Stanza 1:

Evening and morning, 

Sunset and dawning, 

Wealth, peace, and gladness, 

Comfort in sadness:
These are Thy works; all the glory be Thine!

Times without number, 

Awake or in slumber, 

Thine eye observes us, 

From danger preserves us, 

Causing Thy mercy upon us to shine.

The footnotes of Lutheran Service Book suggest Psalm 145 as a counterpart for this hymn, and we will start there:

8The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.

[The LORD is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]
14The LORD upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
20The LORD preserves all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

The Lord, our Father, provides us with all that we need to support this body and life (as we confess in the Small Catechism).  As we see in verse 8 of the Psalm, this is out of God’s mercy and love for us. He not only provides for us, He constantly watches over us to see that no harm befalls us, as Jesus says in Luke 12:

6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Stanza 2:
Father, O hear me, 

Pardon and spare me; 

Calm all my terrors, 

Blot out my errors

That by Thine eyes they may no more be scanned. 

Order my goings, 

Direct all my doings;

As it may please Thee

Retain or release me; 

All I commit to Thy fatherly hand. 

We are fragile, sinful, weak, and easily frightened. Gerhardt here directs us to take our fears and worries to our Father.  God does calm our terrors, as we hear in 1 Peter 5:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

He also removes our sins that so that He can no longer see them, as is says in Psalm 103:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
14For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.

God guides, directs, sustains, and forgives us out of love. There is simply nothing left to worry about concerning this life or the next. The confidence and trust this gives us is expressed in stanza 3.

Ills that still grieve me

Soon are to leave me;

Though billows tower, 

And winds gain power, 

After the storms the fair sun shows its face. 

Joys e’er increasing

And peace never ceasing;

These shall I treasure

And share in full measure

When in His mansions God grants me a place. 

Stanza 4:
To God in heaven

All praise be given!

Come, let us offer

And gladly proffer

To the Creator the gifts He doth prize. 

He well receiveth 

A heart that believeth; 

Hymns that adore Him

Are precious before Him

And to His throne like sweet incense arise. 

Our response to God’s gracious goodness to us is to praise Him, to say thank you, to shout the loud “Amen!” He is ready to receive a believing heart, and makes all believers His own children, as it says in John 1:

2But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Our praise does rise as a sweet incense to our God, as we pray in Psalm 141:

2Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,

   and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

What wonderful comfort from another great Gerhardt hymn! Thanks be to God!

I have to admit that I’ve always thought this hymn was about 300 years older and from a different continent than it actually is. It has such great, straightforward teaching of the Lutheran theology of Holy Communion that I always assumed that it was a German Lutheran reformation hymn when it fact it’s an American hymn written in 1910. In my defense, we do sing it to a German Lutheran tune from 1628. The author, Henry Jacobs was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1844. He attended Gettysburg-Lutheran seminary and later became a dean of the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia.

One of the things I love about the Lutheran theology of the Lord’s Supper is its simplicity. We simply believe what Jesus says. Our Lord says, “This is my body” and we agree. Perhaps this is part of what it means to have a child-like faith.

Let’s start with the actual words of Jesus, from Matthew 26:

26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Now let’s compare this with stanza 1 and stanza 2:

Lord Jesus Christ, we humbly pray

That we may feast on You today;

Beneath these forms of bread and wine

Enrich us with Your grace divine. 

Give us, who share this wondrous food, 

Your body broken and your blood, 

The grateful peace of sins forgiv’n, 

The certain joys of heirs of heav’n. 

Why do we begin the hymn with humility? Because the Lord’s Supper is a meal for sinners in need of forgiveness. We need his pardon, peace, and forgiveness, and these are only given to us by His grace. We use the term “Means of Grace” for the sacraments, because in them God has attached His Word and promise to physical things such as simple bread and wine in order to give His grace and forgiveness to us. Because of the promise, we know that the second stanza is answered with a definite yes from our Lord. This wondrous food is His body and blood, we are forgiven, and we are heirs of heaven. We look forward to the day when we will feast with our Lord in the “Father’s kingdom”.

Stanza 3:

By faith Your Word has made us bold

To seize the gift of love retold;

All that You are we here receive, 

And all we are to You we give. 

What does it mean that we give Him all we are and receive all the He is? We could interpret this to mean that we just want to really give God all of our love and affection and praise during worship. But I think Jacobs is referencing what we call the “great exchange”.  This quote from Luther (from The Freedom of A Christian) helps to flesh out this idea:

Faith unites the soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom. By this mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul become one flesh [Eph. 5:31-32]. And if they are one flesh and there is between them a true marriage – indeed the most perfect of all marriages, since human marriages are but poor examples of this one true marriage – it follows that everything they have they hold in common, the good as well as the evil. 

Accordingly the believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own. Let us compare these and we shall see inestimable benefits. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers? 

In Holy Communion we are united with Christ. He takes our sin, death, and damnation, and we receive His grace, life, and salvation.  We have nothing to give, we only receive His gifts.

Stanza 4:

One bread, one cup, one body, we, 

Rejoicing in our unity, 

Proclaim Your love until You come

To bring Your scattered loved ones home. 

This stanza comes from two places in 1 Corinthians. First, from 1 Corinthians 10:
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

And secondly, from 1 Corinthians 11:

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

We saw in the previous stanza that we are united with Christ. In this stanza, we see that this unity in Christ is also shared with one another, for we are the body of Christ. By participating in his holy sacrament together, we boldly proclaim His death and wait for Him to return and take us to the marriage feast.

 Stanza 5:

Lord Jesus Christ, we humbly pray;

O keep us steadfast till that day

When each will be Your welcomed guest

In heaven’s high and holy feast. 

