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)

Music for Sunday: October 25, 2009

This Sunday is Reformation, so my only organ voluntary is the prelude.  The Offering piece is sung by a soloist and the postlude is with brass and organ. Although I am not playing a voluntary on “A Mighty Fortress,” I did write a new setting of the third stanza that I will be premiering this Sunday.

Prelude: Partita on “Ebenezer” – John Behnke

Offering: “Komm in Mein Herzen’s House” (Come and Abide with Me) – J.S. Bach (from Cantata #80 “Ein Feste Burg”)

Postlude: Rigadoun – Andre Campra

“Becoming a Better Bach”: The Joel Osteen Book I Would Read

Lately I find that I’m having a huge case of Bach envy.  I’ve been listening to his cantatas and am just astounded by how great they are, from the musical craftsmanship to the theology shown by how he portrays the texts.  Bach was a serious theologian, as well as a spectacular musician.  In fact, he was a Lutheran Kantor (see All for Hymn for a description of that).

This leads me to suggest a new book for Joel Osteen: “Becoming a Better Bach: Seven Steps to Change You into the Kantor from Leipzig.”  They say that geniuses are born, not made, and that may be true, but if we can come up with a seven step program, I’m sure it can happen (*sarcasm alert*).  So while I don’t know how many steps I have, here are some suggestions for becoming a great kantor like Bach:

1. Study the Bible. Bach was a major student of Scripture.  In fact, Concordia Seminary in St. Louis has his annotated Bible.  (You can even buy a book with photos of various pages so you too can see what Bach wrote.  And I believe that a facsimile of Bach’s Bible is scheduled to be printed in the near future.)  Bach took his theology very seriously and good theology must begin with study of the Bible.

2. Study the Lutheran Confessions. The Lutheran Confessions are not the Bible, but they do accurately express the theology found in Scripture and thus are well-worth studying.  This can begin with the Small Catechism, moving through the Large Catechism, the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, and onto the Smallcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and finally the Formula of Concord.  These Confessions are Christocentric, just like the Scriptures, always presenting Christ as the answer for our sins, and denying anything that would detract from His work.

3. Study the Hymnal. For many LCMS churches these days, that hymnal is the Lutheran Service Book, which is a fine hymnal.  The name “hymnal” is misleading, because there are not only hymns, but also liturgies, Psalms, prayers, and even Luther’s Small Catechism.  I believe Paul Manz once said “You can never know the hymns too well.”  So study those hymns, both text and tune, and dig into how the poetry and music work together to proclaim the Gospel.  (This includes studying the hymns for each Sunday before-hand, to decide how best to play each stanza.)  That is the work of a Kantor after all: the proclamation of the Gospel through the music of the Church.

4. Be born into one of the greatest musical families of the century and, arguably, of all time. This one will really take some work.  I think this one is probably beyond any human control, and as such, offers a great excuse if you do not end up becoming a great Kantor like J.S. Bach.  So keep this one in your back pocket

5. Receive proper musical training. By this I mean learn your music theory and all that, as well as your instrument, which will probably be pipe organ.  I know, there are many churches with the “Lutheran” name that use bands in their services, but let’s face it, the organ has been the instrument of choice for Lutheran church musicians for several hundred years and it is continuing.  I’m not saying that it is not possible to do a reverent, historical Lutheran service with other instruments (Bethany in Naperville, IL is an example), but it is still the fact that the majority of Lutheran churches that use the historic liturgy use the organ as the primary instrument to accompany congregational singing.  The pipe organ just works well in that capacity.

6. Learn improvisation. This does fall under the previous heading, but it is so important that I gave it its own section.  This can be an intimidating topic, but you do not need to be able to improvise full organ symphonies (like Marcel Dupre) to use it effectively in a Divine Service.  Improvisation is important because a Divine Service is not like a concert, where the performer is in control of all that happens musically.  A Kantor music be able to adapt to the congregation, whether it is a short improvisation to introduce a hymn or canticle or altering the hymnal harmonization to bring out the text.  I learned improvisation from Jeffrey Blersch at Concordia University, Nebraska (but don’t blame him) and he taught us to prepare a “bag of tricks.”  I will not go into all of them, but they go from using pedal-point and biciniums (two-voices) to toccatas and counterpoint.  The more you use what you’ve learned in improvisation, you will discover what tricks work best for you and you will become more comfortable and confident.  As Charles Ore once told me, “In improvisation there are no mistakes; just unexpected notes.”  Improvisation has made more more relaxed at the bench and untied me from the hymnal harmonization.  I am not a great improviser by any means, but I think what I do works (most of the time).

