(Cover Art: "The Parable of the Ten Virgins" by Ain Vares - www.ainvaresart.com. Used by permission.)
As the church year draws to a close, many Lutheran pastors and church musicians are preparing to sing the King of Chorales, “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying” (LSB 516), which will serve as the focus of this month’s “Lifted Voice” column.
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Installation Sermon on Malachi 2:5-7; II Timothy 4:1-5; St. John 21:15-17 Installation of Rev. Jimmy Coffey Holy Trinity Lutheran Church New Hyde Park, NY Epiphany IV + 30 January 2011 + 3:00 p.m. + Jesu Juva + Feed My Sheep. – St. John 21:17 “[W]e now live in a time in which a heated controversy has broken out in our Lutheran Church about what the holy preaching office actually is” (At Home in the House of My Fathers, 148). These words from C. F. W. Walther, whose 200th birthday we celebrate this year (1811- 1887), have lost none of their weight. Indeed, the controversy over church and ministry has only increased since he spoke these words in an Epiphany sermon in 1862. It is also fitting that Walther quoted today’s Old Testament lesson (Mal 2:5-7) in his introduction to this sermon: “The lips of the [Levitical] priest should guard the teaching, so that one may seek the law from his mouth; for he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts” (At Home, p. 147). Today, we consider our identity as shepherd and sheep as we welcome a messenger from the Lord of hosts, Pastor Jimmy B. Coffey. Our Epistle and Gospel lessons will teach us, especially the sheep of this fold, what to expect from the church and ministry as the Lord’s words are fulfilled in our midst: “Feed my sheep.”
In January 2015, a panel of three District Visitors (formerly circuit counselors) of the LCMS decided not to proceed with charges of false doctrine against a public false teacher on their clergy roster, who is a member of the Northwest District.
In a totally unrelated event, the following conversation was intercepted (this is, after all, the Lifted Voice column!) by the Pacific Northwest Satellite of Hamer Ham Radio in January 2015, and transcribed by Rev. Remah Nairb to post on April 1st. + + + In May 2014, a young couple in my congregation, Nick and Jeanna Singh, experienced the still birth of their baby, Phoenix Singh, just a few weeks before his due date. The following sermon on the resurrection of the body is provided with their kind permission as an example of funeral preaching as an Easter trumpet in the midst of death’s dark vale. Funeral Sermon on 2 Samuel 12:15b-23, I Cor. 15:20-26, St. John 11:17-23 + In Loving Memory: Phoenix Singh + Saturday of Easter II + 10 May 2014 + I believe in the resurrection of the body + – The Apostles’ Creed King David believed in the resurrection of the body (2 Sam 12:15b-23). We heard in our first Scripture lesson that one of David’s children died. But after he heard of the child’s death, his reaction might have surprised you: “Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped” (v. 20). What gave David the confidence to go to the house of the Lord after the death of his son? Listen again to what he said at the end of our Scripture lesson: “I shall go to [the child].” That is to say, David was separated from his son for a time. But in the final resurrection of the body, he would join his son in the glories of everlasting life. And that is why we have come here today: not to bring Phoenix back to life just yet, for he cannot come to us. Rather, we have come to the house of the Lord to commend him to his Creator, knowing that you, Nick and Jeanna, will go to him in God’s good time, either by your own death or in Jesus’ second coming. And there, by God’s grace, you will reclaim this body, walk hand in hand with your son, and enjoy the new creation, where death is no more, and where God will wipe every tear from your eye.
