A couple of months ago, as I was preparing for the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, I ran into a few interesting things as I planned the service. I surveyed the appointed propers from Lutheran Service Book, and then, as I tend to do, looked around in some sixteenth and seventeenth century books to see what they had. I found, to my moderate surprise, that there wasn’t any overlap apart from the Gospel. The introit from the Lutheran Magdeburg Cathedral Book of 1613, among others (In virtute tua) struck me in particular:

The righteous shall joy in Thy strength, O Lord:
And in Thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
Thou hast given him the desire of his heart!
V: His honor is great in Thy salvation:
Honor and majesty hast Thou laid upon him. Glory be…

Victory and joy. A reward for the one who was “faithful unto death.” This sort of language is not at all uncommon in the medieval and Reformation-era liturgical books for the feasts of martyrs, or, certainly, in the patristic accounts of their deaths. Similarly, 2 Timothy 4:1-8 is one of the most commonly appointed Epistles for the feasts of martyrs, concluding: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

For whatever reason, this language now seems to be only negligibly present when we speak, sing, or pray about martyrs. The propers appointed for the Decollation of St. John the Baptist in LSB don’t strike that tone, and the other martyrs with propers provided in LSB are remembered more for their work as apostles or evangelists. A search through Lutheran Service Builder for the word “martyr” generally turns up hymns in which martyrs are included only in some long list of the heavenly chorus (e.g.: “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones,” various renditions of the Te Deum), and very seldom as actors with any sort of story or individuality, much less any will or agency on this earth to follow after their God in the face of death itself. There are a few suitable hymns for the feasts of martyrs in the “Church Militant” section, but they’re still fairly generic and general. Nothing quite like TLH 470, whose third stanza is not easily forgotten:

Great of heart, they know no turning,
Honor, gold, they laugh to scorn;
Quench desires within them burning,
By no earthly passion torn.
'Mid the lion's roaring
Songs of praise outpouring,
Joyously they take their stand
On the arena’s bloody sand.

Glad as I am to have this much in TLH, it still includes only four stanzas - out of thirteen. For the remaining nine stanzas, you’ll have to see #439 in Walther’s Hymnal. The remaining stanzas that TLH didn’t see fit to include contain a full eight stanzas of vivid exhortation to the Christian hearer to be faithful, true, and bold in imitation of these early martyrs.

But now, in the place of this robust and active piety, a false humility bordering on fatalistic resignation seems to have appeared, as though the regenerate faithful are merely inert rocks that are acted upon by forces of nature and forces of evil, and have no means, will, or ability to do anything that resembles fighting a fight or winning a race, much to St. Paul’s dismay. Perhaps it’s a result of the vague antinomian sentiments that seemed to swirl unchecked through the twentieth century, perhaps a fear of works-righteousness, perhaps it’s just a modern tendency to do to the Christian faith what Walt Disney did to the work of the Brothers Grimm. Whatever the cause, our vocabulary in prayer and worship has been severely stunted along with our life of faith, and our memory of those who have gone before us has been obscured and faded.

But, of course, it doesn’t need to stay that way. With increasing frequency, I hear from clergy who are beginning a regular midweek service in their parish, and want resources to help them along the way. At the moment, those resources are usually limited to the (in-progress) weekday lectionary that corresponds to the historic lectionary. Eventually, of course, the plan is to provide a printed missal with readings and collects and so on for martyrs and saints of every sort through the year, so that we might more readily give thanks, be strengthened in our own faith, and live in imitation of their faith and other virtues. But in the meantime, this hymn, by St. Joseph the Hymnographer, has served us well when we remember those who have fought the good fight and finished the race:

Let us now our voices raise:
Wake the day with gladness:
God Himself to joy and praise
Turns our human sadness:
Joy that martyrs won their crown,
Opened Heav’n’s bright portal;
When they laid the mortal down,
For the life immortal.

Never flinched they from the flame,
From the torture, never;
Vain the tyrant’s sharpest aim,
Vain each fierce endeavor;
For by faith they saw the Land
Decked in all its glory,
Where triumphant now they stand
With the Victor’s story.

Faith they had that knew not shame,
Love that could not languish;
And eternal Hope o’ercame
Momentary anguish.
He Who trod the self-same road,
Death and Hell defeated;
Wherefore these their passions showed
Calvary repeated.

Up and follow, Christian men!
Press through toil and sorrow!
Spurn the night of fear, and then,—
On the glorious morrow!
Who will venture on the strife?
Who will first begin it?
Who will seize the Land of Life?
Christian, up and win it!