The idea of the wedding feast is used in a couple of Jesus’ parables as well as the book of Revelation. The meal that we share together in this age is only a taste of the incredible feast that is to come. We pray something similar to stanza 5 in our communion liturgy. It’s the prayer of thanksgiving, and it’s a very dense prayer, but only because it is so full of riches. This is the second part.

Gathered in the name and the remembrance of Jesus, we beg You, O Lord, to forgive, renew, and strengthen us with Your Word and Spirit. Grant us faithfully to eat His body and drink His blood as He bids us do in His own testament. Gather us together, we pray, from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end. Graciously receive our prayers; deliver and preserve us. To You alone, O Father, be all glory, honor, and worship, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen 

To recap our five short stanzas; we poor sinners come to God’s sacrament of Holy Communion, we give Him our sin and death and receive His life and salvation through His true body and true blood, we are united with Him and with the body of Christ, and we are strengthened to continue, looking forward to the day when all will be united with Christ at His great wedding feast.  Amen.

Out of this great suffering, Gerhardt emerges as one of the great writers of Christian hymnody. His hymns are comforting and personal, yet they remain biblically literate hymns that proclaim solid Scriptural teaching.

Stanza 1:
Why should cross and trial grieve me?

Christ is near 

With His cheer;

Never will He leave me. 

Who can rob me of the heaven

That God’s Son

For me won

When His life was given?

What is a cross? Jesus told us to take up our crosses and follow Him, after all. A cross is when we suffer in this life. More precisely, it is when we suffer as a consequence of living out the Christian faith. God allows these sufferings into our lives in order to refine our faith in much the same way as precious metal is refined in the fire. Peter speaks of these things in 1st Peter chapter 1. This is a longer section, but it is worth reading:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

As St. Peter says, we have a living hope because of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and the inheritance that is in heaven for us. God allows various difficult periods, challenges, and events into our lives that test our faith, prove it to be genuine, and lead us to rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible. Nothing can rob us of this great treasure.

Stanza 2:
When life’s troubles rise to meet me, 

Though their weight

May be great, 

They will not defeat me. 

God, my loving Savior, sends them; 

He who knows 

All my woes

Knows how best to end them. 

Yes, this stanza does say that God, our Savior, sends our troubles into our life. How can this be? First of all, remember that God is not the ultimate source of evil and trouble; that is the result of sin, death, and the devil. If you look into the book of Job, however, you will see that God does allow Satan to bring various trials into our lives. What are we to do, then? Are we to fear God and ask Him to leave us alone so that these trials will also cease? No! God cares for you! Jesus died for you to reconcile you to Himself! He cares for you as a Father. Rather, bring all your cares and anxieties to Him, because He cares for you, loves you, and will only bring suffering into your life for your own good. Remember, the last line of stanza 2 and know that God will also bring an end to your sufferings.

8And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

9And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11)

29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11)

Stanza 3:
God gives me my days of gladness, 

And I will 

Trust Him still

When He sends me sadness. 

God is good; His love attends me

Day by day

Come what may, 

Guides me and defends me. 

With the assurance of the promises of the first two stanzas well in hand, we can boldly join in this proclamation of faith in stanza 3.  God is good. When the sadness of life comes, remember that God is good, He loves you, defends you, and guides you. We can rejoice at all times, as James exhorts us to do in James 1:

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Stanza 4:
From God’s joy can nothing sever, 

For I am 

His dear lamb, 

He, my Shepherd ever. 

I am His because He gave me

His own blood

For my good, 

By His death to save me. 

The faith and comfort springing from this stanza are absolutely incredible. It gives us a reason why we can trust that God will never fail us. It’s because our Savior, our Shepherd, has saved us and made us His own by His death! Jesus says as much in John 10:

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Paul says much the same in Romans 8:
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Stanza 5:

Now in Christ, death cannot slay me, 

Though it might, 

Day and night, 

Trouble and dismay me. 

Christ has made my death a portal

From the strife

Of this life

To His joy immortal!

Having battled the sorrows and trials of this life, we now come face to face with death itself. This great enemy can do nothing to hurt us, for Christ has already won the victory.  We are now blessed to know that when we die we enter into eternal joy, where there will be no more trials, no more crosses to bear, nor more sin, and no more sorrow.

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15)

Yes, thanks be to God!

 Full audio of the hymn

This week’s hymn is When in the Hour of Deepest Need by Paul Eber, who was a contemporary of Luther. Paul Eber was a student at the university of Wittenberg and later joined the faculty as professor of Latin. He was a friend of Phillip Melanchthon and stuck by Melanchthon throughout the controversies that followed Luther’s death. This hymn is based on an earlier Latin hymn by Eber’s teacher, Joachim Camerarius. When in the hour of Deepest Need is wonderful for the way it takes the themes and imagery from several Psalms and Epistles and combines them in hymn form. In this hymn we fall on our knees and beg our Lord for mercy. We ask for deliverance from our sins and from the troubles that we face in this life.

Stanzas 1 and 2:
When in the hour of deepest need

We know not where to look for aid;

When days and nights of anxious thought

No help or counsel yet have brought, 

Then is our comfort this alone

That we may meet before Your throne;

To You, O faithful God, we cry

For rescue from our misery. 

The desperate pleading of stanza 1 brings to mind Psalm 102:

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD;let my cry come to you! 2 Do not hide your face from me

   in the day of my distress!

Incline your ear to me;

    answer me speedily in the day when I call

3For my days pass away like smoke,
and my bones burn like a furnace.
4My heart is struck down like grass and has withered;
I forget to eat my bread.
5Because of my loud groaning
my bones cling to my flesh.