St. Paul preached the resurrection of the body (I Cor. 15:20-26). In Adam, St. Paul says, all die, as we see so profoundly today. Indeed, we cry. We are broken as we have never been broken before. But see how Christ has reversed the curse of death and made all things new! Jesus took the curse of Adam, the sting of death, yes, even the sorrow we feel this very day and nailed it to the cross. He died under the crushing weight of all sin, of every sudden death, and the sadness we know today. And Christ stepped out of the grave that first Easter Sunday, triumphant over sin and death. He rose not just in spirit or soul, but in His body, promising that those who are in Christ will also be raised from the dead. What blessed joy and comfort that is for us as we mourn the loss of Phoenix. The believer is not so much dead as he is asleep. And we all know what happens to those who sleep: they get up the next morning. And so, when Christ comes to finally destroy every evil power and authority, He will awaken Phoenix and all the faithful, and they will rise from the dead to enjoy a mother’s kiss and a father’s embrace in the life that knows no end. Martha believed in the resurrection of the body (St. John 11:17-23). Her brother Lazarus had died a few days before. She was quite right when she said that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been present, for no one succeeded in dying in Jesus’ presence before Good Friday. And then this promise from Jesus, for you: “Your brother will rise again.” And hear Martha’s words of faith: “I know that [Lazarus] will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Again, hear the words of great comfort in the midst of our sorrow: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who believes in me shall never die.” Yes, “whoever believes in me.” Nick and Jeanna, we commend you for your excellent Christian parenting in bringing your children to church. The word of the Gospel, as we know from several Bible stories, cuts right through the mother’s body to the ears of the baby. Infants hear and believe the Gospel. And Jesus promises that those who believe shall not die eternally, but shall have everlasting life – the rich and abundant life of Jesus Christ! These three Bible stories stand together on this solemn occasion to preach the good news that Phoenix will rise again in this very body. Nick and Jeanna, I don’t know why you chose the name Phoenix, except perhaps your habit of naming babies after places, as per your first son, who is named Memphis. But Phoenix is the perfect name because, according to ancient legend, the Phoenix bird sets itself on fire and dies a glorious death in its own nest. But then, out of the ashes of its own making, it rises to life, and spreads its wings over all creation. The ancients even believed the very tears of the Phoenix bird had healing power. And so this beloved child, named Phoenix, has come all too soon to “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” But this young body will rise again, even from the depths of the grave, to the glories of the final resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. He will see fulfilled the promises we heard this morning from King David, St. Paul, and Martha, because these promises are written in Jesus’ shed blood and confirmed by His resurrection. Christ rose from the dead and spread His healing wings over all creation. And so will Phoenix and all who believe in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life! + Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! + In the rich legacy of the core hymnody of the Lutheran Church, fewer hymns have influenced the Lutheran fathers across the centuries more than “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” The text of “O Sacred Head” is based on the seventh and final portion of a series of seven Medieval poems known as the Rhythmica Oratio. Each poem is addressed to various members of the body of the crucified Christ: to His feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart, and face. A long-standing tradition attributes these poems to the twelfth-century monk, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), whom Luther called “the most pious monk who ever lived.”
If the Magnificat and the Benedictus are arias in the oratorio of salvation, and if the Gloria is a chorus, then the Song of Simeon, the Nunc Dimittis, is a recitative.
Anyone who has ever listened to the Christmas Eve broadcast of the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College Cambridge has probably appreciated their rendition of the hymn, “Once in Royal David’s City,” including the gradual progression from a single boy’s voice to the entire congregation with full organ. This practice is firmly entrenched in liturgical churches of the West, but is there a parallel hymn for the Epiphany season? I would like to nominate the hymn, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (LSB 384) as being second only to “How Lovely Shines the Morning Star” in the Epiphany repertoire.
Every Christian household has its beloved Christmas customs, and Martin Luther’s bustling home in the 1530’s was no exception. Every year, he prepared a Christmas pageant in miniature, even if it meant writing his own hymn for the occasion. In the year 1534, Luther wrote the hymn, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” to be sung as part of the family’s Christmas Eve celebration.
Dr. Daniel Zager, a Lutheran church musician from Rochester, NY, tells an intriguing story about singing a hymn of the final judgment in his parish. On a Sunday in Advent not many years ago, Dr. Zager chose the hymn, “The Day is Surely Drawing Nigh”from the judgment section of the hymnal. The following week, he was summoned to a meeting of a “self-appointed music committee” to hear one member of the congregation express her anger over singing this hymn of judgment. She claimed that, while she could handle the idea of judgment, her neighbor would have been sorely offended if she were forced to sing that hymn. This hymn was deemed “too depressing for the unchurched visitor.” She concluded, therefore, that Lutherans should not sing hymns from the judgment section of the hymnal because her neighbor would be offended if she came to that church (The Good Shepherd Institute: Journal for the Fifth Annual Conference, November 7—9, 2004, p. 115).
An entire dissertation could be written on how subverting our doctrine and practice because of how an unchurched neighbor might feel if she came to church is, in a word, ridiculous. Let us simply ask, Why do we sing judgment hymns on selected Sundays at the end of the church year and on selected Sundays in Advent, especially the Sundays that address the end times and the final judgment? |
Pr Brian HamerBrian J. Hamer is Chaplain to School of Infantry West at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton via the LCMS Board for International Mission Services. Archives
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