stained glass window inspired by a Joachim Neander hymnSermon by John Turner
June 14, 2009
June 14, 2009
James 1:2-18
The Text
In the first century A.D., James wrote to believers undergoing persecution because of their commitment to Christ. Here is what he said: 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The Points
James believes that God has a wonderful goal for us from which no suffering can separate us, and, if we take the right attitude, the suffering will even help us get to the goal. The goal is to fit us to reign with Christ and to wear the crown of life in the perfect new heaven and new earth. That is what God wants to give to us. James suggests these steps for us:
1. We must resist Satan. When it appears to us that life’s rewards go to the unfaithful, Satan may tempt us to abandon the Lord, to neglect serving him. We must not yield to this temptation, but we must reject Satan’s lies.
2. We must seek wisdom by asking for it in prayer. In order to reach a good result, we need the ability to recognize the difference between God’s ways and other ways. Only God can give such wisdom, and he gives it only to those who ask, seek, knock, and persist.
3. We must purify our hearts. If we are to receive what God wants to give us, we must ask with pure desire, undivided hearts. What will not do is wavering and waffling between God and the world. We cannot expect to receive godly wisdom while we are trusting ungodly counsel. Divine wisdom is to help us discern and carry out the will of God, to keep us from wrongdoing, and to enable us to endure persecution for the sake of a higher goal; we get that only when we trust God purely.
4. We must have constant faith. We must trust God as the source of all things good, beautiful, and true. We must trust Jesus Christ as the one who delivers saving grace to us. We must not judge based on our circumstances or our feelings, or on what we can see or control. We must trust absolutely.
5. We must hold to the word of truth. The word of truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ, including all the promises of the Holy Scriptures. If the wisdom we think we have found does not fit with the Jesus revealed in the Bible, then it is no wisdom at all.
6. Even in suffering, we must rejoice. This does not mean that we feel happy to suffer. Nor is it about painting a plastic smile over gritted teeth. Because God has guaranteed our best hopes, because we are already in God’s presence, and because we are moving toward eternal life with God, we can at a deep level rejoice even when circumstances seem unfavorable.
Where Will We Find Examples of This Pattern?
Resisting Satan, praying for wisdom, purifying our hearts, enduring in faith, holding to truth, rejoicing even in the midst of suffering: where can we look for examples of such practice? It is hard to find clearer examples than the faithful people caught in the turmoil of the Reformation era.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe were the times of the Protestant Reformation and of the consequent religious upheaval and frequent civil and international warfare. One of the most urgent religious questions of the age was, “Will God protect and provide for me as I take my stand for him?” Answers to the question were offered in the hymns of the era. The dominant theme of the hymns was God’s goodness and sovereignty, his providence and protection.
The Hymns of the Reformation Era
Let’s look at the hymns we are singing or hearing today in the approximate order they were written:
1529: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, was the leading and pivotal figure of the Protestant Reformation. He brought to the fore the traditional Protestant themes of “justification by grace alone, through faith alone,” of “the Bible only” as the basis of Christian authority, of eliminating the practice of selling indulgences, of practicing “the priesthood of all believers,” of worship and Bible study in the native languages of each people, of the sacred significance of secular labor, of the goodness of creation and of married sex, of the right of the clergy to marry, and of the duty and privilege of congregations to sing in worship services. Under extreme pressure to recant his views, Luther refused and was excommunicated. His life was in great danger. At a key point in his battle for reform, Luther is credited with saying, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Behind that strong stand, he saw God’s protection. Drawing on Psalm 46, he wrote the great Christian hymn: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” At one point in the hymn he identifies Jesus as “Lord Sabbaoth” often translated “Lord of hosts,” which means “Lord of angelic armies.”
Luther believed that our human battles are waged as the visible manifestation of invisible battles between angels and demons. The ultimate outcome for the faithful is guaranteed because Jesus is the commander of the angelic armies. Even with angelic help, Luther was not naïve about how the victory would come. He well understood that many faithful people including himself might physically suffer and die in the battle for truth. His hymn concludes, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever.” He was convinced that Jesus would win in the end and that those who trust Jesus would share his ultimate victory in eternal life.
Luther had serious flaws, prejudices, and blind spots; sometimes he was just plain wrong; and yet his hymn has rightly stood the test of time. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” has been called “the battle hymn of the Reformation,” and yet one does not have to be Protestant to appreciate it. A few years ago, I was glancing through a Roman Catholic missal—that’s m-i-s-s-a-l, not m-i-s-s-i-l-e [a missal is a seasonal prayer and hymnbook for the celebration of mass]—and I saw there, listed for singing during a Roman Catholic mass, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” by Martin Luther. That hymn is now seen as able to strengthen the spirituality of Catholics as well as Protestants. How time can heal wounds!
