This is Keith.

And this is Ben. And this is Main Street Lutherans. Today we're recording our 11th episode. We're going to talk about liturgy today.

Very exciting. Yes. I had the opportunity to interview one of my dear friends and colleagues, Deacon Margaret Fulcrum, or Leonard. And we're exactly what Ben said. We're talking about the church gear and sort of the order of worship for us as Lutherans.

And a tiny bit about deacons.

A tiny bit about deacons. Let's have a listen. Hello and welcome to Main Street Lutherans. Thank you for joining us today. This is Pastor Keith Fair and I'm here with my friend and colleague, Deacon Margaret Fulkerman. Leonard. Deacon Margaret, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Glad to be here.

It is very good to be with you. For our audience, I will say that Deacon Margaret and I have been working together at the same congregation for, what, about five years at this .66 years. Wow.

I know. Feels like ten, right?

Right. So much longer.

Feels so much longer.

So we're going to be talking about the church year a little bit and kind of worship. And we thought this would be a useful topic for folks that maybe have not been to an ELCA lutheran congregation for worship service or if they just want to know a little bit about how our services get shaped kind of from week to week the way they do. And so we want to spend a little bit of time on those topics. But because, Deacon Margaret, you are a deacon. We thought we'd also just take a moment because we've had some folks wondering what in the evangelical wisdom church in America is a deacon. So can you say a little bit about that?

Right. Yeah. So deacons are ordained ministers in the same way that pastors are ordained. However, we pastors are ordained to word and sacrament. So sacraments in the lutheran church are baptism and communion, and deacons are ordained to word and service. So we are not called to be administering the sacraments, to be presiding over communion and baptism. But we are particularly called to bridge the gap between church and world. So deacons sometimes work in the church and go from that direction out into the world. Some people work out in the world, so to speak, in the secular world or in broader church ministries, and help relate that back to congregational life, that there isn't a detachment. And so deacons can come in pretty much any shape and size and flavor. So you can pretty much find a deacon who is in the medical field or a deacon who works in nonprofits. And I happen to be a deacon who specializes in worship and music. So and the arts in general.

Yeah. So what is your call at St. Matthew then?

I am prepared. I have to take a breath to prepare for the long list, but deacon for music, arts and community engagement is my official title for St. Matthew. So I'm called to help promote and create relationships with the community and strengthen relationships that already exist. And then I work as the director of music under that umbrella, and I help particularly promote any sort of arts opportunities, especially community arts opportunities that arise.

All right. And I understand then, you know, we'll talk more about this in a separate episode at some point about the Deakin concept in the ELCA. But I understand that the training for deakins in many areas is very similar to the trainings for pastors in terms of scripture and theology and kind of those sorts of things. And then there's that more specialized side that I hear you saying is as varied as the number of deacons that there are in terms of how those things get applied in the work. Is that a fair description?

Yeah. Yes, it is. That has not always been the case, but for the last five, six years at least, that has been the pattern. We do as much training and a lot of overlapping training with pastors. We just depends on, like, if you are a deacon who was called to preach the word, you honestly might do almost exactly the same kind of work, seminary study as a pastor, but we sort of branch off into our specializations. But we get to do all the fun internship and CP, chaplaincy training and all that good stuff.

All right, thanks. Like I said, we're probably going to do a separate episode sometime on Deakin specifically, but we couldn't pass by the opportunity, since we got one in the recording studio, to ask for at least a little bit on that subject. So let's switch gears and move into the conversation that I roped you into today, which is to talk a little bit about the church year in the lutheran church and our order of worship and sort of where it comes from. Can you say a little bit about the church calendar in the evangelical lutheran church in America and maybe just give us a brief rundown of some of the highlights of that year?

