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German: Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam   Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546) Tune: Johann Walter (1486-1570) The Baptism of Christ. Rublev To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord To do His Father’s pleasure; Baptized by John, the Father’s Word Was given us to treasure. This heav’nly washing now shall be A cleansing from transgression And by His blood and agony Release from death’s oppression. A new life now awaits us. O hear and mark the message well, For God Himself has spoken. Let faith, not doubt, among us dwell And so receive this token. Our Lord here with his Word endows Pure water, freely flowing. God’s Holy Spirit here avows Our kinship while bestowing The Baptism of His blessing.   These truths on Jordan’s banks were shown By mighty word and wonder. The Father’s voice from heav’n came down, Which we do well to ponder: “This man is My beloved Son, In whom my heart has pleasure. Him you must hear, and Him alone, And trust in fullest measure The word that He has spoken.”   There stood the Son of God in love, His grace to us extending; The Holy Spirit like a dove Upon the scene descending; The triune God assuring us, With promises compelling, That in our baptism He will thus Among us find a dwelling To comfort and sustain us. To His disciples spoke the Lord, “Go out to ev’ry nation, And bring to them the living Word And this My invitation: Let ev’ryone abandon sin And come in true contrition To be baptized and thereby win Full pardon and remission And heav’nly bliss inherit.” 6. But woe to those who cast aside This grace so freely given: They shall in sin and shame abide And to despair be driven. For born in sin, their works must fail, Their striving saves them never; Their pious acts do not avail, And they are lost forever, Eternal death their portion. 7. All that the mortal eye beholds Is water as we pour it. Before the eye of faith unfolds The pow’r of Jesus’ merit. For here it sees the crimson flood To all our ills bring healing The wonders of His precious blood The love of God revealing, Assuring His own pardon. Tr. Elizabeth Quitmeyer (1911-1988)   REFLECTION Martin Luther knew early on that he had to provide educational resources in the vernacular so people could understand the faith into which they were being baptized. He began by translating the Bible, then writing German hymns. In 1523, he and musician Johann Walter started writing hymns. Luther wanted German poets who could write poetry well enough for the people to sing—and these hymns would be the Word of God like sermons.   Luther's family and students singing hymns To that end he began writing hymn texts and tunes. He also wanted a simple catechism. He finished his Small and Large Catechisms  in 1529. During this time he also planned for a “Singing Catechism,” a series of hymns that taught the Catechism. Families could teach the Catechism through these hymns.   This hymn is probably the last hymn he wrote. It served as the Lutheran baptism hymn for generations. In its seven stanzas he teaches about baptism. It begins in Stanza one, on the fourth line: “This heavenly washing now shall be/A cleansing from transgression."    Luther knew that it was important to teach children the faith they were baptized into. Without the teaching, the rite could descend into pure magic. That is why Lutherans have promised at baptism to teach their children the Scripture and Catechism—especially the Ten Commandments, the Apostles Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer.   Many millions have stood at the baptismal font and promised they would teach the faith to their children, but it was not clear they did. Sponsors also promised to do the same should the parents not be able to keep the promise, either through death or apostasy. In the olden days to be a sponsor meant one would take care of the child being baptized should something happen to the child's parents. Both my grandmothers died in childbirth. My father's mother died when he was born. His mother's close friend, Anna, a sponsor at his baptism along with her husband, knew what that meant. Childless herself, she told her husband it was their duty to take him. It stands in the Bible, as they would say, translating the phrase from Norwegian. They did take him and raised him with love and a deep immersion in the rituals of the faith: daily devotions, church, Sunday school, Luther League. He knew well the faith he had been baptized into and taught it to us. My grandmother Anda with a niece, Mildred, whom she raised and who raised my mother My mother's mother died in childbirth after giving birth to a baby who died the next day. She had herself raised several nieces and nephws whose mothers had died. Before giving birth she stood in the kitchen looking at my five year old mother and sang, "God will take care of you." She died a few days later. My mother clung to that song through her life. And her mother's promise was true. Through her godmother and father, she was cared for while living with her father who never married again. Many of her aunts, especially Mildred, and uncles, worked to give my mother and her sister as good a life as one could have during the Depression. They did not have much, but they knew that their family would care for them through anything. And they raised her in a home and family that lived richly in the word and kept the rituals of the faith. They probably did not know this hymn, but they knew enough to say to each other something like this: "Let faith, not doubt, among us dwell And so receive this token." HYMN INFO Johann Walter by Lucas Cranach the Elder Luther and Walter worked together in Luther's house some time during 1523 when they first started writing hymns. As director of Frederick the Wise’s chapel, Walter composed and led the singing there. He became the Lutheran composer of his time. While Luther was well trained as a musician, Walter probably helped him with his musical compositions, like "Out of the Depths." Walter wrote passions, motets and songs for use in the church. He lives on in the work he did with Luther on the first Protestant hymnals, the first, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn  in 1524.   