A Fair and Glorious Gift (Luther)

I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God. I would not for the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art than can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology, music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart . . . the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God. —Martin Luther, Hymns for the Family of God

<idle musing>
Once I moved to Madison, WI in 1975, I joined a Plymouth Brethren-style house church. It was a bit of a culture shock in some ways. I was raised Wesleyan-Arminian and considered myself a charismatic (this is before the health and wealth people stole it), and here I was joining a Calvinist, cessationist church! But I loved it!

One of the things it did was broaden my knowledge of hymns. They were coming from a totally different hymnological heritage that was just as rich as the one I had been raised in. That's also where I met Debbie, my wife of 46.5 years. When we got married—actually even before—we purchased a hymnal that was nondenominational and quite popular at the time, although it's now out of print.

On our honeymoon, which was spent camping around Lake Superior, we would sit around the campfire and sing. Debbie played guitar, and we would figure out the chords to the hymns in that hymnal. We still own that battered copy. I'm not sure we ever got more than halfway through figuring out chords, but we had a grand time.

All that to say, I'm starting through that hymnal in a systematic way today. It intersperses readings with hymns, so that's why we start with a quotation from Martin Luther. Again, I won't be publishing duplicates from the other three hymnals (at least not intentionally!), so there will be days without a posting.

I hope you enjoy it!
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Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee (Luther)

526 Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee

1 Out of the depths I cry to Thee;
   Lord, hear me, I implore Thee!
   Bend down Thy gracious ear to me,
   My prayer let come before Thee!
   If Thou remember each misdeed,
   If each should have its rightful meed,
   Who may abide Thy presence?

2 Our pardon is Thy gift; Thy love
   And grace alone avail us.
   Our works could ne'er our guilt remove,
   The strictest life would fail us.
   That none may boast himself of aught,
   But own in fear Thy grace hath wrought
   What in him seemeth righteous.

3 And thus, my hope is in the Lord,
   And not in mine own merit;
   I rest upon His faithful word
   To them of contrite spirit.
   That He is merciful and just,--
   This is my comfort and my trust,
   His help I wait with patience.
                         Martin Luther
                         Trans. by Catherine Winkworth
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
There appears to be two versions of this floating around out there, both translated by Catherine Winkworth. Together, they appear in around ninety hymnals. I don't recall singing this hymn in either version.

Most of hymnals include some version of these two verses as well:

4 And though it tarry till the night
   And round till morning waken,
   My heart shall ne'er mistrust Thy might,
   Nor count itself forsaken.
   Do thus, O ye of Israel's seed,
   Ye of the Spirit born indeed,
   Wait for your God's appearing.

5 Though great our sins and sore our woes,
   His grace much more aboundeth;
   His helping love no limit knows,
   Our utmost need it soundeth;
   Our kind and faithful Shepherd He,
   Who shall at last set Israel free
   From all their sin and sorrow.

</idle musing>

Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands

438

1 Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands,
   for our offenses given;
   but now at God’s right hand He stands
   and brings us light from heaven.
   Therefore let us joyful be
   and sing to God right thankfully
   loud songs of hallelujah.
   Hallelujah!

2 It was a strange and dreadful strife
   when life and death contended;
   the victory remained with life,
   the reign of death was ended.
   Holy Scripture plainly saith
   that death is swallowed up by death;
   his sting is lost forever.
   Hallelujah!

3 Here the true Paschal Lamb we see,
   whom God so freely gave us;
   He died on the accursed tree-
   so strong His love to save us.
   See His blood upon our door;
   faith points to it, death passes o'er,
   and Satan cannot harm us.
   Hallelujah!

4 So let us keep the festival
   whereto the Lord invites us;
   Christ is Himself the Joy of all,
   the Sun that warms and lights us.
   By His grace He doth impart
   eternal sunshine to the heart;
   the night of sin is ended.
   Hallelujah!
                         Martin Luther
                         Trans. by Richard Massie
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

Luther's bad exegesis of Romans 6–8

Luther attempted in several ways to express the permanent, and structurally basic, incongruity of grace in the life of a believer, most famously in the phrase simul justus et peccator. The strongest exegetical base for that notion comes from Romans 6-8, but it draws on what now seems to most a faulty reading of Romans 7-8 as a dialectical depiction of two dimensions of the Christian life. If, to the contrary, 7:7-25 describes life “in the flesh” before becoming a believer (cf. 7:5), not a continuing aspect of the believer’s life, Luther’s simul . . . peccator looks less convincing.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 501–2

<idle musing>
Personally, I never bought into Luther's bad exegesis. A book was recently published that takes a look at the exegesis of Romans 7 over the years: Conquerors Not Captives: Reframing Romans 7 for the Christian Life, by Joseph R. Dodson. Take a look at it.
</idle musing>

More on Luther and grace

The superabundance of divine grace (“the overwhelming goodness of God”) is identified by Luther first and foremost with the Christ—event, not with the gifts of creation or nature. As we have seen, the Pauline terminology of “grace” is taken to signify a relationship of favor, not a quality in the character of God nor, by infusion, a human quality or capacity. God’s favorable relation to humanity is embodied in the gift of Christ, who comes to us only as the Savior who gives, not as a Legislator or Judge who demands. In this respect, Luther’s theology tends toward perfecting the singularity of grace, though (unlike Marcion) only in dialectical relationship to the law of the same God, who is “hidden” behind apparent contradictions, and with his “other hand” threatens us with judgment. The priority of grace is also fundamental for Luther: his Augustinian tradition equips him to make strong statements about the predestination of the elect, but he is wary to enter this perplexing terrain since the essence of the gospel is its address to individual lives, not the eternal disposition of God toward the world. At the heart of the gospel is the gift of Christ, “the foundation and chief blessing of salvation.” In Aristotelian terms, it is not the works that make the person, but the person who makes the works; in Lutheran terms, persons are reconstituted when they receive the all-sufficient gift of God in Christ. Sola gratia thus preserves the sense that all that is essential to salvation has not just been started but has already been achieved by Christ (solus Christus).—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 110–11