The troubles of this life have a way of taking away every false god that we look to for help. As life becomes more and more difficult and troubles increase, we see everything in which we had trusted break down and fail us. This can lead us to realize that only our God can help us. This can lead us to realize that we are all poor sinners who need to flee to God for refuge, forgiveness, and help. This is where we turn in stanza 2. We cry to God for help. This was also the plight of the Caananite woman, who we hear about in the Gospel reading for this Sunday. This comes from Matthew 15:
21 And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

In the Gospels you will never see Jesus refuse those who come pleading for mercy, even when He has every reason to refuse.  Jesus is not obligated to have mercy on us but He does so out of His great love and compassion. He came to be our advocate before the Father and to make atonement for us, as we sing in the next stanza.

Stanza 3:

For You have promised, Lord, to heed

Your children’s cries in time of need

Through Him whose name alone is great, 

Our Savior and our advocate. 

I think Eber was most likely thinking of 1 John 2 when he wrote this:

1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

And also Matthew 7:

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Our Father in heaven has promised to hear our prayers. Not only do we have this great promise, but we also know that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, who has made atonement for all of our sins so that we may approach our Father without fear. We know that our cries for help will be heard.

Stanza 4:
And so we come, O God, today

And all our woes before You lay;

For sorely tried, cast down, we stand, 

Perplexed by fears on ev’ry hand. 

This stanza brings us back to the Psalms with Psalm 25:

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.

Again, we know that we have nothing to offer to God. We need Him to rescue us from every evil and trouble, but most importantly we need Him to rescue us from our sins. All the trouble in the world is the direct result of our sinfulness. We are broken, sinful people in a fallen world and the consequences of that are always with us. Our only hope is to be delivered from sin, death, and the devil by our gracious Lord. The next stanza brings us to confession.

Stanza 5:
O from our sins, Lord, turn Your face;

Absolve us through Your boundless grace. 

Be with us in our anguish still;

Free us at last from ev’ry ill. 

That delivery from sin is ultimately our delivery from all our woes is brought out in Psalm 130:

1Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!

 2O Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

   to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

3If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

5I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

7O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
8And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities.

We know that God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins (1 John 1:). We know that He will not turn us away and that He forgives us for Jesus’ sake. We rejoice in this great deliverance and forgiveness and seek to serve our Lord with thanksgiving and obedience.

Stanza 6:

So we with all our hearts each day

To You our glad thanksgiving pay, 

Then walk obedient to Your Word, 

And now and ever praise You, Lord. 

We looked at a few verse from 1 John 2 earlier. Now let’s finish that paragraph:

3And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

In response to God’s great mercy we seek to serve Him with our lives. We do, however, often fail and falter along the way. We come regularly to confession and absolution, always seeking His grace and mercy. His mercies are new every morning and we rejoice and gladly give Him thanksgiving, and honor, and praise forever and ever.  We’ll end with the words of Psalm 103:

¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul,
   and all that is within me,
   bless his holy name!
² Bless the LORD, O my soul,
   and forget not all his benefits,
³who forgives all your iniquity,
   who heals all your diseases,
⁴who redeems your life from the pit,
   who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵who satisfies you with good
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Full audio of the hymn

Stanza 1:

For all the saints who from their labors rest, 

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, 

Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Jesus deserves all glory and thanks for the saints who are given eternal life. We are redeemed by our Lord and strengthened by Him in this life. Stanza 1 echoes Revelation 14:13:

13And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

What wonderful words! Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord! Death has no sting or victory, for we belong to a resurrected and victorious Lord and King.

Stanza 2:

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:

Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

This stanza summarizes much of Psalm 27. Here are a few parts of that Psalm:

1The LORD is my light and my salvation;

    whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life;

   of whom shall I be afraid?

 5For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.

Notice who is doing the action in both the Psalm and the hymn stanza. The Lord is our strength, our salvation, our light, and our rock. This was true when David wrote Psalm 27, it was true when William How wrote the hymn text, and it is true for us today.

Stanza 3:

Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, 

Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old

And win with them the victor’s crown of gold!

Alleluia! Alleluia! 

In the first two stanzas, we praised our Lord for His work in the lives of the saints. Now we pray that He would continue that work today in our lives and in the lives of all believers.  We pray that we may persevere to the end, as we are told in Revelation 2:

10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

Stanza 4:

Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

We are reminded in this stanza that we are not in this life alone. We have communion and fellowship with the other members of the body of Christ. Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer in John 17 that this would be so:

10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

We know from Colossians 1 that we are part of body of Christ:

18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

We have life together in the body of Christ, which is the church. We teach one another, forgive one another and encourage one another; yet we do sometimes grow weary along the way. This leads us into the next stanza.

Stanza 5

And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, 

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song, 

And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

This stanza is wonderful for the imagery. This hymn works chronologically, and as we sing in stanza 5 we are beginning to approach the fulfillment of all things.  What is the triumph song? It is the song of salvation that runs through all scripture. The triumph song is God’s deliverance at the Red Sea, from the Fiery Furnace, from the flood, from the tomb, and at last the victory against death itself. The Lamb will triumph, as we hear in Revelation 17:

14They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

The Lamb will conquer. Let this be our triumph song!

Stanza 6

The golden evening brightens in the west;

Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest; 

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

The cycle of the sun has often been used to speak of death and resurrection. The prayer service of Compline focuses on these themes. Just as we lie down and rest in the evening and awake in the morning so we will also lie down and rest in the Lord to be awakened at the last day. We pray that our Lord Jesus will come soon. Paul uses this imagery in Romans 13:

12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

The sweet calm of stanza 6 refers to the rest that we have in death. We do not fear death because we rest in the Lord.

Stanza 7

But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day:

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on His way. 

