Prepare the Royal Highway

Advent is upon us and one of my favorite Advent hymns (and there are many) is “Prepare the Royal Highway” (LSB 343).  It is a Swedish Lutheran hymn with text by Frans Mikael Franzen (1772-1847) and a 17th century Swedish tune (BEREDEN VÄG FÖR HERRAN).  I love that in Lutheran Service Book they brought back the original 6/8 meter, which really makes the hymn dance.  (The hymn was in 4/4 in Lutheran Worship and just could not compare to the original.)

The Gospel reading for Advent 1C is Luke 19:28-40, which is the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and this hymn gives us both an Advent and Palm Sunday feel.  Here is stanza one: Prepare the royal highway; The King of kings is near!  Let ev’ry hill and valley A level road appear!  Then greet the King of Glory Foretold in sacred story: Hosanna to the Lord, For He fulfills God’s Word! I love how this hymn, which is generally sung in Advent, points us to Holy Week and Christ’s reason for coming: to fulfill God’s Word by dying for our sins and rising again on the third day to announce His victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Stanza two: God’s people, see Him coming: Your own eternal king!  Palm branches strew before Him!  Spread garments!  Shout and sing!  God’s promise will not fail you!  No more shall doubt assail you!  Hosanna to the Lord, For He fulfills God’s Word! With this stanza we continue to see Palm Sunday, with the excitement of the people for their Messiah and their King.  And because He is our King, we know that God’s promises are sure.  Christ comes to calm all fear and doubt.

Stanza three: Then fling the gates wide open To greet your promised king!  Your king, yet ev’ry nation Its tribute too should bring.  All lands, bow down before Him!  All nations, now adore Him!  Hosanna to the Lord, For He fulfills God’s Word! Here we turn the corner and clearly see that Christ has not come only to save Israel, but to save all people.  He is King over the entire world, whether they recognize it or not.  But He is not a political king, as the fourth stanza points out:

His is no earthly kingdom; it comes from heav’n above.  His rule is peace and freedom And justice, truth, and love.  So let your praise be sounding For kindness so abounding: Hosanna to the Lord, For He fulfills God’s Word! This brings to mind the words of Christ when He said to Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.”  Christ has not come to be our earthly king, or our “bread king,” as many people, including the disciples, thought on Palm Sunday.  Instead, He has come to save the entire human race; Thanks be to God!  So throughout this Advent and Christmas season, while we are focusing on the birth of Christ, we must never forget why He came: to suffer and die for us and for our salvation.

Prepare the Royal Highway – Lutheran Service Book 343

1 Prepare the royal highway;
The King of kings is near!
Let ev’ry hill and valley
A level road appear!
Then greet the King of Glory
Foretold in sacred story:

(Refrain)  Hosanna to the Lord,
For He fulfills God’s Word!

2 God’s people, see Him coming:
Your own eternal king!
Palm branches strew before Him!
Spread garments! Shout and sing!
God’s promise will not fail you!
No more shall doubt assail you!  (Refrain)

3 Then fling the gates wide open
To greet your promised king!
Your king, yet ev’ry nation
Its tribute too should bring.
All lands, bow down before Him!
All nations, now adore Him!  (Refrain)

4 His is no earthly kingdom;
It comes from heav’n above.
His rule is peace and freedom
And justice, truth, and love.
So let your praise be sounding
For kindness so abounding:  (Refrain)

© 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100011479.

Music for Sunday: Thanksgiving Edition (Nov 26, 2009)

No, Thanksgiving is not a Sunday, but here’s the music I’ll be using:

Prelude: St. George’s Windsor – Flor Peeters (30 Short Preludes on Well-Known Hymn Tunes)

Intro & Final Stanza for Processional Hymn: St. George’s Windsor – Jeffrey Blersch (Introductions, Harmonizations, Accompaniments, & Interpretations, vol. 2)

Offering (sung by the choir): Sing to the Lord of Harvest – Jeffrey Blersch (Children, Rejoice and Sing, vol 2)

Te Deum Hymn (with trumpet): Kremser – S. Drummond Wolff

Postlude: Nun Danket Alle Gott – Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Music for Sunday: November 22nd, 2009

Prelude: Two Settings of Wachet Auf – Paul Manz (Improvisations for the Christmas Season, set 1)

Offering: Wachet Auf – Johann Walter (Achzig Choralvorspiele)

Postlude: Diademata – Kevin Hildebrand (Six Hymn Improvisations, set 6)

Where the Church is Found

Herman Sasse has a fantastic quote on the Lord’s Supper in his Preface to Vom Sakrament Des Altars (reprinted in The Lonely Way, vol.2):

“Around the Lord’s Table is gathered the church.  At the Table of the Lord, the church knows what it most profoundly  is: the body of Christ.  There has been no doubt of this since the days of the apostles.  Where the Table of the Lord is deserted, where the Lord’s Supper is no longer known or celebrated, there the church dies, irretrievably lost.”