Bach wrote three cantatas for St. John’s Feast, Midsummer. One on this hymn, BWV 7. Enjoy it. The first and last stanza begin and end it, the middle movements are on the themes of each stanza. Enjoy the musical waters flowing!   LINKS Concordia Publishing House version https://youtu.be/gmDzL03cs_E   Children's Choir Holy Cross Lutheran https://youtu.be/SjkdSjK4e6s   Bach's cantata BWV 7 Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam https://youtu.be/FaFe8ZtdAJc   ___________________________________________________ To read those stories about my grandmothers in greater detail read my latest book What a Fellowship: Remembering Augsburg Seminary and the Lutheran Free Church. You can read it in either a book or ebook! https://www.amazon.com/What-Fellowship-Remembering-Augsburg-Seminary/dp/B0DSTBWQHG/ref=zg-te-pba_d_sccl_2_2/141-3290927-0452340?pd_rd_w=4kESz&content-id=amzn1.sym.081392b0-c07f-4fc2-8965-84d15d431f0d&pf_rd_p=081392b0-c07f-4fc2-8965-84d15d431f0d&pf_rd_r=75NWSDJBJZ3KR8D55SZ3&pd_rd_wg=gwGhv&pd_rd_r=e5b74c46-9ab4-41b6-99b9-e8ead9a9e2c8&pd_rd_i=B0DSTBWQHG&psc=1

The Adoration of the Magi, 1510, by Hieronymus Bosch Tune and text: Philip Nicolai (1556-1608) 1 How lovely shines the Morning Star! The nations see and hail afar the light in Judah shining. O David's son of Jacob's race, my Bridegroom and my King of grace, f or you my heart is pining. Lowly, holy, great and glorious, O victorious Prince of graces, filling all the heav'nly places. 2 O highest joy by mortals won, true Son of God and Mary's son, the highborn King of ages! In your blest body let me be, e'en as the branch is in the tree, your life my life supplying. Sighing, crying for the savor of your favor, resting never till I rest in you forever. 3 O mighty Father, in your Son you loved me ere you had begun this ancient world's foundation. Your Son has made a friend of me, and when in spirit him I see, I joy in tribulation. What bliss is this! He is living, to me giving life forever; nothing me from him can sever. 4 Oh, joy to know that you, my friend, are Lord, beginning without end, the first and last, eternal! And you at length — O glorious grace — will take me to that holy place the home of joys supernal. Amen, amen! Come and meet me, quickly greet me! With deep yearning, Lord, I look for your returning. 5 Lift up the voice and strike the string, let all glad sounds of music ring in God's high praises blended. Christ will be with me all the way, today, tomorrow, ev'ry day till trav'ling days are ended. Sing out ring out triumph glorious, O victorious chosen nation; praise the God of your salvation. REFLECTIONS (This great hymn deserves more attention, so here is a slight revision of a previous blog, it goes so well with the prologue of John's Gospel.) God through his Son Jesus has gone to every length to love us and heal us so we can live freely. He conquered death so we could live without fear of death and face life and all its terrors with courage. He gives the lonely a home so they can be in communion with him and those around them—I will not leave you orphaned. He will stay with us, even live in us, with his Father and Holy Spirit, so we are no longer alone. In fact, he died to make us his brothers and sisters—but more he gave us brothers and sisters in those around us. We see him in others, he is in others as he is in us, and so we have communion with each other and him as we gather in his name. In addition, he makes us friends both with him and with each other. This hymn dwells on that image of friendship and our joy in Christ. It can be used any time of the church year as it rejoices in Christ, our Light. It was used as the hymn for weddings for centuries--and rightly so because marriage begins life and is rightly one of the images for our relationship with our bridegroom, Christ. The row of English kings in Yorkminster I remember a long time ago, fifty years now, I was in England over the New Year’s holiday and Epiphany. On Epiphany I was in York, all alone, very cold in the raw English weather. Just across from me was Yorkminster, the huge cathedral there The paper announced there would be a play in the cathedral that evening. I decided to go. As people gathered, I heard them chit chatting, talking family, weather, and news. The play began. It was punctuated by the singing of hymns. At the end, the wisemen entered with all the pomp of royalty, something the English know all about still as we have just seen. The great Queen of Chorales, How Lovely Shines the Morning Star, rang out as the organ thundered. It is the great Epiphany hymn, written by Philip Nicolai the pastor in 1597 as he saw the Morning Star rising above the caskets of hundreds of people who had died of the plague. He would have to bury them, many of whom he knew. The losses were awful and terrifying. And yet, he could write this great chorale, a triumph of life over death, asserting against all the darkness and death around him, the light of Christ. He, like the branch of a tree, supplying us life. He hath made a friend of me. “Oh, joy to know that Thou, my Friend, art Lord, Beginning without end, The first and Last, Eternal!” As we sang it, a