Yeah. So the church year has seasons of its own. Sometimes we like to refer to them by their colors, because why not assign colors to things? But it roughly follows Jesus life. So Advent is the first season of the church year where we hear, where we prepare, we hear about the lead up to Jesus birth, which is, of course, Christmas. We get Jesus baptism. If you want to throw it in there, you can get Jesus circumcision if you want to do that, that's in there, too. But most of us skip over that. But just fun fact. Then we move into, just FYI, was in there. Then we move into some of Jesus, the calling of the disciples, the beginnings of his ministry, and then we go into the season of Lent. And in Lent we have the sort of final journey of Jesus to the cross. So for then we have holy week, what we call Holy Week, which encompasses Palm Sunday, where Jesus has this triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Then he goes. Then we sort of fast forward a little bit to the last supper, Jesus crucifixion. Then we have Jesus, of course, rising at Easter. Then we have Jesus time on earth, post resurrection. Essentially, that takes us through what we call the great 50 days of Easter. Then we have Pentecost, which is then toward that end of the 50 days, Jesus ascends, and we celebrate Pentecost, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we consider that to be the birthday of the church as we know it. So that's a fun holiday. So I would say your big three, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost are the big three days across the church. Year after that, we have what we call ordinary time or the great green season. And that is a time where we hear, where we are growing and learning. We are getting into some of Jesus more specific teaching, a lot of the stuff in Jesus ministry on earth that we kind of skipped over in that advent through Easter time. So some of the teachings of the church and teachings of Christ come in that time. And that carries us all the way from Pentecost, which happens usually end of May, beginning of June, all the way through to what Pastor fair calls the holy season of November, which is not technically part of the church here.

But we do not just me, it's our publishing house.

It's sort of an end times focus that has developed over the, over the years. But you find when you get into October, we as Lutherans celebrate reformation, although some of our sibling denominations will recognize reformation as well, which is, of course, Martin Luther posted the 95 theses. And then we have, we often celebrate all saints. This happens end of October 1, Sunday of November, All Saints Sunday, which is a recognition of those who have gone before, the great cloud of witnesses. Then we get the end. We get a real focus on Jesus return. So we've gone through all of this period, and again, it sort of goes into this idea of Jesus life cycle, Jesus, his ministry, his time. So November is when we really focus on looking toward when Jesus comes again, which is why we get sort of that end times feel of November, why November sort of feels like it's on little mini season. And then we get to Christ the king Sunday, which is again about Christ's triumphant return, and we start all over again with advent.

So the beginning of the year is advent, and that happens sometime in late November or occasionally the very beginning of December.

As we prepare, it's always whatever are for the four Sundays ahead of Christmas. So this past year, for example, we had a very, very short fourth week of advent in that it was the same day as Christmas Eve. So it was the shortest possible advent.

Because Christmas Eve is not technically a festival of its own.

No. Right.

It's the preparation of what's going to happen the next day.

Precisely. It's because everybody's at home on Christmas Day, so it makes more sense to do it the night before.

Actually, my first call, we actually had a Christmas day service.

Yeah, I had one where I was prior to St. Matthew, before it was ordained.

So, yeah, I've always appreciated that. You know, kind of the first half of the church year, the liturgical calendar, sometimes we call it, focuses on that, that cycle of Jesus's birth and life and death and resurrection, and then that the other half of the year really focuses on kind of the church's growth, development out of that sort of, you know, who we are as community and as individuals in light of everything else that happened in the beginning of the year. So there's also a lectionary, and that has to do with the scripture readings that are assigned to each day and that give us that flow of know, again, telling the story of Jesus's life and death and resurrection, and then. And then assigned to the rest of the year. We, the one that we use, I know, is called the revised common lectionary. Do you happen to know some of the other traditions that use the revised common lectionary?

Yeah, more than I actually thought. I was doing a little brushing up on the revised common lectionary, which is the revised common lectionary, because there was a common lectionary before that, which came out of Vatican II. I learned things.

That's right.

Yeah. So it used to be the roman lectionary, and then the common lectionary, and then the early nineties, it was revised to become the revised common lectionary. And for both the common lectionary and the revised common lectionary that we all use, we Lutherans use now many sort of what we call mainstream denominations use them. So Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, the Catholic Church, uses it. But disciples of Christ United universalists were part of the team who developed it, and the UCC church, I think I mentioned them. So a number of denominations were part of the creation process and the revision process, and for all of them, they may or may not use it. So we all take part in it or have it to use. But there are any number of congregations that individually might choose to use an alternative lectionary. And lectionary, by the way, just means table of readings. So that's your, that could be your word for the day. So it just means a table of readings, and it just functionally.

What does that mean for us then, in this case? What does the lectionary, what's the table?

So the lectionary is made up of four readings. The first one is generally always from the hebrew scriptures or Old Testament, depending on what you call it. The next one is the psalm, comes from the book of Psalms, and it specifically reflects back on the first reading, the third reading, or what we now often call just the second reading, usually from the epistles, so the letters, so all the stuff that comes after acts in the New Testament usually comes in there. And then we have the gospel readings. And those four readings together are centered around the gospel reading, which is the last one, and give us the theme of the day, and it helps guide the seasons of the church. The readings in advent are reflective of the lead up to Jesus birth. The readings for Easter are all reflective of what's happened after Jesus has written, risen, etcetera. So they really help guide the passing of the seasons and the passing of the Sundays, and particularly in those in the ordinary time, as I called it, the time after Pentecost. It helps give us a theme, and you might have that theme over several weeks or just a one week thing, but it all sort of gives us that guidance and holds everything together.