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Now we have reached the second coming of Christ and the new heavens and new earth, where we will see Him face to face. Having rested in Christ at our death, we are raised to everlasting life and worship Him in the splendor of holiness forever and ever. What a glorious sight it will be when our King passes before us and the new heavens and new earth all join in singing the praises of our Triune God! These last two stanzas are a glimpse of heaven after the resurrection and the imagery comes from Revelation 21:

“Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

22And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 

Knowing our salvation is secure, we praise our Triune God with stanza 8:

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, 

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, 

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Here’s stanza 1:
Your kingdom, O God, is my glorious treasure,

My pearl of incomp’rable worth.

Its value exceeds ev’ry standard of measure,

Surpassing the wealth of the earth.

Lord, give me Your grace and the pow’r of the Spirit

To value this treasure aright

That, never allured by the world, I inherit

Your kingdom of glory and light.

This stanza is based on two of Jesus’ shortest parables – from Matthew 13:44-46

⁴⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

 ⁴⁵“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

We can clearly see in these two parables that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else that we could ever possess. You will want to notice that in the first parable the man goes out “with joy” and sells everything he has to buy the field. The kingdom is so valuable that, even if we should lose every earthly possession, we still have joy. We pray in this first stanza that we would see the value of the kingdom and not fall into the trap of valuing the world’s possessions and pleasures.

But, you may be asking, what exactly is the kingdom of heaven? These parables do shed some light on the kingdom. For a clear definition, we’ll go to Luther’s Large Catechism, where he is explaining the petition “Thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer.

“But what is God’s kingdom?”

Answer, “Nothing other than what we learned in the Creed: God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, into the world to redeem and deliver us from the devils’ power (1 John 3:8). He sent Him to bring us to Himself and to govern us as a King of righteousness, life, and salvation against sin, death, and an evil conscience. For this reason He has also given His Holy Spirit, who is to bring these things home to us by His holy Word and to illumine and strengthen us in the faith by His power.”

I know it’s not the shortest answer, but it is I think the most clear and precise definition of God’s kingdom that you will find.

Stanza 2:

Your kingdom, O God is alive with the power

Your Word and Your Spirit bestow.

Like yeast, they affect the whole measure of flower, ___

Enabling Your kingdom to grow.

Empower me, Lord, as I live Your commission,

Though humble my service may be,

And bring e’vry planting to perfect fruition,

A mustard seed grown to a tree.

The first half of this stanza is based on a parable that I think is rarely heard, from Matthew 13:33

³³He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

In only a few words, Jesus explains how the kingdom grows and spreads throughout the entire world. Jesus sent out His disciples, who were few in number, and God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, allowed that small amount of “yeast” to bring God’s kingdom to fruition all over the world. We pray in this stanza that God would empower us to live out His commission to make disciples, to live in the Word and Sacraments, and to obey all the He has taught us.  We end the stanza with a reference to another related parable, from Matthew 13:31-32

³¹He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. ³²It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

The Gospel is spread throughout the world, and this is not our doing, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, who creates and sustains faith.

Stanza 3:

Your kingdom, O God, is a field for the growing

Of seeds that Your mercy has sown;

But still in our midst is the enemy sowing

The weeds that imperil Your own.

Sustain me, O Lord, till Your day of returning

And harvest me homeward at last,

To shine in the homeland that quiets all yearning,

Where sorrow and danger are past.

This last stanza uses the parable that was the Gospel reading for this past Sunday, from Matthew 13:24-30:

²⁴He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. ²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. ²⁷And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ ²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

In the first stanza, we heard that the Gospel is worth more than any earthly treasure. In the second stanza, we heard how God, through Word and Spirit, sends out that Gospel into all the world. In the third stanza, we heard how the devil fights against the kingdom of God, sowing weeds among the wheat. We pray in this stanza that God would sustain us and keep us in the one true faith and that, on the last day, He would harvest us as His wheat and take us to heaven, our homeland, to be with Him.  Amen.

This hymn dates from somewhere between the 5^th and 10^th centuries. It was commonly sung throughout Europe and was the hymn for Vespers during the Easter season. It continues to be sung throughout the Christian church today because it is a true gem of our hymnody.

The image of heaven as a banquet, or feast, is common in the parables of Jesus, but I want to focus on the images of the victorious Lamb in Revelation. Let’s starts with Revelation 5:

⁵And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

 ⁶And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ^…. ⁹And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
¹⁰and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

And also from Revelation 7:
⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

 ¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

The Lamb of God was slain, but He has risen and conquered death and He is our victorious King. All who are washed in His blood are cleansed from their sins and will receive the eternal joys of heaven.

Here’s how we sing that in stanza 1:

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing

Praise to our victorious King,

Who has washed us in the tide

Flowing from His pierced side.

Alleluia!

Stanza 2:
Praise we Him, whose love divine

Gives His sacred blood for wine,

Gives His body for the feast-

Christ the victim, Christ the priest.

Alleluia!

We gather in the Divine Service for a foretaste of the feast to come. What do we eat and drink at this feast? We eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is also the host of the meal. Our resurrected Lord gathers us, feeds us, forgives us, and loves us. It’s no wonder, then, that this hymn comes only one week after Good Shepherd Sunday. He is also our high priest, who intercedes for us before the Father in heaven.  Jesus gave us this sacred meal in this famous passage from Matthew 26:

²⁶ Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Stanza 3:

Where the paschal blood is poured,

Death’s dread angel sheathes the sword;

Israel’s hosts triumphant go

Through the wave that drowns the foe.

Alleluia!