thousand of us, we watched the richly garbed wisemen proceeding to the humble manger. Suddenly, I realized I was with friends, brothers and sisters, joining my voice with many others in a heavenly chorus as we all worshiped at the foot of the cradle. That night, I walked out into the raw English mist, with a warm heart, no longer lonely, but joined at the heart with Christ and all the others in whom he lived. It is exactly what he came to do! And we can sing it any time of the year. It celebrates who Christ is today. For now we live as friends, brothers and sisters in our Christian family. HYMN INFO Philip Nicolai The hymn is based on Psalm 45, known as the wedding psalm. Nicolai adds to it the image of the Morning Star from Revelation 22:16. He wrote it quickly, spending an entire day working it over and over. Its meter is unusal--moving from iambics suddenly to trochees in the Lowly, Holy part. Very brave of him, but he wrote the tune too so he knew what he was doing! It became the hymn for weddings and funerals in Germany. Lutherans also used it for the celebration of the annunciation, when Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel. Johan Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata "Wie Schön Leuchtet der Morgenstern" for the celebration of the Annunciation in 1725. He used this hymn as the basis for his composition. He followed the language and thought of the entire hymn in his cantata, using the first and last stanzas of the hymns with two arias of rapturous beauty in the middle. LINKS Choir singing hymn https://youtu.be/LInu_tmf4MM   Instrumental version https://youtu.be/k1nHfYwtr3k   Bach Cantata BWV 1 Wie Schon leuchtet der Morgenstern Ton Koopman https://youtu.be/kZojfxR5BBM   Text and information about cantata http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Texts/Chorale015-Eng3.htm The text of the entire cantata can be found here. http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV1.html

Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: James Clemens   Slaughter of the Innocents. Breughel REFLECTION Every time there is a school shooting, images and sounds of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents come to mind. Cruel and senseless, pure evil. King Herod hears from the wisemen that a king has been born in the neighborhood, in his realm, and he wants to kill him. Temporal power is fleeting and tyrants do everything in their powers to keep it. When fighting against divinity, however, swords and soldiers are utterly useless. Jesus will ultimately be crucified because he has been called a king of a kingdom, which he tells Pilate is not of this world. His resurrection, which shows him to be lord of death, sin and devil, will be followed by his ascension which is his coronation. He goes to be seated at the right hand of his Father from where he will rule. Pilate and Herod and all the powers of Rome could not prevail against him.   While these assassins can cause deep and inconsolable hurts to those left behind, Christians believe that we have the last word. As Jesus promised the thief at his right hand that he would be with him that day in Paradise, so he promises us that if we are in him, we will be raised as he was. The truth gives us courage when tyrants rage, but still the hurts go deep.   Flight to Egypt Henry Ossawa Tanner Joseph in responding to the angel in his second dream brings Jesus and Mary to Egypt and saves Jesus from death, for the time being. Jesus will go to his death thirty some years later. Joseph saves him so that Jesus can do his saving work for us. The scene of the holy family fleeing on a donkey into safety is a picture of great meaning and significance. God is using the simplest people to get his work done, battling the greatest empire on earth with the weakest and least: a simple carpenter, a new mother and a baby. Joseph is doing what God called him to do: protect his wife and child.   We may think God cannot use us as we are not very powerful. But as Paul makes clear many times, God’s strength is in weakness and here we see the truth of that. How impotent the powers of Herod are against the Lord of life, now just a nursing baby. It doesn’t make sense to us, but we know that it is true. When you take a step out into the unknown, praying for God’s guidance, you never know where it will lead. But I can promise you it will always end up in something surprising. Mary tells of the Flight to Egypt Flee! King Herod heard the wisemen tell Of a king’s nativity in Bethlehem. Murderous with power, the potentate cried. “Kill!“ Newborn baby boys threatened him Sweet in their mother’s arms, ripped from their hands. Joseph, dreaming of danger, took us south To Egypt, like Moses fleeing Pharaoh’s commands. Riding the donkey jogging me back and forth, Panicked by sights of soldier’s swords and shields We fled, nature’s cycles rolling by Riding along the greening barley fields, Emerald grain under a topaz sky, Nodding their blades of foliage in the breeze Innocent of Herod, his steel decrees. From The Sword of Eden Gracia Grindal Wipf and Stock 2018 link to Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Eden-Eve-Mary-Speak-ebook/dp/B07GDT16RN?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&th=1&psc=1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kqaZVm0tjndj72W_0Wl7NUeqdICuSmwp4PTpxWpJIuWX43OtZek_J7JtQgbNvHUVFUpw798gc6Nag1cdq2fjDV7bh5c_ARIUzR5zYgGEqoCvof6pPFLuHnAjRuS2XH8wu1pPoDuuIvUBSLH9WG0KyFQlRm20cXHMX_H01HOdWik.Zi1FUr6FiQtqTuic-kVTK4Tf-8JinJab1MJq99-ScYw&dib_tag=AUTHOR   HYMN INFO Written for Holy Innocents day, this text remembers the phrase from Matthew 2:18, regarding the slaughter, “A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” . One hears Rachel weeping whenever there is a school shooting anywhere. James Clemens set the text which was included in my Festival and Martyrs collection Wayne Leopold published in 2017. Clemens is an accomplished composer of everything from musicals to hymn tunes. He lives in Virginia where he continues composing.   LINKS

