Luther, like Twain, was a very unusual thinker and that Luther could be made to speak in meaningful ways to contemporary audiences.

For the past 30 years Rothweiler, an ELCA Pastor, has been spinning the various threads of Luther’s thought into cogent presentations on Luther: the man, his preaching, his contemporaries,his humor and his faith. He is a veteran actor, puppet builder and performer, as well as a tour leader to renaissance and reformation historical sites in Germany. A graduate of Augustana College, Rock Island, Ill., the Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, and the Faith Institute for Spiritual Formation of Luther College, Decorah, he served ELCA congregations in Iowa and Missouri. He is a veteran actor, puppet builder and performer, as well as a tour leader to renaissance and reformation historical sites in Germany. He has been privileged to lead worship and preach in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and has led German language services here and abroad.

The community is invited to share in the presentation and worship experience.