1597 “We Gather Together” was written to celebrate a victory of the Calvinist portion of the Netherlands against her Spanish overlords, seemingly freeing the Reformed Church to emerge into the open and her exiled refugees to return home. From the perspective of the Reformed Church, the Spanish overlords were “the wicked oppressing” who would “now cease from distressing,” although it took fifty more years to actualize that hope in full. The hymn attributes the deliverance to God and prays that God will continue to defend them, “Let thy congregation escape tribulation,” and concludes, “O Lord, make us free.” It is more than a song of the Thanksgiving season. It is a prayer for God’s freeing his people to serve him.
1648 “Now Thank We All Our God” has an extraordinary beginning: in Germany, the years 1618 to 1648 were the time of the Thirty Years’ War when Germany was a primary battlefield on which nations from all over Europe were battling for various reasons--- religious, political, economic, and national—reasons they did not fully understand and so did not know how to stop. It was sort of a continent-wide demolition derby with devastating consequences for ordinary people. The war reduced Germany from 16 million to 6 million people. That is almost two dead for every one who survived. Martin Rinkart, a son of a poor coppersmith, returned to his hometown as a Lutheran pastor just as the war started. During the war, his town was held once by Austria and twice by Sweden. He was the only pastor in the town to live through the war, and he lived just one year past the conclusion of the war. So the bulk of his ministry was conducted in a city under repeated siege and under the onslaught of famine and plague. He conducted funeral services for as many as fifty people on one day. In the year 1637, he conducted 4,000 funerals, an average of eleven per day, his wife’s among them. He tended the sick, fed the hungry, and consoled the bereaved even as he and his family also suffered. Yet, during the Thirty Years War, he wrote 66 hymns, including this great hymn thanking God for his providence. The first verse is stunning in its historical context, “Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done, in whom his world rejoices; who from our mothers’ arms hath blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.” How extraordinary!
1650 “The Lord’s My Shepherd,” Many Reformed Christians in Great Britain sang only scripture songs, primarily the psalms. But, as poetry, the 16th and 17th century metrical arrangements of the Psalms were extremely awkward, for instance: “My soul he doth restore again, and me to walk doth make within the paths of righteousness, e’en for His own name’s sake.” Most such hymns have not endured until our time, and those that have are rarely used. That is generally the long-run fate of awkward wording. Nonetheless, the psalms were especially appropriate to the Reformation era because so many of them dealt with surviving under duress, triumphing even when undergoing persecution by ungodly enemies, walking under the rod and staff of the Good Shepherd through the valley of the shadow of death.
1677 “Fairest Lord Jesus” was no doubt earlier than its publication date, the earliest published version is from German Jesuits in 1677, and the Jesuits are generally listed as the authors of it. However, these Jesuits lived in an area in which Moravian refugees had settled along the border of what is now Poland and the Czech Republic. There are traditions that the song is originally Moravian. However that may be, this wonderful hymn affirms that Jesus is our soul’s glory, joy, and crown, that he is more beautiful than all creation and than all the angels of heaven, that he makes the woeful heart sing, and that he is Lord of the nations. Yet, it was written in very tough times. How important in tough times it is to know that there is something of enduring beauty and truth that shall prevail in the end!
1675 “Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above” was written by Johann Schütz, a lawyer whose passion was Christian spiritual renewal through small group Bible study, prayer, and mutual accountability. Schütz was an important figure in the expansion of a movement known as Evangelical Pietism that became during the 18th and 19th centuries what I believe to be the most vital force for positive social and cultural change in history. What we notice in Schütz’s song is his positive confidence in God’s reign over all creation and in God’s dependable love and power. God is able to keep all his promises to bring justice and righteousness, to comfort our griefs, and, as we trust his work in our lives, to fill us with joy. What an extraordinary faith for the tough times in which it was written! The words of this hymn are included as an insert in your bulletin for your devotional reading.
1680 “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” was published the year that author Joachim Neander died at age 30. Even though he died so young, Neander was considered the greatest of all German Protestant hymn writers. After a wild adolescence, he became a devout Christian. He was a pastor, a scholar of theology and literature, a musician and composer, and an educator, an extraordinarily accomplished young man of God. Among other things, he was a friend of Johann Schütz. Neander was so enamored of the Düssel River valley, working in Düsseldorf, going into the nearby countryside for inspiration for his writing and composing, holding outdoor gatherings there where he preached to gathered crowds, and even living in a cave/hermitage there for a time, that the cave and the valley were named for him: Neanderthal. It was there nearly two centuries later that the remains of the famous Neanderthal man were found and the name that was originally given to honor an extraordinary man of God now means nearly the opposite; to call someone a Neanderthal is not the compliment it should be. Neander has several hymns and hymn tunes that are still used. My personal favorite is “All My Hope on God Is Founded” which I have included as an insert for your devotional reading. But Neander’s best known hymn is “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.” It celebrates God’s sovereignty over all creation and especially God’s provision for and defense of his faithful people. In the tough days in which Neander lived, as Germany sought to recover from the Thirty Years War, the words from verse 2, “Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth,” really meant something. And consider the extraordinary optimism of “Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been granted in what He ordaineth?” The third verse is worth special note: “Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee; surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee. Ponder anew what the Almighty can do if with his love he befriend thee.”