Merry Christmas! Here is an old blog on Christmas bells! https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-280-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day-kling-no-klokka

Read about the history of Christmas celebrations with Joy to the World as the hymn. Merry Christmas! Notice the ox and donkey who know what is going according to Isaiah https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymns-for-christmas-eve-joy-to-the-world-a-thousand-christmas-candles-gleam-nu-tändas-tusen-juleljus

Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: Rusty Edwards (For reason of copyright I cannot print the text here, but you can see it on the Links below) Joseph and the angel. Alexander Ivanov 1855 REFLECTIONS The Matthew account of the birth of Jesus starts with the angel speaking to Joseph in a dream. The news he hears changes his life for good. Now, instead of breaking his engagement with Mary, he will marry her and become her, and her son’s, protector. He will provide for her and Jesus, keep them safe from the cruelties of Herod, and help raise Jesus.   We do not hear much about Joseph after this. He should be remembered for his dreams and obedience to the angel’s voice. He does appear as he leads Mary to Bethlehem and saves her and the child on their flight into Egypt. In both cases he is guarding the little one and Mary to keep them safe from death and the ending of the their great mission.  God’s work in the world is always given to the weak and insignificant to carry out!   Joseph's second Dream. Rembrandt I have a friend in Denmark, Lisbeth Smedegaard Andersen, who has just written a book The Son of Mary/Sønnen af Maria. On the cover is a picture of Joseph leading Mary on their way out of the horror of Herod's slaughter of the Innocent to Egypt where they will be safe. Lisbeth interprets the picture as showing quite vividly how Joseph is protecting them: the love and faith we see in Mary, dressed in red, the color of love, and the babe in blue, the color of faith. She has come to see it as an emblem of the life of faith.  Joseph, the guide and protector, makes a safe place for the vulnerable as they flee death and persecution. Without Joseph, the central story would be over. Without love and faith, there would be nothing to save.   In calling faithful Joseph to protect Mary and the babe, God kept his promise to Eve and Abraham and all those who waited with hope for the Messiah. That Joseph kept Mary and child safe has given Christians down through the millennia the love and faith to go forward into places we cannot see, but trust they are where God is leading us. We need someone to guard faith and love, someone to protect what we need to live.   HYMN INFO I wrote this hymn for my first class in hymn writing at Luther Seminary. Rusty Edwards, a seminary student took it and set it to this tune.  It was the mid 1980s and the church was looking for hymns on Mary and other women in the Bible. I began writing a series of such texts and Rusty set mos of them. He was unpracticed in writing hymns, but he quickly learned and is now among the most well-known and well-regarded hymn writers, both of tunes and texts, in the world. Hymnal committees have changed my first line from To a Maid engaged to Joseph To a Maid whose name was Mary. It really tells the story of the annunciation of Mary, not Joseph, but Gabriel calls them into a future they could not have imagined before.   LINKS Schola Cantorum in the Loop https://youtu.be/CxRHmKchJAY?si=25ATGBKVL8-OV1i3   Central Reformed church https://youtu.be/G7UFtBu-us4?si=ifZDnc-idvCyk0-P   MusicbyMichele https://youtu.be/_D9xVv_I5UM?si=T8jx3OEawUjvaar9 Christmas Gift __________________________________________ "With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." -- Jill Baumgartner , Poetry Editor, Christian Century , and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

The Visitation by Giotto Text: The Venerable Bede (673-735)       Tune: Winchester New 1 The great forerunner of the morn, The herald of the Word, is born; And faithful hearts shall never fail With thanks and praise his light to hail. 2 With heav'nly message Gabriel came,T hat John should be that herald's name, And with prophetic utt'rance told His actions great and manifold. 3 Though not yet born, John gave aright His witness to the coming Light; And Christ, the Sun of all the earth, Fulfilled that witness at his birth. 4 John's mighty deeds exalt his fame To greater than a prophet's name; Of woman born shall never be  A greater prophet than was he. The Visitation Rembrandt REFLECTION I have a quibble with the lectionary on this selection of Bible passages. Most people will be expecting Christmas kinds of lessons, not a message from John the Baptist from prison. This somewhat unknown hymn text by the Venerable Bede is worth pondering, however, for its reference to the Visitation, Mary’s visit to Elisabeth, John’s mother. As you may remember, Elisabeth tells Mary that when Mary came near, now pregnant with Jesus, the baby John kicked out in recognition of his Savior or as per the hymn, “John gave aright His witness to the coming Light.” He will spend his life pointing to the Light, even in his wondering while in prison awaiting his martyrdom, whether Jesus is really who he said. When the two women, one young, the other old, meet, echoes of other such meetings sound quite loudly in the