From the Archives: Singing the Church Year with Paul Gerhardt - Part I
Bildnis Paul Gerhardt mit Widmungs-Epigramm von Gottlieb Wernsdorff. Öl auf Leinwand; 2,05 x 1,05 m. Lübben, Stadtpfarrkirche St. Nikolai (Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche) by Ahlers, Henrik (Herstellung) (Fotograf) - Deutsche Fotothek, Germany - CC BY-SA.
The following essay is from Gottesdienst Volume XVI, No. 2, Trinity 2008. The Rev. Dr. Stuckwisch delivered this paper on October 13, 2007, at the Concordia Academy, hosted by Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bayside, New York.
Singing the Church Year with Paul Gerhardt: Part I
Rev. Dr. D. Richard Stuckwisch
The story goes that Anna Marie came to her husband, the Reverend Paul Gerhardt, with a plea that he give her a small coin to buy the necessary food for their home. There was not a particle of flour nor a crust of bread to be found anywhere in the house, and she had nothing to set before him on the table. The dear pastor had no coin to give his wife, but promised that he would provide her with food that would not disappear but last forever. After a few hours in his study, he returned with the now familiar verse (Befiehl du deine Wege):
Commit whatever grieves thee
Into the gracious hands
Of Him who never leaves thee,
Who heav’n and earth commands.
(TLH 520, st. 1; cf. Jörg Erb, In the Shadow of His Wings: Paul Gerhardt and His Hymns, trans. Nelda Roth [2000], 30–31)
Whatever its origins may have been (for more than one theory has been proffered), this deeply pastoral hymn is typical of Gerhardt’s apparently unshakeable trust in the providence of his God and Father. In a life that was filled throughout with war and bloodshed, persecution and steady hardship, Gerhardt clung to the mercy of God in Christ, and so believed in the goodness of God in the midst of both sunshine and storm. The same hymn has been included in Lutheran Service Book (754) with the more freely rendered title and opening line: “Entrust your days and burdens / To God’s most loving hand.” That captures the sense of it, and the reference to “your days” brings it to bear upon the topic at hand. For how precisely is it that your days are commended to the hands of the Lord, your God and Father?
The portrait of Gerhardt at the church in Lübben where he died and was buried includes the epitaph Theologus in cribro Satanae tentatus (A theologian sifted in Satan’s sieve). It is easyto understand why these words have been repeated quite a lot in the four hundredth anniversary year of Paul Gerhardt’s birth. They recall Dr. Luther’s summary of what makes for a real theologian: oratio, meditatio, and tentatio (or Anfechtung), the last of these referring to the spiritual attacks of Satan upon those who cling to Christ and His Word. Gerhardt was taught by his experience that whosoever
. . . clings with resolution
To Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution;
For him the burden waits
Of mock’ry, shame, and losses,
Heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses
Will be his daily bread.
(TLH 528, st. 11; LSB 724, st. 6)
Gerhardt suffered in the midst of his faith, as also on account of his confession, but suffering by itself does not make a theologian (nor a Christian). It is when suffering is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer that it abounds in the hope that does not disappoint. That is to speak of oratio and meditatio, of prayer and meditation on the Gospel.
Gerhardt knew that he needed to meditate upon the Word of God if he was to be a good and useful pastor. When he had been called to Lübben, he insisted that the parsonage must be provided with a place for him to study in peace; for if he could not study the Word in preparation for his preaching, he could be of no use to the congregation. His meditation on theWord opened his lips to preach, and so also to pray with the people, and for them. His hymns are such a prayer and confession of the Word, which he wrote not only for himself but for the Christians he was called upon to serve. However, the pastor could neither preach nor pray from a heart of faith apart from the Word of Christ.