This is certainly has a lot to say for every Sunday communion, and begs the question: do Divine Services without Communion (ala TLH pg. 5) teach our people that communion is optional in the life of the church?  Now, the congregation I serve has communion every Sunday, alternating between first and second services.  We use the same liturgy and hymns at each service, except that the Lord’s Supper is celebrated at one of the two.   So I am curious what others may think.

Music for Sunday: November 15th, 2009

Prelude: Erhalt Uns, Herr – J.S. Bach (BWV 1103, Neumeister Chorales)

Offering: Est Ist Gewisslich – J.S. Bach (Achzig Choralvorspiele, # 28)

Interlude for Distribution Hymn: Duke Street – Flor Peeters (30 Short Preludes on Well-Known Hymns)

Postlude: Azmon – Robert Hobby (Three Hymns of Praise, set 6)

Teaching New Music to Your Congregation

I presented at Winkel (Circuit Pastor’s Conference) today on how to teach new music in congregations and I thought I’d share my notes.  Perhaps they will be of some use to you.

Intro:

New music scares people, probably because it is unfamiliar, it’s not one of the old favorites, and it is change, pure and simple.  However, new music doesn’t have to be intimidating, either to a congregation or its pastor.  Here are some thoughts to help make it easier to teach new music:

v     Pick good material

• If you are going to take the time to teach something, make sure it’s worth teaching.
• What is good material?
  • Doctrinally sound
  • Good poetry
  • Singable by a congregation
• To tell if it’s singable by your congregation, you must get to know your congregation.  This takes time.
  • It can be helpful to track the hymns your congregation uses to get a feel for what they like to sing.
  • If you’re new to the parish, go through bulletins from before you got there to get a feel for the congregation’s musical abilities.
  • Remember that different service times can have different singing abilities.
    • Eg. The early service may be able to sing something that late service would find more challenging

v     Have a plan

• Be confident & deliberate in your teaching; congregations can sense fear (both from the pastor and the musicians)
• Eg. Hymn of the Month
  • Pick a hymn you want to teach and sing it on each Sunday that month (perhaps moving it to different parts of the service)
• Eg. Teach your Sunday School or Day School Children and have them help teach the congregation

v     Pastor & musicians need to work together

• Each of you has different areas of expertise, so take advantage of that

v     Make use the musicians you have available

• Have the choir learn the piece in rehearsal and help introduce it.  They are your best asset to teach new music to the congregation.
• Use soloists
• Use instrumentalists
• Have the organist and other musicians play/sing the piece during the prelude, and even on previous Sundays to get the tune into people’s heads
• Take a few minutes and sing through it in your bible study hour
• A pastor who can sing can be very helpful in teaching new music to the congregation
  • Don’t be afraid to come out before the service and say, “We have a new hymn today; let’s practice it.”

v     Don’t try to teach too much new music at a time

• This is part of knowing your congregation
• Give them familiar music for the rest of the service to help balance out the unfamiliar

v     Bad times to teach new music

• Funeral
  • People want comfort and the familiar, not new stuff
• Wedding
  • The congregation at a wedding is (most likely) not your normal congregation, so use care when the congregation is asked to sing things
  • Remember: just because people have heard it does not mean they can sing it.  I’m talking to you, Malotte’s Lord’s Prayer!
• Christmas Eve, Easter, Reformation, etc.
  • While some new music is ok at festivals, do not forget to include the familiar music that they want to sing.
  • It is not at good idea to pull out Divine Service 5 once a year on Reformation and expect the congregation to be able to sing it.  It needs to be taught and used regularly or they will forget it

v     Specific examples

• LSB 941 (Hymn)
• Old Testament Canticle (from Service of Prayer & Preaching) (Chanting)
• Divine Service 2 (Liturgy)

Conclusion:

With the Lutheran Service Book being 3 years old, there is still much new music that our congregations can learn.  With a small amount of effort, your congregation can enjoy learning new music and be enriched because of it.