Luke account. The most obvious are the echoes from David’s bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. Remember the account in 2 Samuel 6. David has been named king of Judah and Israel and has gone to fetch the Ark of the Covenant and bring it to Jerusalem. On the way Uzzah touches the Ark and is struck down by God. David complains and asks “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” He leaves the ark with Obed-edom the Gittite. After some months, he returns to take the ark the rest of the way. As he does, he dances before the Lord with all his might to the shame of Michel, his wife, Saul’s daughter. Elisabeth asks the same question when Mary approaches, “And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  She then tells how her baby “leaped for joy” on hearing Mary’s voice. The Ark, remember, carries the Torah, the rod of Aaron, an almond branch, which reminds us of a shepherd’s staff, and some manna. Mary is carrying the word made flesh, the staff of a priestly good shepherd, and the bread of life. While the story Luke tells so simply does not seem to need much of an explanation, digging a bit deeper into his language, shows how the entire Old Testament prophecies are coming true in Jesus. He has been a gleam in the eye of God ever since he told Eve that her seed would bruise the head of Satan. Now we see it it taking flesh. THE VISITATION Like the ark holding the words of God, Manna from heaven, safe from corruption’s worm, A flowering almond staff, old Aaron’s rod, She carries divinity; the seed takes form Inside her flesh. The God who created all Incarnate in a tiny human child, One who fills the universe goes small, Helpless, a little baby, without any guile. John, his cousin, will recognize his Lord Dancing inside his mother with David’s joy When Mary, bearing him, comes to the door To visit his aged mother. The two rejoice. Infinity confined within a human space, Magnificats of beauty in her face. Luke 1:39–­ 56; 1 Samuel 2:1–­ 10; 2 Samuel 6:1–­ 15 from Jesus the Harmony by Gracia Grindal HYMN INFO The Venerable Bede is considered the Father of English history for writing the first account of the English church, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People 731, which is still an interesting read. He was born near Tyne and Wear in Northumbria and was sent to a monastery as a young boy. He wrote other books and tried to figure out the date of Easter, but failed. He is the most important churchman between 600-800 AD. He survived the plagues of his youth and is said to have written over 60 books of which we have a good many. He wrote poetry in Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Scholars say he loved to used all of Scripture especially quoting it in his hymns, as we see here. This was in Latin, Precusor altus luminis. The translator John Mason Neale spent his life recovering the treasury of early church hymnody. LINKS OCP Session Choir https://youtu.be/wRG9mVuC69E?si=0c8x139j3m9yVfdq Hymns Instrumental https://youtu.be/uQA1uLgQ54w?si=wq4QxVla3ZFTSkpE Jovita Manrique V https://youtu.be/Pmi2KAbPe6M?si=ENdIR3ksegZTnn4X Christmas Gift __________________________________________ "With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." -- Jill Baumgartner , Poetry Editor, Christian Century , and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

(1803-1887) Text: James Montgomery 1771-1854                                   Tune: George Webb (1803-1877) John the Baptist 1. Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son! Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression,t o set the captive free; to take away transgression, and rule in equity. 2. He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong; to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;t o give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light, whose souls, condemned and dying, are precious in his sight. 3. He shall come down like shower supon the fruitful earth; love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth. Before him on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go ,and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow. 4. To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend; his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end. The tide of time shall never his covenant remove; his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love. REFLECTION Gabriel with Mary This prophetic hymn is based on Psalm 72, but it is drenched in other Scriptures as well. The first lines are references to Psalm 110 which Jesus uses to good effect in his debate with the Saducees and Pharisees. Not only does Jesus use it, but the New Testament writers used it often to show how Jesus was David’s Son and the Son of God—great David’s greater son. For Christians the Old TEstament is all about the New Testament from Eve’s being told she will have a son who will get back at the serpent who has just deceived her. When she has Seth, she speaks clearly of the hope she has that this son would be the one. It was the hope of many Jewish women to be the mother of Messiah. So Mary reading the prophecies in the book she is almost always reading in the great paintings of her annunciation is among those women who have heard and hope they will be the one. How shocking it must have been after all those years for her to hear the angel saying God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah! In a way the hymn then tells us what John the Baptist is preaching when he shouts out at his audience. Things are going to change, a new ruler has come who will make all things new. Montgomery believed that. We may find it harder to believe this good news and only hope for it dimly