Gerhardt is remembered for the much that he suffered, but he bore it with grace because his heart was fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The more that Sa-tan attacked him, the more he loved his dear Jesus, who had become of one flesh and blood with him, who had also suffered the assaults and temptations of the devil as the great champion of Adam’s sons and daughters, and who gave Himself up for us all. The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of the beloved Son of God were the very air that Gerhardt breathed, the ground on which he walked, the house in which he lived, so that, as often as Satan sought to sift him like wheat, that wicked foe was always grind-ing up against the Christ, and Gerhardt became the finer theologian for it, the more faithful Christian. For Christmas was the cradle, Good Friday the crucible, and Easter the cottage where he abided in peace and hope.
It was the Cross that taught Paul Gerhardt’s heart and mind and mouth to sing, because the crosses that he was given to carry in life were consecrated by the Cross of Christ through His word of the Gospel. It is impossible to understand the Cross apart from the preaching of the Gospel, the way and means by which the Holy Spirit lays Christ Jesus upon your heart and brings life and immortality to light. Without that sweet Gospel of forgiveness, the Cross can only crucify and kill you. Yet, the Lord does not only intend for His Cross to slay you and destroy you, but also that it should be the mouth that sings the Gospel to you and to all the world in mercy, grace, and peace. Where the Cross is therefore received and suffered with the preaching of the Gospel, it bears fruit after its own kind, a witness of Christ the Crucified: not melancholy despair, unable to lift up its head or utter a sound, but the joyful confession of faith, which does not curse, swear, lie, or deceive, but blesses God with thanksgiving and man with hope and love.
It was by that strange light of the Cross that Pastor Gerhardt perceived all of creation—with its cycles and seasons, its summer and winter, springtime and harvest—convinced that all of it is governed by the Lord for our good pleasure. There is no theologian of glory in Gerhardt when he interprets the signs and seasons of the created order, the natural cycles of life and death and everything between, by faith in the Word of God, and above all by his faith in the Gospel. Rather, he is a Lutheran after Luther’s own heart when he confesses, very personally, that God has made me and all creatures and still takes care of them.
Of course, the entire creation languishes under the curse and consequence of man’s fall into sin, and so appears to be ambiguous and fickle. The sunshine and rain are both bane and blessing. Rain not only waters the earth but sometimes floods it. The sun not only warms and lights us, but sometimes brings death with its heat. Gerhardt knows all of this, but he also knows and trusts that the Creator of the heavens and the earth has given His only Son to die for us; indeed, that the almighty and eternal Word by whom all things were made has become flesh and borne our sins and suffered death in our stead, so that all of creation has been redeemed by His flesh and blood upon the Cross and is restored by His bodily resurrection from the dead. That is why Gerhardt can rejoice, give thanks, and sing for the goodness of God when the golden sun is shining sweetly, and still lean upon the same goodness of God in the storms of life, both meteorological and metaphorical, when “billows tower, / And winds gain power” (LSB 726, st. 3). Always for Gerhardt there is this steady confidence, that He who rules “the sky, the sea, the land,” the One who “guides the tempests / Along their thund’rous ways” (LSB 754, st. 1), orders all things according to His good and gracious will for us in Christ Jesus, for whose dear sake He makes a pathway: through darkness and death, into life and light and salvation.
It is that same theology of the Cross that animates Gerhardt’s well-loved summer song, “Go Forth, My Heart, and Seek Delight” (frequently translated into English, but regrettably not to be found in either The Lutheran Hymnal or Lutheran Service Book). One has to have a certain patience to hear and sing and understand this hymn correctly. Gerhardt here delights at length in the splendors of creation, but he is lifting up his heart to the second and third articles of the Creed as he confesses the first. The birds and bees, the flowers and trees, and all of the good gifts that he describes are set before him, not only in the world around him, but first of all in the Holy Scriptures. For all of this, Gerhardt urges, it is our duty to thank and praise, serve and obey the God and Father who so loves and serves His children.