The Wordy Spirit

I was finishing up reading the Smallcald Articles in preparation for Winkel (pastor’s conference) tomorrow, and I finall found a Luther quote that I’ve always found intriguing, but couldn’t find the reference to. It is in Part 3, at the end of Article 8 (on Confession), where Luther writes:

“Therefore we must constantly maintain this point: God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit — without the Word and Sacraments — is the devil himself.”

Luther certainly has a way of cutting right to the heart of the matter. This believing that the Spirit comes without the Word is called “enthusiasm” in the Lutheran Confessions. I would suggest that a blatant modern-day example of this is Pentecostalism, with it’s somewhat tamer cousin, Evangelicalism.

And so you say, “Well, fine, there are still Enthusiasts today. So what? They are not anywhere near the LCMS!” I say nay, nay.

Enthusiasm has been brought into our churches through worship that focuses primarily on emotions, utilizing shallow lyrics and repeated mantras to create a worship “experience.” It is taught in these churches that the Holy Spirit comes when the people are in the right emotional state. There is no need for the Word of God.

This seems to fit perfectly what Luther was saying. This “Holy Spirit” is a Word-less spirit, and often points a person inside himself, not to Christ. Jesus said that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, would testify of Him and lead the disciples in the way of all truth. We have that Truth in the Holy Scriptures. The true Holy Spirit sounds nothing like the spirits of Enthusiasm.

And so, it saddens and frightens me when church leaders promote this kind of Pentecostal, Enthusiastic “worship.”. This is not the worship of God that has been passed down for 2000 years, and it may not even be Christian. Luther said that any spirit that comes apart from the Word is the devil himself; it makes you think.

Now, I am not questioning the motives of our church’s leadership. I do believe that they want to spread the Gospel around the world. However, I do believe that they are misguided and their actions betray a lack of trust that the Spirit will act through the Word, and only through the Word. You cannot have the Spirit without the Word, and you cannot have the Word without the Spirit. May God grant us wisdom and grace to trust His mighty Word to build His Church. Indeed, the Church is the Bride of Christ, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Lord Jesus Christ, Thy power make known
For Thou art Lord of Lords alone
Defend Thy Holy Church that we
May evermore sing praise to Thee.
Amen.

Music for Sunday: November 8th, 2009

Prelude:  Farley Castle – Kevin Hildebrand (Six Hymn Improvisations, set 2)

Offering:  St. Flavian – C.S. Lang (Concordia Hymn Prelude Series, vol. 37)

Interlude for hymn during Distribution: Du Lebensbrot, Herr Jesu Christ – Kevin Hildebrand

Postlude: O Gott, Du Frommer Gott – Paul Manz (Ten Chorale Improvisations, set 3 [CPH])

+Paul Manz+ 1919-2009

I received more information about Dr. Manz’s death from MorningStar:

“Beloved composer, organist, and church musician Dr. Paul Manz passed away in St. Paul Minnesota on Wednesday evening, October 29, after several weeks of hospice care.  He was 90 years old.  He died surrounded by his family while they sang his famous motet “E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come.”  Funeral services will be held in St. Paul on Sunday afternoon, November 8.  Paul’s many compositions, recordings, and hymn festivals have influenced the art and practice of church music in the United States since the 1960’s. His playing and teaching has influenced untold numbers of organists throughout this country who considered him a mentor and friend.”

Here is an obituary: http://morningstarmusic.com/pdfs/Manz%20Memoriam.pdf

Music for Sunday: November 1st, 2009

Paul Manz died this past Wednesday.  I was already playing a piece of his for prelude, and I will also play one of his for pre-service.  As a good friend and pastor quoted when he heard, “Asleep in Jesus, Blesseed Sleep.”

Pre-Service Music: Reprise – Paul Manz (note: this piece is a meditation on Manz’s anthem “E’en So, Lord Jesus Quickly Come”)

Prelude: Sine Nomine – Paul Manz (10 Hymn Acclamations)

Intro to “For All the Saints”: Sine Nomine – Jeffrey Blersch (Introductions, Harmonizations, Accompaniments, Interpretations, vol. 5)

Offering: Region Three – Walter Pelz (Hymnal Supplement 98 Organ Prelude Edition, vol. 2)

Postlude: Ewing – Flor Peeters (Thirty Short Preludes on Well-Known Hymns for Organ)