7. Carry a sword. Bach did and that is just awesome!  (He even got into a fight with his bassoonist because Bach called him a “Nanny-Goat Bassoonist.”)

8. Play the music of other great church musicians. There is a great Lutheran tradition of church musicians, as well as ones from other denominations.  So learn chorale preludes by Bach, Buxtehude, Brahms, Reger, Distler, Willan, Peeters, Manz, Blersch, Hildebrand, and many others.  As an added bonus, the more you expand your musical horizons, the better your improvisations will be.  And by all means, learn the great organ performance literature (much of it written for church use) by composers such as Franck, Gigout, Vierne, Widor and Durufle.

9. Have fun. Being a Kantor is a great responsibility, but it is also a very rewarding and enjoyable profession.  You get to lead the people of God in the Church’s song; what a great calling!

Music for Sunday: October 11th, 2009

This Sunday we are also reintroducing Divine Service 2 from Lutheran Service Book.  The congregation has not done it in about 10 years, but I think it will be relearned quickly.

Prelude: Ich will dich lieben – Paul Kickstat (Concordia Hymn Prelude, vol. 27)

Offering: Such, we da will – Jan Bender (The Hymn of the Week, Op. 22)

Postlude: St. Flavian – Flor Peeters (30 Short Preludes on Well-Known Hymns)

Music for Sunday: October 4th, 2009

Prelude: Woodlands – Paul Manz (Six Advent Improvisations)

Offering: Duke Street (V. Larghetto) – Charles Callahan (Partita on Duke Street)

Postlude: Gott Sei Dank – Kevin Hildebrand (Six Hymn Improvisations, set 1)

Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken

Today is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels and because of that, I’d like to talk about one of my absolute favorite new hymns in LSB: Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken (LSB 521).  I have loved this hymn since LSB came out and cannot believe I’ve never written anything about it.  The tune (FORTUNATUS NEW), by Carl Schalk (b. 1929), is more commonly associated with Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle (LSB 454), a fantastic Holy Week hymn that was originally set to a great Plainchant melody.  The text for LSB 521 is by Peter Prange (b. 1972).

It is my opinion that this hymn, Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken, has the most vivid imagery of any hymn in Lutheran Service Book.  For some reason I’ve never played it in a service, but I hope to do so before too long.  Anyway, check out the imagery of the first stanza: Christ, the Lord of hosts, unshaken By the devil’s seething rage, Thwarts the plan of Satan’s minions; Wins the strife from age to age; Conquers sin and death forever; Slams them in their steely cage. This stanza, like the rest of the hymn,  is packed with vibrant images, especially how Christ slams Satan and his minions in their cage.  (As a side note, I think this imagery would make this hymn especially appealing to children because they can easily picture what is going on.)  Christ has not only beaten Satan, but has completely and utterly vanquished him.  There is no escaping or undoing Christ’s victory; it is absolutely certain and final.

Stanza two brings in Michael and the angels: Michael fought the heavenly battle, Godly angels by his side; Warred against the ancient serpent, Foiled the beast, so full of pride, Cast him earthbound with his angels; Now he prowls, unsatisfied. Again, such incredible imagery.  Really, this hymn could be made into a Lord of the Rings style movie.  Not to get too nerdy, but when I read that stanza I see something like one of the giant battles in those films.  However, there is one difference: in this battle, there is no question who will win, because Christ has already defeated the devil and his angels.  The outcome has already been decided.  Satan lost and was kicked out of heaven and now he roams the earth, seeking who he may devour.  This brings us to stanza three…

Long on earth the battle rages, Since the serpent’s first deceit; Twisted God’s command to Adam, Made forbidden fruit look sweet.  Then the curse of God was spoken: “You’ll lie crushed beneath His feet!” Indeed, the battle has been raging since the Fall into sin.  But God foretold Satan’s demise in the coming of His Son.

