Yearly Archives: 2008

Ambrose, the Children, and Advent

A few days back I was flipping through “First Person Singular: Reflections on Worship, Liturgy, and Children” by Carl Schalk.  It is is a smallish volume of less than a hundred pages with brief reflections on various topics related to children in the life of the church.

Schalk had a reflection that was particularly relevant to the Advent season based on Ambrose, the author of the Hymn of the Day for this First Sunday in Advent – “Savior of the Nations, Come” (LSB 332)

As the story goes, Ambrose (340-397), the great Bishop of Milan, was having trouble with the Arians, a heretical sect which denied Christ’s divinity.  When the Empress Justina, who favored the Arians, tried to get Ambrose to open one of the churches–the Basilica Portina–for her adherents, Ambrose adamantly refused.  Fearing reprisal from the Empress, Ambrose gathered the faithful in the basilica, singing psalms and hymns to buoy their spirits in this time of persecution.  When the soldiers sent by the Empress arrived at the basilica, so tremendous was the effect of the people’s song that the soldiers are said to have joined in the singing.  The Empress finally was forced to abandon her plans.

St. Augustine, one of Ambrose’s converts–who as a young man was present with his mother at the Basilica Portina–wrote some years later in his Confession about the moving experience and how the singing had made a profound impression on him.  (p. 17)

Schalk next asks a question that propels this historical situation to our own day: “But where were the children?”  His conclusion, based on Augustine and that society’s lack of child care centers, is that the children, with the whole family, were at the Basilica singing the strong hymns of Ambrose.   The whole church family–young and old–were spiritually nurtured and grew by these hymns.

His encouragement to the church today is to continue (or reinstate, as the case may be) the practice of teaching children the strong and sturdy hymns of the faith — not “Twinkie Tunes with Ding Dong Theology” (title of another reflection).  These hymns can be formative in the faith development of the children.

Why not start with Ambrose’s Advent hymn?

LSB 334: O Lord, How Shall I Meet You

Some of you may have already discovered this, but I’ll pass it along for those that don’t know.

The stanza numbering for O, Lord, How Shall I Meet You (LSB 334) is incorrect in the LSB pew edition (or at least the copies I have seen).  The six stanzas are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, but omit 5.  The Hymn Accompaniment edition and the Guitar Chord edition have the stanzas numbered as 1-6.

If you ever choose to sing selected stanzas of this hymn, you should verify the stanza numbers in your editions to minimize confusion during singing.

The Liturgical Fruit Basket

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of with the least surprises . . . Today it is a liturgical fruit basket upset.” — David Scaer from the Advantage of Liturgical Ruts (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

At one time a typical American Lutheran church would be using the Lutheran Hymnal or Service Book and Hymnal depending on which acronym of Lutheranism it was affiliated with.  The worship service each week was familiar (which to some meant repetitious).  The young children learned the liturgy and hymns next to their siblings, from their parents and grandparents.  New members to the church or the Lutheran faith learned from being immersed each week in the Divine Service and catechesis.

Now you have to contend with the likes of traditional, contemporary, blended, emergent, progressive, multi-generational and try to determine what it all means. Liturgical innovation is the name of the game.  As a liturgical Forest Gump might have said, “Worship is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’ll get.”

I find a calmness in the predictability of the Divine Services in Lutheran Service Book.  They all follow the same outline, granted with different musical settings and different texts, and offer opportunities for variety  — elaboration and simplification during the rhythm of the church year.  Some might lament five settings of the Divine Service in LSB, but I tend to like an intentional and planned use of the settings throughout the year.  At first, learning a new service setting or hymn might be challenging, but soon the challenge fades away.  It becomes like breathing — it just happens and is natural.

Ultimately, I think careful and deliberate worship planning comes down to a respect and reverence for the worship patterns that we have as Lutherans.  Not that we “idolize” these forms, but we ask ourselves why we may want to deviate from them.

Just as Dr. Scaer provided the introduction to this blog post, I will also let him end it.

“We don’t notice a good shoe, which is often an old one.” (Logia 6:2 pg 53-54)

Heirs of the Reformation CD Set

Today the good folks at FedEx delivered one of two long awaited items I’ve had on preorder from CPH.  Hot off the press is a “sequel” (for lack of a better word) to the 4 CD set Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth.  This next 4 CD set – Heirs of the Reformation – focuses on Lutheran hymnody after Luther during the 16th and 17th centuries.  Audio samples are available on the CPH product page.

This evening I copied the CDs over to my iPod and have been listening to them as I walked the dog and did other evening tasks.  The music is glorious – a melding of instrumental and vocal settings – some old and some new – some on period instruments and some on the organ.  This set is truly a feast for the ears; a proclamation of the Word through some great texts and music.

One thing I appreciate about this set, the Martin Luther set, and the Hymns for All Saints series is the clear diction of the singers.  The singing is clear and the listener does not have to strain to listen.  This set and the Martin Luther set come with a booklet with complete hymn texts and also commentaries of each text. Both of these booklets are available on the CPH product page at the above links.

And if you’re a music director, organist, or choir director, the booklet has the CPH item numbers for most of the settings.  You might get some ideas for your own use.  I’ve already rediscovered some organ settings that I use (Kevin Hildebrand’s organ setting of In Thee Is Gladness and Mark Sedio’s organ setting of Jesus Thy Boundless Love).

The Heirs of the Reformation set and Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth would both be excellent resources that complement the Good Shepherd Institute’s Singing the Faith DVD.

Just as the title says, these are “Treasures of the Singing Church.”  We are the heirs of these treasures, just as the composers and poets were the heirs of what came before them.  Moreover, though, we are all heirs of Christ through the gracious gifts God richly gives us through Word and Sacrament.

Now I’m just awaiting the arrival of the Treasury of Daily Prayer.  Can we all say, “CPH, ship that book!”?

Walther and Small Churches

In a culture fixated on bigger is better, it was refreshing to read a selection from C.F.W. Walther over at Mercy Journeys with Pastor Harrison on the relative unimportance of congregational size.

The highlight from Walther was this:

The smallest congregation is just as important as the largest one, and the largest is no more important than the smallest, because every congregation is great only because Christ is present in it.

I suggest that the LCMS Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance take a look at what Walther wrote.   Walther would differ considerably with at least one of the their “Proposals and Possibilities“.

“Allow congregations with more than 750 confirmed members to be represented by two additional delegates for each additional unit of 750 confirmed members or the majority thereof, with each pair of additional delegates to be one ministerial (ordained or commissioned) delegate and one non-ordained delegate.”

Walther says all congregations are equally important because of Christ.  Some in the Synod say larger congregations are more important.  Why?  Because they have more members and constituents.  It seems like this rationale would better apply to Electoral Votes for President of the United States than the church.