Thanks. I know, for, I guess it's this coming Sunday, all of the readings have to do with sheeps and shepherding. And so it's called Good Shepherd Sunday, sort of as a, not officially, but kind of a nickname for it, as we're looking at readings that have to do with Jesus as our shepherd and also other shepherding references.

The lectionary has a three year cycle, year a, year b, your c, and that way the idea is to try to get us through all of the, what they call synoptic gospels, which are Mark, Luke, and Matthew, and then John is just throughout all three years. So you get the perspectives of each, each of the gospel writers.

So here's a question that I often hear. If we, if we follow that three year lectionary all the way through for three years, do we read the entire Bible?

No, absolutely not.

No. Lots of gaps. We.

Yeah, it's massive levels of gaps, which, though, are helped by, if you're into it, there is the daily readings that are part of the revised common lectionary. So if you. If you have a hymnal, an elw, or an LVW hymnal for the lutheran traditions, they actually are in there. There's a section that shows you the daily readings, and that helps to fill in some of the gaps.

All right. So you get at least more of the, the entirety of the Bible in.

That way, but still not the whole thing. Sorry.

Right. All right, thanks.

Yeah.

So let me ask you this question. You yourself are, I think, a lifelong Lutheran, is that right?

Yes.

Yeah. So, you know, especially as somebody whose, you know, work is so closely tied to the church here, why? What is it about the liturgical year that, that you appreciate, or maybe do you have a favorite season or a favorite festival and something like that? Why?

Yeah. I mean, yes, I do have favorite seasons and festivals, but why I appreciate it is that this actually will sort of segue into the second half of our conversation about worship. But the pattern that sort of following that pattern and having that sense of a framework is something that sort of, that constancy helps, to me, like, having that framework gives greater freedom and helps you to sort of bounce off of that and sort of know where you're headed and what's happening. But to find new ways or to experience the scriptures in different ways as you pass through those, those various years and hearing sort of, it's helpful to be exposed to the different perspectives of the different gospel writers, for example. So there's just a lot of, for me, having that sort of constancy on the great. On the framework level just sort of provides opportunities to explore in new and different ways, but still get the important sort of trusting that you're getting what's really important out of scripture and making, helping to make those connections between hebrew scriptures and epistles and whatnot. So that's always fun. And then my favorite season is probably advent because it has some of the best music.

Okay.

And then Pentecost is my favorite festival Sunday. And not just because you wear red and there's fire and stuff, but I. And because it's the hilarious moment of, like, it's 930 in the morning. I can't be drunk at 930. Impossible. That's also a fun fact about Pentecost but for me, in my personal faith, I've always felt the most connection to the Holy Spirit. So of the tri, of the Trinity, the triune God, my best access is through the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. So Pentecost is all about the gift of the Holy Spirit. So I really like that day.

Thanks. Thanks for that. Yeah. It always does make me chuckle in reading that story in acts two, when you get to the line about, you know, friends, these are not, these are not drunk as you suppose. It's only 930 in the morning. And I think, yeah, we don't start drinking until ten.

Right, precisely. It's just one of those funny arguments, you know, you don't want to push it too far, Peter.

Yeah, right. All right, so now we've got a sense of where the readings that come to each Sunday come from. So how does that play out in the worship services? If I haven't, if I haven't ever been to a Whitman church or if it's been a really long time, you know, is there a pattern that worship follows and what does it look like?