Jesus came, this word fulfilling, Trampled Satan, death defied; Bore the brunt of our temptation, On the wretched tree He died Yet to life was raised victorious; By His life our life supplied. Christ came into the world and destroyed Satan’s plans.  The devil planned to rule the world and thought he had won when Christ died on the cross.  But unbeknownst to him, Christ was taking the punishment for all the sins of all mankind upon Himself, dying in our place.  Christ then descended to hell to proclaim His total and complete victory, and finally rose from the dead on that first Easter morning.  Because He lives, we too shall live eternally!

And so Satan was defeated: Swift as lightning falls the tyrant From his heavenly perch on high, As the word of Jesus’ victory Floods the earth and fills the sky.  Wounded by a wound eternal Now his judgment has drawn nigh! No more can Satan lay any claim to us who have been bought with Christ’s own blood, washed in the waters of Holy Baptism and given faith to receive the forgiveness of sins.  Shelob’s belly has been ripped wide open and death is now merely the doorway to eternal life.

We pray: Jesus, send Your angel legions When the foe would us enslave.  Hold us fast when sin assaults us; Come, then, Lord, Your people save.  Overthrow at last the dragon; Send him to his fiery grave.  Amen!

Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Unshaken – Lutheran Service Book 521

1 Christ, the Lord of hosts, unshaken
By the devil’s seething rage,
Thwarts the plan of Satan’s minions;
Wins the strife from age to age;
Conquers sin and death forever;
Slams them in their steely cage.

2 Michael fought the heav’nly battle,
Godly angels by his side;
Warred against the ancient serpent,
Foiled the beast, so full of pride,
Cast him earthbound with his angels;
Now he prowls, unsatisfied.

3 Long on earth the battle rages,
Since the serpent’s first deceit;
Twisted God’s command to Adam,
Made forbidden fruit look sweet.
Then the curse of God was spoken:
“You’ll lie crushed beneath His feet!”

4 Jesus came, this word fulfilling,
Trampled Satan, death defied;
Bore the brunt of our temptation,
On the wretched tree He died.
Yet to life was raised victorious;
By His life our life supplied.

5 Swift as lightning falls the tyrant
From his heav’nly perch on high,
As the word of Jesus’ vict’ry
Floods the earth and fills the sky.
Wounded by a wound eternal
Now his judgment has drawn nigh!

6 Jesus, send Your angel legions
When the foe would us enslave.
Hold us fast when sin assaults us;
Come, then, Lord, Your people save.
Overthrow at last the dragon;
Send him to his fiery grave.

© Peter M. Prange. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100011479.

Funeral Hymns & Organ Voluntaries

I love to play funerals.  While this may seem strange, if you think about it, it makes sense.  At a funeral we see sin at its worst, with no hope left.  But we also know that they have passed through death and are now feasting with the Lamb in His kingdom that shall have no end.  Death has been swallowed up in victory, or as Pastor Weedon put it at the Higher Things conference this past summer (I paraphrase:  Christ has torn open Shelob’s (death) belly, where it can no longer hold Christians.  (Weedon said it much more eloquently.)  So the music will be solemn and reflective, as well as joyful and triumphant.

I thought I’d list some of my favorite funeral hymns, as well as voluntaries.  You can add your favorites in the comments.  I look forward to reading them.

This is not an exhaustive list, but merely some of the hymns and pieces I like for funerals.  It is in no particular order.

Hymns (all hymn numbers are from Lutheran Service Book):

708 Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart

677 For All the Saints

656 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

645 Built on the Rock

450 O Sacred Head No Wounded (especially st. 7)

467 Awake, My Heart, with Gladness

476 Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow

490 Jesus Lives!  The Victory’s Won

578 Thy Strong Word

670 Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones

672 Jerusalem the Golden

676 Behold a Host, Arrayed in White

594 God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It

596 All Christians Who Have Been Baptized

Organ Voluntaries:

Lift High the Cross – Charles Ore

Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng – Charles Ore

Ein Fest Burg (A Mighty Fortress) – Helmut Walcha

The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended – Jeffrey Blersch

The list got a little long, but I hope it is helpful and maybe will even produce some discussion.