For this stanza, we should get some background on the Passover (paschal means Passover). This account comes from Exodus chapter 12:

 ²¹Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. ²²Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. ²³ For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. ²⁴You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. ²⁵And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. ²⁶And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ ²⁷you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

As the last plague against Egypt, the angel of death was sent to kill every firstborn. Where the blood of the paschal lamb was placed on the doorpost, the angel would “pass over” that house and leave the firstborn unharmed. The firstborn of Israel were saved by the blood of the lamb. The Israelites were then led to the Red Sea, where they passed through the waters unharmed, but all of Egypt’s army was swallowed up and drowned. This story is not just the story of ancient Israel; it is our story as well. We have been saved from death and judgment by the blood of our Lamb, Jesus, and we have passed through the waters of Holy Baptism and into new life. We see this in the next stanza.

Stanza 4:
Praise we Christ, whose blood was shed,

Paschal victim, paschal bread;

With sincerity and love

Eat we manna from above.

Alleluia!

God redeemed His people by the blood of the lamb and led them through the waters. He then fed them with bread from heaven (manna) for the duration of their journey. The Lord’s Supper is our manna from above, as we are fed and nourished in the faith until we reach life everlasting. Jesus talks about this in John chapter 6:

²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” ²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? ³¹ Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ³²Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Stanza 5:

Mighty Victim from the sky,

Hell’s fierce pow’rs beneath You lie;

You have conquered in the fight,

You have brought us life and light.

Alleluia!

We have already seen from Revelation that Christ has conquered death and lives forever. He brings light and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). This victory is for us!

Stanzas 6 and 7:
Now no more can death appall,

Now no more the grave enthrall;

You have opened paradise,

And Your saints in You shall rise.

Alleluia!

Easter triumph, Easter joy!

This alone can sin destroy;

From sin’s pow’r, Lord, set us free,

Newborn souls in You to be.

Alleluia!

A quick note on stanza 7; the second line would probably read better as “This can sin alone destroy.” That line confused me for a long time as I thought the stanza was saying that, although Christ had won the victory, sin was still going to destroy the triumph of Easter. I knew that couldn’t be right!  Rather, we pray in stanza 7 that God would give us the final victory over sin and death. These two stanzas relate closely to 1 Corinthians 15:

⁵⁰I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

 ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The final stanza will give us a glorious doxological ending, praising each person of the Trinity for the blessings He gives us. What a joy to sing the song of salvation with this glorious hymn!

Stanza 8

Father, who the crown shall give,

Savior, by whose death we live,

Spirit, guide through all our days:

Three in One, Your name we praise.

Alleluia!

The hymn our congregation is learning during this season is “This Joyful Eastertide” by George R. Woodward, a translator and clergyman who lived from 1848-1934 and who compiled several collections of hymnody. We will be singing the hymn to the 17^th century Dutch folk tune “Vruechten”, which is the tune to which Woodward intended this hymn to be sung. As an aside, let me say that this highlights the catholic (universal) nature of Christian hymnody and worship; we are singing a British hymn to a Dutch tune in a church in Texas, led by an organ built in a German style.

The hymn itself is based on 1^st Corinthians chapter 15, where St. Paul lays out for us in clear terms the Christian teaching on the resurrection.

Here’s stanza 1:

This joyful Eastertide

Away with sin and sorrow!

My love, the Crucified,

Has sprung to life this morrow:

The hymn starts where 1^st Corinthians 15 starts, with the Gospel:

¹Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ²and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.

³For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

 The Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with Scriptures, was buried, and was raised on the third day. That the Messiah must die for our sins is clearly prophesied in Isaiah, chapter 53:

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

 God laid our sins on Jesus and they died and were buried with Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, he left all our sins in the grave. This is why the first stanza of the hymn says, “Away with sin and sorrow!” Our sins are gone, conquered, and forgiven, and we now live with the sure hope and joy that comes with the assurance that Christ has risen from the dead.

Every stanza includes this refrain:
Had Christ, who once was slain,

Not burst His three-day prison,

Our faith had been in vain:

But now has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen;

But now has Christ arisen!

This is a summary of 1 Corinthians 15:12-22

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²²For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. ²⁴Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

 I’m glad that this text is included as the refrain in the hymn so that we get to sing it more times.  This is such a central part of the Christian faith. If Christ is not raised, then all preaching is in vain, and our faith is worthless, useless, harmful, and irresponsible. If Christ is not raised then those who proclaim the Gospel are liars. After this comes the most important conjunction in all of Scripture; BUT! But, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep! We will be made alive in Christ even after we have fallen asleep. What joyous news! What an amazing Gospel! He is risen!

Stanza 2:
Death’s flood has lost its chill

Since Jesus crossed the river;

Lover of souls, from ill

My passing soul deliver.

This comes from 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, which includes a quote of Hosea 13:14:

⁵⁴When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The idea of crossing over the water of death into life runs through all of Scripture. Noah and his family survived the flood in the ark, Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and all who chased them drowned, and we who are baptized have also crossed over from death into life, as it says in 1^st Peter 3:

¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, ¹⁹in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, ²⁰because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. ²¹Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

 We end the second stanza by praying to God that He would deliver our souls. We can pray this with confidence because our risen Lord hears our prayers.

Stanza 3:
My flesh in hope shall rest

And for a season slumber

Till trump from east to west

Shall wake the dead in number:

This comes from 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

⁵¹Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

The Christian term for the faithful dead is “sleep”. This is used throughout the New Testament by Jesus and the apostles. Death is the separation of body and soul:

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2^nd Corinthians 5:8

 When the believer dies, the soul goes to be “at home with the Lord”,  but the flesh rests in the ground until our Lord returns. At that time the dead will be raised imperishable and reunited with the soul. This is the final resurrection and the point in history to which we look forward. I know this goes against much belief today, where many Christians believe that either they are done with their bodies when they die or that God will give them a completely different body. However, the truth is that our very bodies, our flesh, will be resurrected, transformed, reunited with the body and given eternal life with Christ on the last day.

We have passed from death to life. Sin is defeated and we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Christ is risen!

Here’s stanza 1:
My song is love unknown,

My Savior’s love to me,

Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.