Yes, absolutely. So all part of the worship experience is it's both visual and otherwise. So I can't let it go by without remarking on how the colors reflect what's happening with the worship experience and the season of the year. In that we have a royal blue for advent, that blue for hope and for royalty of Jesus, white. When you walk in and you see white stuff all around, that usually means it's a Christ specific holiday. So Christ's birth, Christ's resurrection, Christ's baptism, you're going to see that white show up, and then we get green, which is what you'll see the vast majority of the time. And I sort of, I commented on that earlier about green for growth. It's a time of learning and growing. And then we have, lent is purple, which is royal, the royal color of purple, and it's also dark. And then we have red. But twice a year. Well, I shouldn't say that. Bright red twice a year, which is four year, anytime the Holy Spirit is getting lifted up. So in the lutheran church, we get that, of course, in Pentecost and on reformation Sunday. But you'll see it. If you ever go to an ordination service or something like that, you'll see red. There are other colors that you'll very rarely see, like scarlet, which is for blood. So that usually means someone's dead or someone along ago is dead. Not like a funeral, but a martyr of some kind. So that is part of the worship experience in most lutheran churches. That visual reminder of what's happening and then the order of worship, it does follow a pattern, even in a very loose sense. There's always some sort of gathering up together, then there's some sort of word, some scriptural readings, preaching. Most lutheran churches at this point, we have communion, the meal after that, and then we send everybody out. So it follows that basic pattern of gathering in listening to the word, having the meal, sending everybody out. So those are the big chunks of this, of the service. So you might see it labeled as gathering, word, meal, sending. And those have some different origins, but they have been. That pattern of worship has been around since the very first christian worship services way, way back.

That I appreciate about that order of worship is that it's not unlike, you know, like a festive family gathering, you know, whether it's Thanksgiving or a birthday party or an anniversary celebration or. Or whatever it might be. Just whenever it seems to me that family gets together for, especially for a meal, it seems to follow a similar kind of pattern. There's rituals of arriving and greeting one another and just enjoying being in each other's presence and sort of getting ready for what's going to happen next. There's lots of conversation, often about things that we don't get to talk about very much, or the things that really matter to us. We certainly spend time eating together, and then there's the ritual of goodbye as well. And I think that gets repeated in what we do on Sunday mornings.

Yeah, which makes a lot of sense, actually, because there is some. Some of the origin of worship comes from jewish meal practices. So, because, you know, knowing that all of the first christians, the immediate first christians, were, of course, jewish themselves, the disciples of Jesus and Jesus. But they were the way that that was sort of how their meal ritual went, that you would gather, you would have conversation, you would prepare yourself with some sort of cleansing and all of that for the meal, have the meal, and then you would. Then you would leave. So that is definitely part of. There's a reason that that follows, and there is connection to how we. How we eat meals now. So. Yeah, so that makes a lot of sense.

You had mentioned to me once that there was a particular story in the New Testament that also kind of is another starting point for that. That worship order.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Part of the reason why we continue with that pattern or why it was sort of codified or made official in the early church is because it reflects the story that we call the road to Emmaus which we find in Luke where we hear of these two disciples traveling along the road to Emmaus and encounter a stranger. They invite the stranger to sit with them and share a meal. And as they're preparing the meal, the stranger opens up the scriptures, speaks about the scriptures to them, essentially preaches the word, shares the word, and then they share the meal. Jesus the stranger is revealed to be Jesus in the breaking of the bread, in the sharing of the meal. Then Jesus, poof, disappears, essentially. And the disciples run back to Jerusalem, I think. Yeah, they run back to where the disciples are, might be in somewhere else, but run to where the disciples are, other disciples, and share what has happened to them in this experience. So there's the gathering of them together. There is the opening of the word, there is the word, there is the meal, and then there is the sending, the literal sending of these disciples to, to share the good news that Jesus has risen with, has in fact risen with the other disciples and that they have seen him in the meal. So that is a very strong influence on our order of worship and I think a very strong influence on why this pattern of worship that was influenced by jewish tradition and jewish temple worship in the very early centuries, in the very beginning days of Christianity and why it has carried through for, you know, 1900 years or so. So it's a very important story to the formation of worship.

So clearly this pattern, you know, has been perpetuated through the roman catholic and orthodox traditions as they're, you know, some of the oldest amongst us, amongst us Protestants. Do you know of other faith traditions that use, you know, at least a similar order to worship that we, as Lutherans and Catholics and Orthodox Christians do?

I would say you'd be hard pressed to find a church that didn't have a pre, have a, an order of worship roughly in that same pattern. Even in non denominational congregations or congregations that don't. Don't have communion or don't prioritize communion in the same way, you're still going to have that gathering. The word becomes central and you have ascending, that happens afterwards. And even in the lutheran tradition, of course, we didn't include communion all the time for quite a number of years, but that was for practical reasons, not for theological reasons. Nothing to do with how much, how important communion is.

Many pastors in the colonies.

Precisely.

Lutheranism was being spread across our continent.

