Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546) Tune: Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Hymnody tends to be on the more positive side of the faith. It is difficult to find popular hymns treating Jesus’ rejection by his family, or the failures of his disciples. If, per St. Augustine’s maxim that hymns are songs in praise of God, then all hymns must be praise songs. The Protestant hymn, whose 500th anniversary we are observing, developed by Luther was a different animal. While there are hymns of praise in his corpus to be sure, they tend to be more meditations on biblical texts or proclamations to the congregation, such as his greatest, A Mighty Fortress. In it there is only reason for praise—that God’s Word endures forever.
Luther’s reform may well have come out of the genre of music he chose to use for his songs—the ballad. Ballads told stories and were used by minstrels traveling about the realm singing songs which told the news of what had happened elsewhere so people could know what was going on. His first hymn, A New Song we now Begin was closely modeled on his first ballad which he wrote about his students who had returned to Brussels. They brought his message with them and were martyred for it. He used the form to tell the story of their martyrdom. From there it was a small step toward writing his first hymn, Nun freut euch, Good Christians, One and All Rejoice, in which the singer tells the story of salvation to the G’meinde/congregation. It sets up Luther’s own story of realizing his need for the gospel—the first four stanzas—and then tells the story of what God has done to remedy Luther’s sense of abandonment and terror. He dramatizes the story of God the Father and the Son in conversation about what they will do. In a sense the Father preaches to the Son. And then the Son preaches to us about his work among us to bring us to salvation. All ten stanzas are a sermon in the mouths of the singers, the congregation, who are singing the meditation or sermon to each other.
Those who followed Luther, especially the Lutheran Orthodox singers like Paul Gerhardt, used that same rhetoric in their hymns. Those who sang them learned how to meet various problems in their lives. No better example than the young girl Heidi, in the novel Heidi, who after learning to read, learns Gerhardt’s hymns and uses his greatest one, “Befiehl du deine Wege,/Give to the winds thy fears” as per John Wesley’s paraphrase, to give solace to Clara’s doctor who has come with the rich family from Frankfurt to Heidi’s mountain home with her grandfather. Friends of mine have argued that these hymns kept the theology of the Reformation far more lively and present in the lives of people than the dry and scholastic Latinate fencing of their pastors’ sermons against Catholics and Calvinists.
With the liturgical revival, most of the efforts of contemporary worship leaders, was to renew the music for the liturgy, or ordinary of the mass, rather than write hymns that preached and did more than tell the story of the Scripture which they were treating. They did not use—or maybe did not know—the rich hymnody that taught people how God lived with us. But if one thinks about our favorite hymns they tend to use the rhetoric of proclamation—Amazing Grace, Borning Cry, Built on the Rock, What a Friend We have in Jesus, etc. In the mediation or proclamation we find reason to praise and should. But first people need to know what there is to praise God for. That is what Luther’s renewal of hymnody gave to people and which, maybe, our current hymnwriters could think about. As we say often, the faith isn’t just about Sunday morning, it is for the entire week. Our hymns, of late, have concentrated on the Sunday liturgy, not the daily life of Christians. They should help us do that. Listen to the first hymn of Luther and hear the Good news!
Below one can find hymns for the Sunday and and a kid's song--a ballad-- to help get ready for St. Barnabas feast day June 11. Barnabas is one of the few people in Scripture who really comes off as good. Most of the rest, except Mary and Elizabeth, have some work to do!
Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: Amanda Husberg
Christ Jesus speaks with love to those
who have no family
“All those who do my will are close
As any kin can be.”
To those whose families are cruel,
The Master speaks again,
“All those who love and do my will,
Are closer than my kin.”
“With me you never are alone,
I give you each to each
For in my body we are one,
It is the truth I preach.”
Christ Jesus’ Spirit makes us one.
More close than flesh or blood.
We’re one in him, our Father’s Son
Who makes us kin to God.
Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: James Clemens
Barnabas was good
Gave all that he could
To support Jerusalem
When they needed help
Thought not of himself
Went there to encourage them.
Barnabas knew Paul
When he still was Saul
He brought Paul to meet the rest
since he knew the Way
Knew that Christ would say
"Follow me, Oh, come be blest!”
Then he walked the walk,
Preached in Antioch
Went with Paul to serve the Lord
Gathered help for those
Needing food and clothes
For Judea’s needy poor.
Once they went abroad
Preaching one true God
Teaching all their Lord's good news
Once they healed a man
People marveled and
Thought that Barnabas was Zeus!
Soon they met again
In Jerusalem
To decide the Gentiles’ fate
They decided all
Who believed Christ's call
Were in him and could be saved.
Then they disagreed
Went their separate ways
Barnabas did all he could,
Traveled through the world
Preaching Jesus’ word:
Barnabas was kind and good.