Luther and imputation

As recent analysis has rightly shown, Luther thereby melds the Pauline themes of justification by faith and participation in Christ without the polarity that has often arisen in later readings of Paul. Where Luther uses the language of “imputation,” this is never a bare “forensic” metaphor, and certainly involves no “fiction,” since Christ’s righteousness is real and really shared by the believer.“ Believers are justified by union with Christ.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 107–8

A Mighty Fortress!

67 Ein feste Burg. 8. 7. 8. 7. 6. 6. 6. 6. 7.

1 A mighty fortress is our God,
   a bulwark never failing;
   our helper he, amid the flood
   of mortal ills prevailing.
   For still our ancient foe
   does seek to work us woe;
   his craft and power are great,
   and armed with cruel hate,
   on earth is not his equal.

2 Did we in our own strength confide,
   our striving would be losing,
   were not the right Man on our side,
   the Man of God's own choosing.
   You ask who that may be?
   Christ Jesus, it is he;
   Lord Sabaoth his name,
   from age to age the same;
   and he must win the battle.

3 And though this world, with devils filled,
   should threaten to undo us,
   we will not fear, for God has willed
   his truth to triumph through us.
   The prince of darkness grim,
   we tremble not for him;
   his rage we can endure,
   for lo! his doom is sure;
   one little word shall fell him.

4 That Word above all earthly powers
   no thanks to them abideth;
   the Spirit and the gifts are ours
   through him who with us sideth.
   Let goods and kindred go,
   this mortal life also;
   the body they may kill:
   God's truth abideth still;
   his kingdom is forever!
                         Martin Luther
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1939 edition

<idle musing>
In the house church where Debbie and I met, there was an elder who loved to sing this song quickly, which is great; some hymnals have the notation "robustly" as an instruction. The drawback is that if you are playing the guitar as an accompaniment, every note is a chord change! Debbie would sometimes assist w/her guitar, and it was a challenge! And just to make it more difficult, he would ignore the hold sign over the last word of each phrase, so you would barreling through at ninety miles per hour!
</idle musing>

Freedom; it's not what you think

One can hardly imagine a greater contrast to what Luther meant by “the freedom of a Christian”: living in paradoxical bondage to selfless, loving service of your neighbors, tirelessly tending to their needs whatever they might be, as a result of gratitude for the unmerited gift of God’s saving grace. Freedom as understood by Luther, as well as by the other Protestant and Catholic reformers of the sixteenth century, was based on a radically different understanding of what human beings are, what the point of human life is, and how one ought to live. No wonder it seems so alien today to most Westerners.—Rebel in the Ranks, 262

<idle musing>
And that's also what Jesus, the apostles, and Paul all meant by the freedom of a Christian. It's the freedom to serve. The freedom of not fearing your neighbors or enemies, but instead loving them and serving them.

There's always been a shortage of that kind of freedom, but I suspect it's at an unusually low point right now in our society.

I saw a new word yesterday, "angertainment," the use of anger to entertain people. It seems a sad but apt descriptive word for our society.

Again, a good meditation for advent, leading up to the Deliverer's birth.

Just an
</idle musing>

The Goods life?

To judge by most people’s actions today, they believe the goods life is the good life, and they devote themselves to this whether or not they also believe in God or engage in worship or prayer. In public culture and society as a whole, in both the United States and Europe, the consumption of goods and pursuit of enjoyment has essentially replaced religion. Whether you happen to be religious has no effect at all on the dominant culture. This would have horrified—if perhaps not surprised—Luther and Calvin and other sixteenth-century Protestant reformers.—Rebel in the Ranks, 255

<idle musing>
I like that, the "goods life." He is correct, we've exchanged a good life in Christ for a goods life of consumerism—and it doesn't fulfill. We need to consume more to attempt to fill that hole in our souls, which of course feeds the cycle of consume and throw away, leading to an ever warmer and more unstable climate.

Seems an appropriate meditation this advent season for why we need a savior.

Just an
</idle musing>

Erasmus vs. Luther on free will

[Erasmus, answering Luther on free will] If everything is the result of necessity, Erasmus asks, “what could be more useless than to publish this paradox to the world?” If God rewards and punishes us for actions beyond our control, for which He alone is responsible, the “what a window to impiety would the public avowal of such an opinion open to countless mortals!” People would not better their conduct, arguing instead that they were not responsible for their wrongdoings. They would stop loving a God who moves them to evil, only to punish them later. Most people, only too willing to sin, would use Luther’s views to justify their own evil inclinations.—Humanism and the Rhetoric of Toleration, page 69

Two kingdoms?

Jesus calls us as whole persons because there is no other type of person but the whole person. Obedience to Jesus, then cannot divide reality into two contradictory zones, one operating in obedience to Jesus and the other operating independent of Jesus’s influence. All of reality is the legitimate place for holistic obedience to Jesus Christ.—Bonhoeffer the Assassin?, page 156

<idle musing>
And that is precisely where the two-kingdom model of Luther falls apart...
</idle musing>