Yeah. And that even happened in Germany itself. It wasn't just here, but in Germany with the early protestant church, there were not as many pastors. And so you just didn't have someone there who could preside over the meal on a regular basis. So it was true for this. So again, yeah, entirely practical. We held onto it longer than we needed to, but we got back for the most part, but very similar orders of worship where you would feel very comfortable following a pattern, where things would feel very familiar to you would be particularly in an episcopal or roman catholic congregation, because they also commune pretty much every service. So if you were just dropped. I read an interesting story about a gentleman who was an organist who was in Germany and was dropped into a worship service there and didn't speak a word of German, but because the order of worship was the same, even though he didn't really know technically what was happening, he knew what was happening, he could fill in those slots. So it just sort of goes to show that it's sort. Sort of. Of is this. It is a framework, a language of sorts that transcends our, you know, our limitations. So you're able to sort of feel that comfort. But it's. So it's. It's not uncommon to see that. And then Presbyterians and Methodists, it would feel very similar as well, but they often don't have communion or don't have communion as often.

And even in churches that what we think of from our perspective as being sort of non liturgical churches, the assemblies of God and pentecostal churches, there's still liturgy. It may not be written down, it may not be the same words from week to week, but there is still, as you said, that same roughly order to things. There is the way that you gather, there's the proclamation of the word and whatever form that might take, and then there is the way that you are sent. There just might be a two hour sermon in between.

Right. Precisely. There might be a lot more music and a lot of preaching and varying levels of congregational participation, but, yeah, it still holds to that basic framework that you can rely on that goes back to those first christians.

Yeah. Very amazing how even in denominations like ours, that isn't all that old, you know, that we're still in line with this tradition that's been around for all but 2000 years at this point.

Yeah. It's sort of neat to think about how it connects all of the denominations, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, we're all sort of connected by that sort of basic pattern of worship that's been with us for so long.

Yeah. And yet, even though it's ancient, it's not just tradition for the sake of holding on to tradition, it's holding on to something that is, in essence timeless. It's not bound to the past. It's very much alive in the present. And something that is. Is pointing us to the future as well.

Right. Yeah. And it has the flexibility. It is off framework. It is not, you know, the exact words have to be said or this exact thing. You can. You know, each denomination has sort of their integral pieces that they consider required, but there is flexibility within that framework and freedom within the framework. But, you know, I've often heard of people who, particularly people who leave the Catholic Church, often end up in episcopal or lutheran congregations because the familiarity is there. It is a bit like a comfy outfit or like comfy clothes, warm blanket, kind of a feeling that, you know, just this sort of subconscious feeling of like, okay, I know what's happening. I know what this pattern is. I do have to say that one of the. I want to inject for the. One of the funny, like, I feel like a very common question I get is, why do we stand up and sit down and worship? I don't know if that's been your experience, that people are like, why do you stand up so much? Why are we up and down all the time? And because it does look kind of funny, like the sort of choreographed event. And the short answer, for the sake of time, the very short answer is it has to do with addressing the Lord. When we are addressing Christ, when addressing God, we tend to stand, which in the lutheran church means we stand more often than we don't. But that is.

That's why we stand. When we sing hymns, we stand when the gospel is read, we stand when we're confessing and praying.

Exactly. So for prayer or confession, kneeling is also appropriate physical stance. But, yeah, it has to do with sort of who we're addressing, who we're recognizing in those moments. So.

And it's a cultural tie in that, you know, it's intended to be a sign of respect. You know, just like if. When the judge walks into the room or if the president walks into the room, everyone stands. It's the idea that when we're addressing God, we're standing. It's a human. It's not something that God says, this is what you have to do. It's a human sign of respect that is carried into our worshiping tradition.

Yeah, I know that's not part of the order of worship, but I just find that it's something people wonder about a lot.

Sure. Absolutely. So what is it that I asked you? This question about the church gear. As we talk about the order of worship, what is it that you, as always, recognize yourself. What does the order give you? What about it matters to you?

Right. Well, I sort of hinted at this, you know, in saying that it is a bit like, you know, your comfy blanket, your warm blanket. It gives you that comfortability to let your mind be focused on other things. There's not that, you know, I think we've all experienced being in a new place, and we're like, okay, where do we go? What do we do? Am I doing it right? What direction do I move in? The. Or what we call the Ordo. The order of worship gives you that guidance. So the more you worship in a specific place, the more you become aware of that. So you're not worrying about sort of those earthly, self conscious things, and you're able to more fully open yourself up to the movement of the spirit and to your worship. So that's where it really is grounding as well. Like, you know, sort of where you're. Where you are, you feel grounded. And again, that gives you that other freedom. And I think, too, for me, it's a neat experience to feel connected by that pattern to all of these people who have come before me and all of these people who will come after me, that there is this thing that we are all doing separately and together at the same time and at very different times. And there is that connection that you feel in that that is very humbling and also just a really kind of amazing truth about it. Just a cool thing.

