Me and JSB

By Katie Schuermann

It wasn’t love at first sight by any means.

We had very little in common at that point. I wore my hair long and straight; he wore a white, curly wig. I enjoyed jogging and lifting weights; he was kind of roly-poly. I was in my late teens; he had been dead for over two hundred years.

I grew up in the middle of a cornfield. The nearest stoplight was three towns away, and my family drove thirty minutes just to shop for groceries. I happily spent my summers climbing trees, chasing kittens, swinging from a rope in our barn, and baking bread for the county 4-H fair. If someone had told me back then I would eventually grow up to sing German Lutheran music with a professional orchestra, I would have laughed before jumping on my bike and peddling away.

My high school was so small that it did not even have a choir. We were all given a chance to join the concert band, so I spent a few months agonizing over whether to play the saxophone or the drums. One drum set and several pairs of sticks later, I decided to go to college and major in singing. It was there that I first met Johann Sebastian Bach.

I might not have even noticed him, except my music history teacher mentioned in passing that he was Lutheran. My ears perked up instantly. Really? A Lutheran composer? As one of only about three Lutherans attending a Methodist college at that time, I had often felt in the minority. Here I was, a hymn-singing, catechism-wielding gal swimming in a sea of hand-lifting evangelicals. I was pretty sure I might have been the only student on campus who knew what a sacrament was. I wondered if this Bach guy ever felt like the only Lutheran in town. I felt an instant bond with him.

Bach and I started to get to know each other slowly. I began noticing his name in the hymnal and on pieces of music my choir conductor handed out. His music was difficult to sing, so Bach and I had to spend a lot of time in the practice room together. I am not sure what he thought of me and my country charm, but I found him to be a real taskmaster. I really began to dig his music. It was complex and never boring. I liked that once I learned a line from his music, it would pop in my head whenever I brushed my teeth.

Trying to learn more about him, I read about his life in the Baroque period. He played the organ so well many people considered him to be the best player in all of Germany, if not Europe. In fact, his music was so important, the Baroque period ended the very year that he died. Even Michael Jackson can’t claim that kind of fame!

Do you know what impresses me the most though? With all of Bach’s talents and gifts, he sought no glory and fame for himself. You would never see him on any American Idol search today. Instead, Bach spent his career serving the Church, writing music for Sunday services, funerals, weddings, and special feast days. He believed that music should be written for nothing other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit. In fact, Bach often wrote the prayer “Jesus, help” at the beginning of his compositions and “Soli Deo Gloria” (To God be the Glory) at the end.

Bach was an orthodox Lutheran through and through. His personal library of theology books was as extensive as any pastor’s, and he kept adding to it until he died. I felt a special kinship with Bach when I learned that his community pressured him to join in with the pietists, a group of people who believed that faith in Christ was based on an internal feeling and a personal experience. I had felt similar pressures from friends at my Methodist college. Bach did not give into pietism though. Instead, he grounded himself in the liturgical life of the Church and took comfort in the clear, solid, reassuring fact of his Baptism. His knew his salvation depended on the atoning work of Christ alone, not on any particular feeling in his stomach.

I still run into Bach every once in awhile these days. Sometimes I meet him on a page of music when I perform with various choirs. Sometimes I get to talk about him with my college students in music appreciation classes. I even got a chance to travel to Leipzig, Germany, not too long ago to see his grave. I am sure he was embarrassed by the fuss I made.

Bach has been a sure friend, teacher, and companion to me over the years. I can always count on him to remind me of who I am in Christ, and his music never fails to refresh my spirit. He is definitely one of the guys I am most looking forward to seeing in heaven. I just hope he doesn’t hold all of my wrong notes against me. If he does, I’m just going to have to tease him about his hair.

Mrs. Katie Schuermann currently lives in Texas with her husband who is on vicarage from Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail her at katie91078@hotmail.com.