Oh, who am I

That for my sake

My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

Of course, God’s love is known through Christ, but we stand in amazement at the love of God that surpasses our understanding.  The idea of Jesus loving us despite our loveless condition and the wicked way in which He was treated runs throughout the hymn. This idea is found in Romans chapter 5:

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

God shows us His love by doing the unthinkable – He gives His own Son, His own life, for people who simply do not deserve it. We were not a cause worth dying for, but God chose to love us anyway. Not only did Jesus choose to suffer for us, He also humbled Himself before God and lived His life in humility. We see this clearly in Philippians chapter 2:

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We respond with the words of the hymn, “Oh, who am I, that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh and die?”

There is enough in that stanza for us to ponder the rest of our lives, but we are blessed with 6 more stanzas and so we move forward.

Stanza 2:
He came from His blest throne

Salvation to bestow;

But men made strange, and none

The longed-for Christ would know.

But, oh, my friend,

My friend indeed,

Who at my need His life did spend!

This stanza brings us into the harsh and heart-breaking reality that Jesus was and is rejected by people. He is the King, who came down from His throne to His people and they rejected him, mocked him, and crucified him. This was prophesied in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53:

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
²For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Jesus was not welcomed and received. He was despised, rejected, and hated. What else would you expect from a world that was truly corrupted by sin? Yet He still gives Himself for us! He shows himself to be our true friend, our friend indeed, by laying down His life for us. Jesus talked about this kind of love and friendship in John 15:

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Stanza 3:
Sometimes they strew His way

And His sweet praises sing;

Resounding all the day

Hosannas to their King.

Then “Crucify!”

Is all their breath,

And for His death

They thirst and cry.

This stanza takes us through the way the crowds treated Jesus during Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, He was greeted with palm branches and shouts of praise. Here’s part of the account from Matthew 21:

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. ⁸Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ¹⁰And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

The crowds gave Jesus quite the greeting, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. They were greeting Him as the rightful King of Israel, as the one who would rescue them. The crowd, however, was fickle and turned against Jesus by the end of the week.  By Matthew 27, their tune had changed:

²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” ²²Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” ²³And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

Pilate’s words, “Why, what evil has he done?” lead us into the next stanza.

Stanza 4:

Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

He gave the blind their sight.

Sweet injuries!

Yet they at these

Themselves displease

And ‘gainst Him rise.

Indeed, what did our Lord do to deserve this? He healed the sick, made the blind see, and even raised the dead. And yet, these things caused great offense and contributed to the anger and controversy that led to His execution. This hymn is well placed within the Lenten season, as last week we heard of the account in Luke chapter 9 where Jesus heals a blind man. The blind man is questioned repeatedly and cast out and the anger and hostility towards Jesus continues to grow. Here’s a small portion of the conversation between the blind man and the Pharisees:

³⁰The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

Stanza 5:

They rise and needs will have

My dear Lord made a way;

A murderer they save,

The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He

To suff’ring goes

That He His foes

From thence might free.

They chose to kill Jesus and let a convicted murderer go free. Peter sums this up quickly in Acts 3:

¹³ The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. ¹⁴But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

The hymn then states that Jesus went to His suffering cheerfully. This is, at the very least, an exaggeration. Something quite different is described in Matthew 26:

³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” ³⁹And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Sorrowful even to death is not exactly what we would call cheerful. However, we do know that Jesus delighted in the doing the will of the Father. He went to the cross willingly, giving Himself for our sakes, to save the very ones who hated Him and put Him to death.

Stanza 6

In life no house, ho home

My Lord on earth might have;

In death no friendly tomb

But what a stranger gave.

What may I say?

Heaven was His home

But mine the tomb

Wherein He lay.

During Jesus’ ministry, He traveled. He was without home and had no place to rest. He speaks of this in Luke 9:

⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Even at His death, He had no family tomb, but He was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea – from Matthew 27:
⁵⁷ When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud ⁶⁰and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.

And finally at the end of stanza 6 we come to a profound statement of the Great Exchange. Jesus is laid into what should be our tomb so that we may be brought in to His home. This is summed up wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 5:21

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus receives the punishment for our sin and we receive the reward of the righteous. We receive the life and joy and bliss and fulfillment and peace and love of heaven itself. This leads us joyfully sing the faith; to joyfully proclaim the love of Him who has suffered, died, and risen from the dead for us. As it says in the Psalms:

⁶I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O LORD,
⁷proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,
and telling all your wondrous deeds.

And

²I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

This leads us into stanza 7, a great hymn of praise in response to God’s amazing love.

Stanza 7:
Here mighty I stay and sing,

No story so divine!

Never was love, dear King,

Never was grief like Thine.

This is my friend,

In whose sweet praise

I all my days

Could gladly spend!

Mars Hill Downtown is located in an old red brick building that from the outside looked like it was abandoned. It would appear from the structure that they are trying to reach out to the poor and disenfranchised of the city. I was a little surprised, then, that there was a security guard at the entrance, put there to keep the homeless and poor out and the young yuppies in.

Once inside, the building was a hybrid of coffee shop and contemporary art gallery. The floors and walls were black, without any decoration, crosses, or other symbols that would lead the visitor to think that this is a place to worship the Triune God. There was a gathering area with good coffee, information about the church, and a bookstore which consisted mostly of books written by the Mars Hill staff. While getting our coffee, we were greeted by a very friendly man in his twenties, dressed in Urban Outfitters jeans and trendy buttoned down shirt, who kindly asked where we were from, how we heard about the church, and told us that he was glad that we were there.

The worship space was darkly lit with a stage in front. At the back of the stage was a curtain especially made for projection, and an advertisement for a church trip to Turkey was looping. The equipment was set up for the band, and we sat down and had a seat about ten minutes before the service was about to start so that my wife could read through their booklet on what they believed.