I don't know if I've ever shared this with you specifically or not. I've talked about it in a number of contexts. My favorite moment in worship is one that, as a pastor, I don't get to experience very often because it happens during communion. It happens during communion distribution and during communion distribution. I'm frequently distributing communion. So what I'm focused on in that moment, which is also a moment that I cherish as a minister, is focusing on each person as they come forward for themselves individually, as I'm. Either they're coming forward to me in line, or I'm moving along the communion rail to them. And I'm trying to see each person, person, to look them in the eye, to place the bread in their hand, to say, this is the body of Christ given for you. And just to make that even, you know, it's a moment that literally lasts only a second. To make that moment momentous, if you will. You know, just the most important thing in that moment is what I'm doing right there. And that's. That is something that I cherish. However, when I have the opportunity to be a part of the congregation and not actually distributing communion myself, I love that time when communion is going on, and maybe I've already gone forward and received bread and wine myself. Maybe I haven't. Maybe I'm kind of in the line moving in that direction, but that it's very similar to what you described yourself, that process of being literally in communion with the people in the room, with Christ present in the bread and wine, and with the entire, you know, what we call the cloud of witnesses, the church beyond the room that I'm sitting in, the church of the past, the church of the future, the church of the present, there is for me personally, this strong sense of connection. And I find it. I find it in similar words that you said, deacon Margaret grounding. I find it humbling. I find it energizing. It's sort of like. It's sort of like the Zen of meditation, where you're both at rest and every fiber of your body is alive powerfully at the same time. And I really experienced that in the process of the congregation receiving community. You know, I've never been. I've never been, you know, what we call a shut in sometimes, you know, or been hospitalized where someone has brought communion to me and I've been the only person receiving it. I've been the person to bring communion to people, but I've never been communed by myself. So I don't know if I would have that experience or not in that setting, but. But to be in the congregation, maybe I'm at a retreat, maybe I'm on vacation. And to be participating in communion in that way, in that moment, I find that very, very meaningful, personally. And maybe it's partly richer because I don't get to do it very often.

I did. There was a visitation pastor that I heard preach a number of years ago at a different congregation from St. Matthew, who talked about how he took communion with. He always takes communion with the person he's giving it to. So not just for the sake of. Then there are two of them taking communion, but because it is that unification with the. With the world and with the family and with Christ that we are unified with and sitting at Jesus table every time we take communion union. And, you know, my. One of the things that was instilled in me by my parents was even that, you know, those relatives who are no longer living, our grandparents or whoever they may be in that moment, we are. We get to really be with them again. So. So, yeah, so you're hearing listeners all about why Lutherans love Communion and why it is an important part of our, our worship order and why it was sort of reinstated as a, as often as we can get it in kind of a kind of event.

Deacon Margaret, thank you for taking time to be with me today and to participate in this, this podcast. We're really blessed to have you with us.

Thank you. It was a lot of fun. It's not often I get to sort of nerd out over the liturgy or the work of the people.

Right. All right. Well, thanks again to you and thanks again to everyone who is listening today. We'll see you again soon.

Well, thanks again to Deacon Fulkem or Leonard for that discussion there. Keith. I think we're just going to move right on to catechism questions. So last week's catechism question was the word gospel means a God spell in Latin, good tale, America in old English, God's special lessons in Greek or none of the above. And the answer was none of the above. Oh, that's right.

What gospel really means is good news.

Well, that's good news.

It is. Yeah. There's more about this week. This week we're sticking with our definitions, and this week's question is the word apostle means a small furry creature that eats bugs and grubs b to say you are someone you're not c to go willingly or d to send out or away from.

All right, and remember to send those in on social media to our email. We'll pick a winner.

Sounds good. Main street lutherans is hosted by keith Fair and Ben. You can reach us by [email protected]. You can also find our website, which has episodes of the podcast, and soon some links that you might want to reference. That's mainstreetlutherans.com. Or on the socials as ainstreetlutherans. That would include Facebook, Instagram threads and YouTube. The show is produced by Fot media productions. Until next time, go in peace. Serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.