Quite frankly, this church was where I learnt that most of what I thought I knew about Lutherans was wrong. I lived right next to it from July to October 2010 and also went for Polish language classes with a German woman studying to be a pastoress (but studying this in Warsaw!)
I cannot find myself getting into a stinker of a fight with a person who believes in Christ present in the Eucharist during worship. To me, that sense gives one a belief in Christ within you in a special way -- not the Hindu "you are divine" but God is in you, working through and with you once you accept him. A discussion, debate, disagreement even argument, but I cannot get into a knock-down, stinker fight
I can only agree with you on that, Cronos.
Regarding the presence of Christ among us in the sacrament, it is this simple for me. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time itself, Matthew 28:20, the last word, as it were, of the first book of the New Testament. That promise is predicated on that which immediately precedes it. He promises to be with those who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and who have been taught to observe those things which He commanded. Well, the last thing He commanded - His last will and testament as it were - before His death was to “do this in remembrance of Me,” that is, to speak His words in His stead as He had just done over bread and wine and then eat and drink them in the assurance that they are just what He said of them: “Take, eat, this is My body,” and “drink of it all of you, this cup is the new testament in My blood.” The purpose of this eating and drinking according to Him is for the forgiveness of our sins, something that He would accomplish in less than 24 hours.
If these two things, His command(s) at the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel and His command(s) at the conclusion of His earthly ministry are divorced one from the other, it will be left to human speculation, and therefore mischief, as to how He will be present in our midst and for what purpose, how He will be with us until the end of time for each of us, after which we will face Him as Judge of all. Those denominations that like the moniker Protestant reflexively divorce these two things and then refuse to take His words at their face value, that is, for what they plainly say.
To deny the presence of Christ, God and man, among us in the sacrament, that is to say, His real presence among us, is for me an immediate sign of a person’s not dealing seriously with (or having been unwittingly misled in the use of) the Holy Scriptures and their plain meaning.
So.
Thanks for the picture of the Church of the Holy Trinity. I saved the .jpg (though better resolution would be nice). As for the German woman who taught you Polish there, good for her that she could do so, bad for her that she imagined that she could be a minister/pastor of Christ. For there also the Holy Scriptures speak very clearly. And their answer is, NO.