in the face of all the violence and oppression around us. But there are writers who are making the argument that even though Jesus is not ruling from some palace or presidential dwelling, he is still King. And his rule over the past millennia has already changed the world. The writer of the book Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World , Tom Holland, goes through the centuries since Christ and shows how empires and rulers have been changed by the Christian gospel. The fight against infanticide, slavery, the abuse and trafficking of children, while still grave problems, are something that most people know needs to be stopped. Of course, there still is evil, but the Gospel has already begun to change much in the world, he argues. Christians await the coming of Christ when all things will be made new. As Montgomery says in his hymn, “The tide of time shall never his covenant remove; his name shall stand forever; that name to us is love.” Look around in these dark times and look to Christ to believe it. Our God is love which he sent down in person at Christmas. His power is in weakness: A baby to change the world. And he did! HYMN INFO James Montgomery James Montgomery lived just after the time of the Wesleys. Born in Scotland to Moravian missionaries who left him for the West Indies, he was orphaned when they died while he was at school. He became editor of the Sheffield Iris , a paper that often took radical positions. Montgomery was jailed once for praising the fall of the Bastille. He was also a strong opponent of slavery and the treatment of chimney sweep boys in England. He devoted much of his time to the writing of poetry and hymns, of which he is said to have written over 400. Several of his books of hymns were published before and around mid-19 th century in England. Songs of Zion (1822), The Christan Psalmist (1825) and Original Hymns (1853.) LINKS Panoply https:// youtu.be/Y_CzUGoKYKU?si=RxVCv6hi1yL0E7_K Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s in the Loop, Chicago https:// youtu.be/l6dGmfAL5DY?si=9eDUoOUwsJ8b6w1i _________________________ Jesus the Harmony  would make a nice Christmas present. It can be read devotionally over the entire year, one poem for every day.   Blurb "With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." -- Jill Baumgartner , Poetry Editor, Christian Century, and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-259-savior-of-the-nations-come-tenn-lys   REFLECTION The understandings of Advent have changed over the life of the church, from a longing in the darkness for the Lord to come; to a joyful expectation of his coming on his donkey into Jerusalem, which the Reformation hymns express, responding to Luther's notion of the three Advents: Christ's coming to us at Bethlehem, his coming to us in our baptism and daily lives and his second coming; to a little Lent during which no mention of Christmas or Christmas carols can be allowed or you will ruin Christmas for someone; to Advent calendars with chocolates building up to Christmas Day and the opening of presents by over excited children; now even an Advent calendar with 24 little bottles of various whiskeys! Lots of confusion or richness depending how you see it. If you were to ask most American Christians what the favorite Advent hymn is "O Come, O Come Emanuel" would be the first one, almost surely.   With the revised common lectionary, none of the hymns associated with Advent really fit except in some abstract theme of waiting. I haven’t come across a successful hymn about two women grinding. And it feels like the Advent season now at the beginning is more like the end of the church year emphasizing the second coming of Christ—ala "Wake Awake for Night is Flying," which in some hymnals is now in the section of "Last Things."   The great Lutheran hymn of Advent is Paul Gerhardt’s “O Lord, How Shall I Meet thee?" The Nordic Lutherans, especially the Swedes, with their Santa Lucia day on December 14, seem to write mostly joyful hymns of excitement on the coming of Christ. “Rejoice, Rejoice Believers,” and “Prepare the Royal Highway,” among many others.  The Finns like “Hosanna, David’s Son.” (you can find all of them by searching this site)   Isaac Watts "Joy to the World" cannot be missed nor can Charles Wesley’s "Lo, he comes on Clouds Descending" or "Christ whose Glory fills the skies." Both are grand hymns celebrating Christ’s second coming. The Anglo-Catholics led by John Mason Neale found many Greek and Latin hymns that rounded out the church year and gave us a rich panoply of hymns from that treasury.   And there are contemporary hymns as well. Each cast their light on some theme that I have mentioned above. Given all the possibilities I advise you use the search tool here and you can find almost any Advent hymn what interests you. Some are below.   HYMN INFO I will add one of the later new hymn tunes just published this summer for one of my texts “Awake, O Sleeper,” by Roy Hopp, a graduate of Calvin College who studied with Richard Hillert and others in his graduate education. He is currently Direction of Music at Eastern Avenue Church in Grand Rapids. He has published over 250 hymn tunes along with anthems and other church music. The tune is carefully crafted and fun to sing. I wrote the text to fit with the Series A Old Testament text for the first Sunday in Advent.   LINKS O come, O come, Emmanuel https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-266-o-come-o-come-emmanuel-the-people-who-walked-in-great-darkness-from-handel-s-messiah O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-253-o-lord-how-shall-i-meet-thee

