“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 ESV
With prairie plants billowing around them, on Saturday, September 13, members of St. John Lutheran Church, Darien; Darien Historical Society; and the surrounding community gathered in the cemetery on the corner of Clarendon Hills Road and 67th Street. They donned a variety of fashions from pieces dating back to the 1800s to modern garments which are sold in stores today. Together, they celebrated history and the lives of Lutherans who were members of their congregation and community 100 years ago or more.
For this 5th annual cemetery walk, the group, which was divided into three smaller groups after the invocation, was guided to 15 grave sites where members of the historical society were dressed as either the person interred or a relative who knew them well. The representatives then shared the first-person story of the individual whose grave was being visited. With joyful eyes, they shared beloved memories from “their” love story to ‘their’ work/family endeavors. They told of “their” journeys to the United States, “their” hardships, and “their” own deaths. Civil War reenactors displayed the various items a Union soldier would have used and told stories of their lives off the battlefield as they honored the nine Civil War veterans buried in St. John’s prairie land cemetery.
When St. John’s first constitution was organized and signed on October 17, 1859 under the name German Evangelical Lutheran St. John Congregation, the congregation was made up of early settlers of Lace, Cass, and Downers Grove. Many of whom had traveled to the United States seeking religious freedom or avoidance of political unrest in Europe. As individuals shared the stories of “their” lives, they regularly cited the key roles St. John played in their acclimation to a new country and community.
While our daily lives may look quite different than those whose stories were shared during St. John’s Cemetery Walk and the building where St. John’s services are held is in a different location with a different name and services themselves are held in a different language than those early days nearly 159 years ago, it remains no less true that St. John, Darien plays an important role in its congregation members’ lives. Through the years, together, we are members of one Church, united in one baptism. Together, yesterday and today, we are Joyfully Lutheran.
This is #OurNID