First, note that LSB provides a proper preface for the day:
"...through Jesus Christ, our Lord: for at His Baptism Your voice from heaven revealed Him as Your beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, confirming Him to be the Christ. Therefore with angels..."
This trend toward a greater number of proper prefaces, each reflecting their own day, has a solid history in the West, especially in the Mozarabic tradition. If you distinguish between the "high" feasts and regular Sundays, I'd argue that this week is decidedly "middle of the road." Perhaps do at least half the ceremonial you did on Epiphany?
Second, the Hymn of the Day is Luther's hymn "To Jordan Came" and LSB offers this in two tunes. Frankly, I think them both rather inaccessible for our congregation. We'll be using instead the hymn that we've become accustomed to on this day since its appearance in the Hymnal Supplement 98: "To Jordan's River Came Our Lord." (LSB #405) Pastor Stephen Starke's text "Jesus, Once with Sinners Numbered" (LSB #404) is also a fine hymn for this celebration. I'm all in favor of TEACHING Luther's great text (it is superior to both of the newer ones), but the tune will require a bit of work and we haven't got the time to master it this year. We'll save it for the future.
Third, if you are using the one year lectionary AND you are not having a Divine Service later in the week (we are here), it would be appropriate on this Sunday to conclude with "Alleluia, Song of Gladness." At St. Paul's we'll observe Transfiguration on the Thursday following Epiphany and that will be the final occasion for the alleluias among us until their joyous return at Easter, should the Lord not return first (and REALLY make our alleluias ring!).
Fourth, I cannot recommend highly enough reading and taking to heart the homily in the House Postil of Luther, Volume 1, pages 216-223. It's mature Luther, writing in 1534, and it truly shines.
Finally, GREAT distribution hymns for this feast are "God's Own Child" (LSB #594) and "All Christians Who Have Been Baptized" (LSB #596).
I often see it mentioned that Luther's writings and theology change over time. This makes perfect sense. But, as somebody who doesn't want to be confused if I read contradictory doctrines in his writings, where is a good point to draw a line in the sand and say.. read everything after 15xx?
ReplyDeleteWell, there is sure and certain line that can be drawn, because he kept pondering, praying, and thinking. Still, he remains essentially the same on all the major points once he has squared off not just against Rome, but also against the Sacramentarians. That means that his writings onward from, say, 1525, tend to give you the Luther who has faced the dangers of both sides.
ReplyDeleteBUT that does not mean that there are not some absolutely stunning works prior to that. One of my favorite quotes of Luther (and one on which he did not ever change his opinion) comes from a 1521 writing:
This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness;
not health, but healing;
not being, but becoming;
not rest, but exercise.
We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way;
the process is not yet finished, but it has begun;
this is not the goal, but it is road;
at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being
purified.
- Martin Luther, A Defense and Explanation of All Articles (AE 32:24)
Isn't that splendid?
Pax!
Yes, that is wonderful. I think that I'd rather get grounded with post 1525 works, before venturing into the older works.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused on the growing in godliness part. As Lutherans, are we dispensational, new convenant or what? How do we view the laws? We don't do away with them, right? They're used for training in godliness but we're not a slave to them? Is that right? Is there a title for that doctrine?
Ah, you touch on one of my favorite topic: growth in godliness is a growth in UNION with Christ so that His joy becomes ever more my joy; His love ever more my love; His will ever more my will; His peace ever more my peace. This union with Christ is given us whole in the Sacrament of Baptism and renewed to us constantly in the Sacrament of the Altar and Absolution and the preaching of the Gospel, and because it is given us whole we get to grow into it, to appropriate the gift ever more into our lives, learning to live from Him and with Him and in Him.
ReplyDeleteSo this is not about the law, per se. It is about the Gospel! The Law is very useful in showing us how we've failed to appropriate that gift and live it out; and it can offer guidance and concrete ways that love takes shape, but what it never gives us is the GROWTH in godliness itself. This comes always as gift of union with Christ, which results always from the sinner's justification.
Hope that is helpful!
thanks for the tip on the House Postil - I'll have to dig that out today.
ReplyDeleteI came to the same conclusion about the Luther Hymn - and chose two of the same hymns you did - 596 for distribution and 405 (though it will be hard for me to get Palm Sunday's "Ride on, ride on... to die" out of my head while singing it). I'd love to sing 594, but the people don't know it yet. And neither do they know 401, "From God the Father, Virgin-Born" - which we start to learn this Sunday.
pax,
the bishop of greater Evansville-the-lesser
I think I'm going to have to re-read that a few times to fully absorb it. But, is there a proper term for it like the term "Covenant Theology" or "Torah Submissive"?
ReplyDeleteIn other words, what is this called?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_law_in_Christianity
Speaking of the Mass for the Baptism, the St. Andrew Daily Missal says that much of the Office (which I presume they mean the Mass) has been lost. For my part, I like the Propers Fr. Fenton put together a few years back on CAT41's Historic Preaching list. I think we do well however to follow the practice of Rome, Sarum, and the north with regards to the Proper Preface. We're not following the Mozarabic or Ambrosian Rites (though this is where I admit part of my devotions every day is to read the preface for the day of that Rite, found in Alan Griffith's "We Give You Thanks and Praise: The Ambrosian Eucharistic Prefaces." Many of them are simply marvelous.
ReplyDeleteDon't cheat your congregation the opportunity to sing "To Jordan Came"!
ReplyDeleteThis life is not godliness, but growth in godliness;
ReplyDeletenot health, but healing;
not being, but becoming;
not rest, but exercise.
We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way;
the process is not yet finished, but it has begun;
this is not the goal, but it is road;
at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being
purified.
- Martin Luther, A Defense and Explanation of All Articles (AE 32:24)
Whenever I come across this quote from Luther I also recall this passage from St. Teresa of Avila:
Let nothing disturb you; Let nothing dismay you; All things pass; God never changes. Patience attains All that it strives for. He who has God Finds he lacks nothing:God alone suffices.
She really did "get" it.
Ackkk, that wasn't "Chris" that was "Christine"
ReplyDelete):
Grrrr
Christine,
ReplyDeleteSounds like it from that quote. I know that St. Theresa of that horrid French place I can't spell that starts with an L - she also got it too. In spades!
"that horrid French place" -- Pastor Weedon, now you've given me the giggles! (:
ReplyDeleteThat would be Thérèse de Lisieux, S'il Vous Plaît !!
And French? Hah! Those darn Teutonic words with their fifty syllables -- Mein Himmel!
ReplyDelete(I've always loved that my pagan Germanic ancestors whupped the Romans at the battle of the Teutoberg Forest)
Jenn,
ReplyDeleteI'm just not familiar with those terms or that frame of reference. I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but I find Lutheran theology so rich that I never really need to turn elsewhere for the help with categorizing things. It's not that such would be wrong, I don't think, just that I've not come to the end of exploring things within our own frames of reference. Does that make any sense? So my answer in short about "where to put" something like "growth in godliness' is answered by the Lutheran category: "mystical union."
Christine,
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly whom I was referencing. Sorry, but French leaves me utterly befuddled. I can fiddle my way through Spanish and with the help of a dictionary, Latin. German I dearly love, though modern German I find much more difficult than the German of the Reformation. English is my beloved, and I dearly treasure my Authorized Version that's a facsimile of the original printing. But French! Lord, have mercy! It's a hopeless case. And I say that even though my mother's maiden name was Mastin and my father's mother's maiden name was Maupin. I've got as much French in me as English, but I can't COPE with that language. Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott hilf mir! Amen!
Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott hilf mir! Amen!
ReplyDeleteLOL!!
A perfect summation, methinks! :)