As your prepare for Thanksgiving and its time of reflection on our gifts, with feasting, it is good to hear the story of our greatest Thanksgiving Hymn Now Thank we All our God. Click below First Thanksgiving at Plymouth in 1621 Jennie Brownscombe 1914 https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-thanksgiving-2023-now-thank-we-all-our-god

Text: Gustav Margerth Jensen 1845-1922.  Per Steenberg (1870-1947)   1. Jesus Christ, our King, Lord of everything, Crown of thorns is what you’re given, Then a gleaming crown in heaven. Jesus Christ, our King, Lord of everything. 2. You are King of kings. Not by sword you win your vict’ry Not by chains you have our fealty Not with worldly things Are you King of kings. 3. Truth is how you reign In your glorious train, All your people bow before you; Beating hearts in joy adore you. Freely truth sustains You, and how you reign. 4. King, come clear our minds Of the lies that bind. Let your cross now truly teach us As your truth now comes to reach us. King, come clear our minds, Of the lies that bind. 5. In your truthful Word Dwell with us, O Lord. Help us, Jesus, like no other, Help us bring the world together In your truthful Word All the world, O Lord! Tr. Gracia Grindal: Copyright © 2012 Gracia Grindal   REFLECTIONS the Last Judgement Sistine Chapel Michaelangelo The naming and renaming of an old phrase like Christ the King Sunday which used to be Judgment Sunday to escape some modern issue seems not to have worked. When Judgment Sunday was changed to Christ the King it didn’t last long given the fear of using the term King for Christ--it evoked medieval kings or divine right kings so it was quickly changed to the Reign of Christ. Now some people are going back to King!   The old Dømmer Dag/Judgment Day was considered too scary. We confess every time we say the Creed, Christ will come again to judge the quick and the dead. Maybe there were too many grim and frightening sermons preached that day that may have scared the daylights out of the congregation listening. We could ask, well, what was wrong with that? Eternity is a serious thing. One of my colleagues at the seminary would ask his preaching students if they were ready to have the souls of one of their parishioners on their hands because the Sunday before they died they had not heard a sermon that showed them the way to Christ.   Jonathan Edwards Preachers like the great Jonathan Edwards knew how to terrify his listeners and did so memorably in his “Sinners in the hand of an angry God.” It has remained a classic example of such preaching and usually ridiculed until some literature nut explains its literary genius and that the real metaphor in the sermon is not arachnaphobia, fear of spiders, but acrophobia, fear of falling.   Now we have phobias about the language of king or lord because they remind us of a monarchy and feudal system that can be brutal. But we should be careful. Maybe we are adopting the definition of king that Pilate and the people around Jesus kept using: that he is wanting to be king and displace the rulers of the day. Jesus keeps telling them over and over again, their definition is all wrong. He keeps redefining their take on the word. His kingdom is not of this world. And furthermore, we learn, it is not simply a spiritual kingdom. Herod can bring out his swords against it, but will not be able to kill it. Somehow in the weakness of a little baby, or a dying man on a cross who will be raised from the dead, everything will be made new. A more powerful king than any they can imagine. As the hymn for today has it, "Not by sword you win your vict’ry/Not by chains you have our fealty/Not with worldly things/Are you King of kings.”   HYMN INFO Gustav Margerth Jensen was a Norwegian scholar and churchman who contributed to the liturgical life of Norwegians and Norwegian Americans when he revised the Landstad hymnal in 1921 including his 1887 version of the Norwegian liturgy. Those who grew up with the revised Landstad hymnal, The Lutheran Hymnary  or the Concordia  still remember that liturgy in their bones. This hymn is based on John 18:33-37 where Jesus’ trial is reported. It was published first in 1912. Jensen was editor of Luthersk Kirektidende and served Vår Frelsers church in Oslo where he was known as a fine preacher and liturgist. Steenberg served as a church musician who lived and worked in Oslo. He was trained in Leipzig and Copenhagen, and taught at the school for the blind, and the Music Conservatory in Oslo. He compiled a book of harmonies for the Landstad hymnal, which was popular but never authorized. He also wrote liturgical music for the church. LINKS Johan Muren/organ and instruments https://youtu.be/ljvFhcr2jw0 Christiane Rothfuchs https://youtu.be/Iib8jtMVU84   Jesus the Harmony  would make a nice Christmas present. It can be read devotionally over the entire year, one poem for every day.   Blurb "With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." -- Jill Baumgartner , Poetry Editor, Christian Century, and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145