Conclusion
The hymns of the 16th and 17th centuries are strong hymns of faith, courage, and even joy. They call us to ponder anew the difference God can make in our lives even in the most extraordinarily difficult times. They are models of how we can find the courage to stand firm under pressure.
To tell the truth, by the time I had finished this week’s study of Reformation era hymns, I felt convicted of being part of a whiny, self-indulgent generation. The good news is that the cure is evident and available: building an awareness of the power and goodness of God, resisting Satan, praying for wisdom, purifying our hearts, enduring in faith, holding to the truth, and rejoicing in the midst of suffering. May it be so. Amen.
Appended for your devotional reading:
“All My Hope on God Is Founded” by Joachim Neander, translated by Robert Bridges
Originally set to the tune “Neander” from the Chorale “Unsser Herrscher” by the author
Sometimes set to the tune “Michael” by Herbert Howells. The version presented here is the original English translation. Verses 1 and 2 are modernized in Chalice Hymnal, No. 88, and a new third verse is added.
1. All my hope on God is founded; He doth still my trust renew,
Me through change and chance He guideth, only good and only true.
God unknown, He alone calls my heart to be His own.
2. Pride of man and earthly glory, sword and crown betray his (man’s) trust;
What with care and toil he (man) buildeth, tower and temple fall to dust.
But God’s power, hour by hour, is my temple and my tower.
3. God’s great goodness aye endureth, deep His wisdom, passing thought:
Splendor, light and life attend him, beauty springeth out of naught.
Evermore from His store newborn worlds rise and adore.
4. Daily doth th’almighty Giver bounteous gifts on us bestow;
His desire our soul delighteth, pleasure leads us where we go.
Love doth stand at His hand; joy doth wait on His command.
5. Still from man to God eternal sacrifice of praise be done,
High above all praises praising for the gift of Christ, His Son.
Christ doth call one and all: ye who follow shall not fall.
Lo, Heaven and Earth, and Sea and Air, a lesser known Neander hymn, in English translation, the inspiration for the stained glass window at the top of this blog:
1. Lo, heaven and earth, and sea and air,
Their Maker's glory all declare;
And thou, my soul, awake and sing,
To Him Thy praises also bring.
Drives all the clouds of night away;
The pomp of stars, the moon's soft light,
Praise Him through all the silent night.
3. Behold, how He hath everywhere
Made earth so wondrous rich and fair;
The forest dark, the fruitful land,
All living things do show His hand.
4. Behold, how through the boundless sky
The happy birds all swiftly fly!
And fire and wind and storm are still
The ready servants of His will.
5. Behold the waters' ceaseless flow,
For ever circling to and fro;
The mighty sea, the bubbling well,
Alike their Maker's glory tell.
6. My God, how wondrously dost Thou
Unfold Thyself to us e'en now!
O grave it deeply on my heart
What I am, Lord, and what Thou art!
“Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above” by Johann Jakob Schütz, translated by Frances Cox Set to the tune “Mit Freuden Zart” The version presented here is the original English translation. A slightly modernized version is found in Worship and Rejoice, 56, and a politically correct modernized version is found in Chalice Hymnal , 6.
1. Sing praise to God Who reigns above, the God of all creation,
The God of power, the God of love, the God of our salvation.
With healing balm my soul is filled and every faithless murmur stilled:
To God all praise and glory.
2. What God’s almighty power hath made His gracious mercy keepeth,
By morning glow or evening shade His watchful eye ne’er sleepeth;
Within the kingdom of His might, Lo! all is just and all is right:
To God all praise and glory.
3. The Lord is never far away, but through all grief distressing,
An ever present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessing.
As with a mother’s tender hand, God gently leads the chosen band:
To God all praise and glory.
4. Thus, all my toilsome way along, I sing aloud Thy praises,
That earth may hear the grateful song my voice unwearied raises.
Be joyful in the Lord, my heart, both soul and body bear your part:
To God all praise and glory.
5. Let all who name Christ’s holy Name give God all praise and glory;
Let all who own His power proclaim aloud the wondrous story!
Cast each false idol from its throne, for Christ is Lord, and Christ alone:
To God all praise and glory.
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