Pensees: Agreed!

With an ecumenical response like that, you must be right! ;)

Some names please.

Keith

We are the world!

I’m fairly certain that I’m the Lutheran paleoconservative editor dude. Speaking of hymns liberal and conservative . . . when I entered Lutheranism ten or eleven years ago, I was struck immediately by the hymnody. First, a clarification. You won’t be struck by hymnody in every LCMS church, as far too many are running panting after Willow Creek. But, polity-wise, LCMS churches are independent, and the Synod is technically an “advisory body.” So there is no canon law forbidding “Shine, Jesus, Shine.” Or “In the Garden,” for that matter.

In those “conservative” or “traditional” Lutheran churches where Lutheran hymnody is cherished, the words and tunes are striking. I’d never heard most of them before, except “A Mighty Fortress,” and even with that, an older (and more difficult) version of the tune is used, together with a more literal translation (than Wesley’s) from the German. There are hundreds of hyms by Luther, Gerhardt, Nicolai, etc., that are doctrinally rich and set to tunes that are sometimes foreign to American Protestant ears but are, nonetheless, incredibly solemn and powerful.

I say all of this because Reformed and fundamentalist folks could make use of most of these (obviously not the ones about the Sacraments), and many just haven’t heard of them. Here’s one of my favorites (originally a children’s song), “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word”:

Lord, keep us steadfast in Thy Word;
Curb those who fain by craft and sword
Would wrest the Kingdom from Thy Son
And set at naught all He hath done.

Lord Jesus Christ, Thy power make known,
For Thou art Lord of lords alone;
Defend Thy Christendom that we
May evermore sing praise to Thee.

O Comforter of priceless worth.
Send peace and unity on earth.
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death to life.

An interesting note on “those who fain by craft and sword”—that’s a “liberal” translation! Catherine Winkworth (1827-78), in translating German hymns into English, toned them down at times. A more literal translation from the German reads “restrain the murderous Pope and Turk”! Luther’s explanation: “The latter attacks and tries to destroy the Church of God, bodily. The pope tries to do this spiritually, but also in a bodily sense, by hanging, burning, and murdering the witnesses of the Lord.” With “the latter” clamoring for jihad, are these lines less relevant today?

My church (Matthews Orthodox Presbyterian Church) sang Luther’s “Lord, Keep us Steadfast in Thy Word” as our closing hymn before the Benediction every Lord’s Day evening service for over a year. It is a tremendous prayer with which to conclude our feast on the Word, and to anticipate a new week of Kingdom living!