After we sat down another young man in his twenties, dressed in Urban Outfitters trendy jeans and button down shirt, sat down in the seat in front of us, asked us where we were from, and told us how great the church was. He had been attending Mars Hill since he moved to Seattle about 4 years ago and since attending there he had started taking his faith much more seriously, had learned much more about theology, and had become a better man and a better husband.

The service started with two songs led by a rock trio of guitar, keyboard, and drums. The first song reminded me vaguely of Psalm 51 and the second song was the David Crowder arrangement of “All Creatures of our God and King”. I appreciated the hymns, as they were the only songs in the service that I would call sing-able congregational song. After the opening songs, we had about 20 minutes of announcements. It was during this time that most of the church attendees came in. The people attending the church were nearly all young, white people in their 20’s and early 30’s. There were no children as they were sent elsewhere, and there were no middle aged or older folks. There were also no teenagers. The announcements were part announcement/part pep rally. We clapped several times at all the amazing things that God was doing at Mars Hill. We were introduced to the staff, all of whom were dressed in Urban Outfitters jeans and shirts, and we learned that the Easter service was going to be combined with all Mars Hill campuses and held at Qwest Field (the home of the Seattle Seahawks). The feeling of incredible excitement and happiness filled every moment of the announcements.

After the announcements, they took up the offering and we sang the hymn Amazing Grace. Now, a full 35 minutes into the service, we were ready to hear from the Man himself, Pastor Mark Driscoll.

As Mars Hill consists of several campuses, we watched a video of his message which was broadcast from another campus. Pastor Driscoll was nicely dressed in Urban Outfitters jeans and buttoned down shirt. His hair was just slightly messy and he had the two-days-without-a-shave beard. Mars Hill was making their way through the book of Luke (and taking two years to do it), and this week’s message was on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. While the irony of reading that parable while a security guard stood at the entrance to the church and kept the poor people out was not lost on me, the focus of the day’s message was on hell. There are some very positive things I have to say about Mark Driscoll at this point. First, unlike many mega-churches, he does not do Christianity-light. He does the best he can to preach the truth to the people he can reach. Secondly, he did appear to be genuinely concerned about the people in the campus churches and in the community regarding their eternal salvation.

He began his teaching on hell by showing very clearly from Scripture that we consist of body and soul, and that at death the two are separated but will be re-united at the resurrection. Everyone will either spend eternity in heaven or will spend eternity in torment in hell. He then went through several false teachings such as universalism, annihilism, reincarnation, naturalism, and purgatory and showed how they were false. While he was good to this point, he began repeating a phrase that he repeated throughout the entire 45 minutes message that really began to sting. He said, “It’s my job to tell the truth. It’s your job to make a decision”. He spent the bulk of the 45 minutes making it abundantly clear that if you did not make the right decision you would, without a doubt, spend all eternity in torment in hell. The Lutheran in me kept expecting him to get around to the Gospel. Unfortunately he never really did. If I make the right decision I go to heaven, if I don’t I spent all eternity in hell. I’m sorry Mark Driscoll, but that’s not the Gospel. My wife leaned over to me at this point and said, “There’s no grace!”

The Gospel was so tainted with decision theology that there could be no assurance of forgiveness besides your own personal feelings of conversion. This is the problem with decision theology: it separates the forgiveness of sins from the death and resurrection of Christ and places it on the decision of the individual believer. Yes, Jesus died for you, BUT, it all really depends on your ability to make a decision to BELIEVE that and to have a true conversion experience. I am so thankful to belong to a church that preaches pure Gospel, where I simply look at Christ and trust that I am saved by His grace, brought to faith by the Holy Spirit, and nurtured daily and weekly through Word and Sacrament. I think an important outreach for the Lutheran church could be to reach out to those who get burned out by this all-law, emotionally draining approach to Christianity, and give them the comfort of the pure Gospel.

Following the message, they celebrated communion. Pastor Tim got up in front of the congregation and explained their beliefs on the Lord ’s Supper (it’s an act of obedience to remind us of what Jesus did). He also tried to reach out to those who were committing the cardinal sin of evangelicalism; knowing the faith but not REALLY believing it. You could also use communion as a way to rededicate yourself to Jesus. However, Pastor Tim did not mention that communion gives us forgiveness of sins and salvation and he did not recite the Words of Institution. It was interesting to me that we were not ushered row-by-row, but people came up and received the cracker and juice or wine as they felt moved to do so.

The band played a song during this time that made a few references to the Passover (the song was called “Pass Over Me”). The song went on during the duration of communion and led to a very, loud, mystical, and moving climax as communion finished. Pastor Tim then led us in prayer and told us that the staff was available to talk if anyone had questions about the faith. Then we left, feeling like we had been spiritually beaten by 90 minutes of law. We stopped by a near-by chocolate shop to cheer up my wife, which just goes to show that emotional “spirituality” can be edified with Hershey’s.

The best thing was probably the coffee. It was quite good and you could drink it during the worship time. It really made the 45 minutes of hell-fire much more relaxing. As a 20-something I really did feel like I could belong there if I just gave up the pure Gospel and my Lutheranism. Mars Hill has the following things that the Lutheran church could emulate: good coffee, very welcoming people, a positive environment, well-executed worship times, and a good use of technology such as their website and their use of the web 2.0.

Besides that, it is beyond my understanding why we would want to imitate the Mars Hill experience in the Lutheran church. What they practice in worship clearly supports their doctrine. Really, it does!

