Questioning Sunday

Do you know what a "Questioning Sunday" is? Or possibly, "Examination Sunday"? A Lutheran will know what it means. It is the Sunday before Confirmation Sunday, and on this day the confirmands, or catechumens, whatever you prefer to refer to them as (they are simply 8th graders), have to go up in front of the congregation and be questioned by the pastor to prove that they have acquired the knowledge required to partake of Communion. Is that confusing enough?


Every pastor has a different way of doing the questioning. When my oldest child went through this experience, the questioning itself lasted an hour, and the pastor really put the kids on the spot. I felt sorry for them that day. Apparently, their readiness to take Communion depended on their minds not drawing a blank up there in front of the congregation. Speaking in front of a crowd is not everyone's cup of tea.


But, yesterday, things were much different. There were four confirmands and they stood in a row up front of the church and recited in unison the Ten Commandments and the Apostle's Creed, and that was about it. The pastor also asked them pointedly if they believed that the bread and wine was truly the Body and Blood of Christ, and not a symbol for the Body and Blood. And did they believe that this true Body and Blood was necessary for their faith to grow, and would lead them to live a Christian life. They all said "Yes" in unison. Here you have the heart and soul of orthodox Lutheran faith, and the confirmands passed their test with flying colors.


After church, I was listening to a man talk about the weather. He was counting off the weeks, saying, "Once it warms up, it will take about three weeks for the snow to melt, then another three weeks for the frost to come out of the ground and the fields to dry up enough for fieldwork to begin." He thinks we could get a late snowfall, after the snow we have now melts, and then there are the usual spring rains to deal with. So we could be looking at a very late planting season this year. It will be interesting to see how everything goes!