Brethren Around the Table:
It's quiet today. Maybe my voice might be heard amidst the awkward silence.
Let me tell you how I spent my day off last Friday.
I sat in Fr. Greg Schultz's living room with Greg, his lovely wife Mary, Fr. Tim Hahn, Greg and Mary's son Michael (a songbird) singing hymns for the better part of 90 minutes.
We sang in 3 (or 4) part harmony. We sang from The Lutheran Hymnal. Going around a rough circle we called out hymns. Greg would hit the first chord on the piano and away we went. It was a beautfiul thing. Not as pretty as the Cleveland Lutheran Radio Choir or Gregorian Chant but, hey, it sure was pretty.
I called out hymn 429. You look it up. It's one of the prettiest hymns in all of Christendom. By the time we got to stanza three my soul could not hold back. Though I know stanza three by heart I could not finish it. Why?
I wept. Like a little child I wept.
Almost 3 weeks ago I performed my first funeral. A 75 year old man I ate breakfast with nearly every day was killed in a truck accident. He was to be married this past Saturday. I made it through the funeral like a rock.
2 1/2 weeks later when this hymn was sung my soul had said enough. It was my turn to grieve. It was my turn to wonder what the life of the world to come would be like. My tears come not from emotion. My tears come from what this hymn confesses. Look it up. You'll cry too.
I cried. I miss him. I know he stands before the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Right after 429 we sang 656. You look it up. I took a deep breath and sang that one. Didn't cry. Guess my ducts were dry after 429. You sing it. You'll cry too.
A "young buck" pastor out in the middle of nowhere four months after his ordination and installation into the Holy Preaching Office of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church would like to say something to my brothers in Christ who lurk on this list and play around with liturgy, hymns, etc. You know who you are.
DON'T TOUCH MY HYMNS. Don't touch the Church's hymns. Don't play fast and loose with Article IV of the Augsburg Confession. Go back and read it. It's the article by which the Church stands or falls. When you kick the table-leg of Article IV out by emasculating the liturgy, throwing out the Christ-centered hymns of the Faith, and give the people what they want rather than what they need, the Church cannot stand. She falls. She is falling. We confessional brethren on this list are trying hard with the help of God to keep the table on four legs. You don't help a whole lot when you make the Divine Service into a divine comedy.
Why do you rob God's people of the Church's song? How do you reconcile this with your ordination vows?
Take hymns like 429, 656, and so forth away from your people and you take away Jesus. What will you give them in exchange?
Lord, have mercy on your Church. Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.
I don't want to be polemic. I don't want to "throw the bums out." I want to walk together in Christ. The first place to do this is on our knees in repentance for letting "the numbers game" get the best of us...all of us...including we Confessional Lutheran pastors. Receiving Holy Absolution let us rise to discuss our differences lovingly, not with anger but with resolve.
For once in our Confession, let us learn what it means to be truly catholic.
Satis est. Thank you for the bandwidth.
Pastor Dave Juhl
Trinity Lutheran Church, Iuka, IL
Christ Lutheran Church, Fairfield, IL