Perhaps this will help:

The Spirituality Paradigm of Evangelicalism

• The problem: Sin, death, and hell.
• The solution: Jesus’ death and resurrection pays for our sins
• This is applied to me through: My decision for Jesus and my personal conversion experience.
• This includes: Emotional response, good works, and a concerted effort to follow Jesus.
• The place where I commune with God most intimately is: First: Private Time. Second:     Small Groups: Third: Corporate worship.
• The purpose of corporate worship is then to: Help me connect to Jesus, open the door for personal conversion experience, and to let me know about opportunities for doing good works.

• This happens through: Emotional and subjective music ,media, messages, and environment.

Music and media may be at the bottom of this chart, but they fit very well within this system. Mars Hill has the emotional and subjective down to an art. I would say, whether intentional or not, it is emotionally manipulative. Let’s review the service:

• We are greeted by a really cool, excited group of  people who care about us and are in love with Jesus.
• We drink excessive amounts of caffeine.
• The music is loud and meant to get us going.
• We sing the word “Alleluia” thirty successive times during one of the songs.
• Everyone is super excited about everything going on at Mars Hill.
• Everyone is really pretty, young and dressed in Urban Outfitters.
• The pastor skillfully tears up without crying. He does this several times during the message.
• During communion, the bass is turned up so that I can feel something in my chest.
• The lights are turned down low.
• The prayers are subjective and highly emotional and meander around so that they feel “genuine.”
• The service ends with a powerful, almost frenzied song. But it’s not so frenzied that it makes anyone too uncomfortable.

All of these things, from the evangelical perspective, are simply there in worship to help people connect with Jesus. And these are all standard practice. But what were we so excited about? What was the substance of the service? Let’s review everything in the service again, looking for biblical content. This was a bible believing church after all.

• Minute 45 of the service: The pastor read a parable from Luke.
• During the Message, the Pastor uses a few verses of the Bible to prove his points.
• The End.

That’s it. Really, that was it.

Now let’s look the Lutheran Spirituality Paradigm

• Our Problem: Sin, death, and hell
• The Solution: Jesus’ death and resurrection.
• This is applied to me through: Faith alone.
• This includes: Really, it’s faith alone, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. God works faith in us, gives us the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and feeds us with word and Sacrament. We always look to Christ for our salvation, assurance, pardon, and forgiveness.
• The place where I commune most intimately with God is: First: Corporate worship where I receive Word and Sacrament. Secondly: In my vocation, as my life is an act of worship and as I pray continually.
• The purpose of corporate worship is then: Giving us the Means of Grace, which are the preaching of God’s Word and celebration of the sacraments. My personal response is simply that; a response to the forgiveness, life, and salvation that I have through Christ.
• Corporate worship includes: Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, the reading and preaching of Holy Scripture, the celebration of the sacraments, the prayer of the church.

Where does the intense, emotional, personal manipulation come into play? It doesn’t. It doesn’t come into play because we believe that we are saved by grace through faith, and not through our good works or the personal emotional intensity of our conversion experience.

It is worth noting that the Lutheran paradigm fits perfectly with the Liturgy of the Christian church, which itself grows out of the synagogue service which was familiar to Jesus and the early church. While Jesus rebelled against the excessive legalism of the Pharisees and academic disbelief of the Sadducees, he never rebelled against the synagogue service. Rather, it seems that he attended regularly, preached within it, and never made an attempt to make it into a subjective, personal, and emotionally manipulative event.

Having established the Lutheran faith paradigm, let’s look at how much biblical content we find in the Liturgy which we call the Divine Service.

1. Introit (opening Psalm)

2. Biblically literate, Christ-centered hymnody.

3. A reading from the Old Testament.

4. A Psalm of the Day

5. A reading from the Pauline Epistles, Revelation, or the book of Acts

6. A reading from the Gospels.

7. Prayers that petition God on behalf of the world.

8. The sacrament of the altar.

9. The sacrament of Holy Baptism on certain occasions.

10. The Sanctus, Nunc Dimittis, Kyrie, Agnus Dei, and Alleluia, which are all taken right  from Scripture.

11. A sermon, in which the reading of the day are explained.

12. The Lord’s Prayer

13. Confession and Absolution, which is clearly taught and commanded by our Lord.

In other words, we can see how in the Divine Service we are practically swimming in the Word of God. Because we believe that the Holy Spirit works through Word and Sacrament, we submit ourselves to the way He normally works, rejoice in the sure salvation won for us by Christ, and we respond with our songs and prayers. This is why the Lutheran confessions state that seeking God apart from Word and Sacrament is of the devil.

The big question in the Lutheran church in the past thirty years had been whether we can take the emotionally charged, subjective elements from the Evangelical faith paradigm and insert then into the Divine Service without destroying the Lutheran Paradigm. I think the wisest answer is a clear no. We cannot important elements of the paradigm without eventually seeing a full shift to that paradigm. Attempts to mix the two will inevitably be met with conflict because we attempting to believe two contrasting things at once.

I know that parting from the Evangelical faith paradigm is not an easy thing, yet we leaders in the church must think pastorally. It is possible that allowing our dear lay people to live with the Evangelical paradigm for years has given them an Evangelical approach to the Christian faith. Dear brothers and sisters, this is not okay! We must slowly, deliberately, and lovingly restore (or in many cases, teach for the first time) the Lutheran spirituality faith paradigm, not for our sakes, but for the sakes of our dear brothers and sisters in Christ who will be and are already being led astray by the loud, steady stream of American Evangelicalism which leads to nothing other than a mixing of law and Gospel and terrible burden on the consciences of God’s own people.

I know the temptation to copy and paste what we see in Evangelicalism is strong. They do, after all, attract thousands of young people. So let’s copy it; let’s copy the good coffee, positive environment, and accept nothing less than excellence from those who lead worship; even from the volunteers. Let’s leave the emotional manipulation, co-mingling of Law and Gospel, and un-biblical spirituality right where we found it.