(Long hymn but worth it, revised from an older post)) Manuscript depicting the Dedication of Cluny Abbey 11th century Text: Bernard of Cluny (ca. 1100-1199) Tune: Melchior Vulpius (ca. 1570-1615) Swedish folk 1 The world is very evil, The times are waxing late; Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate; The Judge that comes in mercy, The Judge that comes with might, To terminate the evil,T o diadem the right. 2 Arise, arise, good Christian, Let right to wrong succeed; Let penitential sorrow To heav'nly gladness lead To light that hath no evening, That knows no moon nor sun, The light so new and golden, The light that is but one. 3 Brief life is here our portion; Brief sorrow, short-lived care; The life that knows no ending, The tearless life, is there. O happy retribution: Short toil, eternal rest; For mortals and for sinners A mansion with the blest! 4 And now we light the battle, But then shall wear the crown Of full and everlasting And passionless renown; And now we watch and struggle, And now we live in hope, And Zion in her anguish With Babylon must cope. 5 But He whom now we trust in Shall then be seen and known; And they that know and see Him Shall have Him for their own. And there is David's fountain And life in fullest glow; And there the light is golden, And milk and honey flow. 6 O home of fadeless splendor, Of flow'rs that bear no thorn, Where they shall dwell as children Who here as exiles mourn. Midst pow'r that knows no limit, Where knowledge has no bound, The beatific vision Shall glad the saints around. 7 Jerusalem the golden, With milk and honey blessed, Beneath thy contemplation Sink heart and voice oppressed. I know not, O I know not, What joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, What bliss beyond compare. 8 They stand, those halls of Zion, All jubilant with song And bright with many an angel And all the martyr throng. The Prince is ever in them; The daylight is serene; The pastures of the blessed Are decked in glorious sheen. 9 There is the throne of David; And there, from care released, The shout of them that triumph, The song of them that feast; And they who with their Leader Have conquered in the fight Forever and forever Are clad in robes of white. 10 For thee, O dear, dear country, Mine eyes their vigils keep; For very love, beholding Thy happy name, they weep. The mention of thy glory Is unction to the breast And medicine in sickness And love and life and rest. 11 O one, O only mansion, O Paradise of joy, Where tears are ever banished And smiles have no alloy! The Lamb is all thy splendor, The Crucified thy praise; His laud and benediction Thy ransomed people raise. 12 With jasper glow thy bulwarks, Thy streets with em'ralds blaze; The sardius and the topaz Unite in thee their rays; Thine ageless walls are bonded With amethyst unpriced; The saints build up thy fabric, The cornerstone is Christ. 13 Thou hast no shore, fair ocean; Thou hast no time, bright day, Dear fountain of refreshment To pilgrims far away! Upon the Rock of Ages they raise thy holy tower; Thine is the victor's laurel And thine the golden dower. 14 O sweet and blessed country, The home of God's elect! O sweet and blessed countryT hat eager hearts expect!J esus, in mercy bring us To that dear land of rest, Who art, with God the Father And Spirit, ever blest. Tr. John Mason Neale REFLECTIONS: De Contemptus Mundi  by Bernard of Cluny, a three-thousand line poem on the evil of this world and the glory of the next, is considered to be one of the great poems of the Middle Ages. Bernard, a monk, wrote it while living in Cluny Abbey, one of the richest and most beautiful of its day, observing the corruptions of everything around him, from government, monastery, church, clergy, on up to the pope. Nothing escaped the venom of his pen. World weariness would be another way to talk about it. But in the middle of his screeds against the corruptions of the world are his ravishing pictures of the next. You can find in those pictures the sources of hymns on the heavenly country, Jerusalem the Golden, O Sweet and Blessed Country. The disciples listening to Jesus were not ready to hear Jesus’ prediction that soon not one stone of the temple would be left upon another. A terrifying prophecy made more awful by his prophecy of wars and persecutions: Nations will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be persecutions, families will be riven apart, friendships ruined. You will be hated. Is he talking about us and our time? Doesnt sound too different from what is going on just now in the world. As the hymn has it, "The Judge is at the gate." His promise "that not one hair on our head will perish and that by enduring we will gain our lives" is really all we have. Quite enough. Look up. "The mention of his glory/Is unction to the breast/And medicine in sickness/And love and life and rest." Amen. HYMN INFO Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny Bernard of Cluny was said to be an Englishman, but spent his life in Cluny Abbey. He lived at the beginning of what has been called the High Middle Ages, a century before St Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274)-, just before Dante who knew the poem and used its imagery for his depictions of heaven and hell. John Mason Neale, the master of such translations in the 19th century, has done a creditable job in his translation. Several hymnals begin the hymn with the third stanza to avoid the rather negative first line. The tune by Vulpius, an early Lutheran composer is most often used, but the Service Book and Hymnal  used a Swedish folk tune for the very popular Christmas carol, Mitt Hjerte Altid Vanker/My Heart is Filled with Wonder, by Hans Adolph Brorson. Horatio Parker (1863-1919) an important American composer in his day wrote an oratorio based on the first lines of the hymn. Ralph Vaughan Williams made an anthem out of it. LINKS Ralph Vaughan Williams anthem on St. Alphage Brief Life is Here our Portion St. Choir of St. Mary of Warwick https://youtu.be/8HaQh1ziJgMHoratio Parker/Orchestra and Choir https://youtu.be/Hd7cn1po1kA Congregation singing the translation Brief Life is Here our Portion https://youtu.be/fXZ_E1XLl4c Bonus: My Hymn on the text for this Sunday NB: For those thinking of Christmas gifts, you might consider the book Jesus the Harmony . It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies. Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145