Of particular interest is the point at which Gerhardt considers the praise and thanksgiving that he offers unto God for all His gifts and benefits in heaven and on earth. “If only I already stood,” the poet sings, “before my God” and His glorious throne, “then I could…sing lovely hymns unending” (st. 11; citations from this hymn, here and after, are from the translation by Madeleine F. Marshall, as published by the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians in its journal CrossAccent, 2006, no. 3). As it is, “while I live here on earth / And wear this flesh of mortal birth, / My lips will not stop singing,” but “my heart will bow unceasingly / Before the One who’s all to me / And was from the beginning” (st. 12). Yet, as a finite creature, neither Gerhardt nor any of us can give thanks to God for everything at once. Thus, the singer prays, “Provide within me space for You, / Sufficient space for healthy roots, / For wide and faithful growing” (st. 14). Which is to say that one’s life is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, not apart from nor above but within the order of creation. To borrow a cliché, one blooms where he is planted and yields “manifold sweet fruits of faith” (st. 13). How so? Because his days and nights, his weeks and months and years, are regulated by the rhythm of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.
This ordering of time according to the word of the Gospel is the liturgical rhythm of the Church’s life on earth, and of the Christian’s life within the Body of Christ. “Evening and morning, / Sunset and dawning” (LSB 726), each day begins and ends with the prayer of the Church, whether together or apart. The Christian heart wakes up and sings with the rising of the sun, and goes to bed in the peace and rest of Christ each night. Gerhardt provides hymns for both times of day, which are suitable for the prayer offices of Matins and Vespers, and so also for the morning and evening prayers of the home and family. His most beloved evening hymn, “Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow” (TLH 554; LSB 880), is an excellent example of his piety and prayer. Heaven and earth live together in harmony under the shelter of Christ and His holy angels. The child of God does not live in fear, nor pace the floors at night, but rests in peace, knowing that Satan, sin, and death can finally cause no harm to the little ones of Jesus. Waking or sleeping, in all of this there is a tranquility to Gerhardt’s faith and confession that belies the trials and tribulations of the tumultuous times in which he lived. It derives from the Word of the Lord, with which not only each day but each year is entered and departed. Thus, in Gerhardt’s hymn for New Year’s Eve, “Now Let Us Come Before Him” (TLH 122), the Church is given to pray and confess the same Word and faith with which she slumbers and awakes.
Such is the rhythm of our days and years under grace, and likewise the seasons of our temporal life. Accordingly, Gerhardt celebrates “the wonder and the art” of holy marriage, especially as perceived in the bright light of the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. And in no fewer than eleven hymns for “Death and Burial,” Gerhardt sings the comfort of the Gospel from the Cross and resurrection of the sameLord Jesus Christ at the grave sides of his family, friends, and beloved parishioners.
By the Gospel of Christ the Crucified, Gerhardt wastaught to see and confess the blessed presence of the merciful Lord God in the joys and sorrows of this life on earth, even unto death. In good times and bad, in all that a Chris-tian endeavors and does, he hasalready died with Christ inHoly Baptism, and so his lifeis hidden withChrist in God(Col. 3:3). What is more, he is prepared in both body andsoul for the resurrection and the life everlasting by the Bodyand Blood of Christ inthe Holy Communion.
In a recent paper, “Paul Gerhardt as a Teacher of Lutheran Spirituality” (May 2007), Dr. John Kleinig called attention to Gerhardt’s sacramental piety, which sets him quite apart from the Pietists of later years (though many of them may have been influenced by the warmth of his hymns). In fact, the means of grace pervade his hymnody, well beyond the two particular hymns that he wrote on Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar, respectively: “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized” (LSB 596), and “Herr Jesu, meine Liebe” (Eberhard von Cranach-Sichart, ed., Paul Gerhardt: Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe: Vollständige Ausgabe seiner Lieder und Gedichte [R. Brockhaus Verlag Wuppertal, 2004], 126). Still, the recovery of Gerhardt’s Baptism hymn was one of the nicest contributions of Lutheran Service Book, and the Lord’s Supper hymn would be a similar benefit to be received in the future.
The two hymns that Gerhardt wrote specifically for the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are a means of catechizing the people in these means of grace. To that end, he proceeds from a confession of what the Sacraments are, to an assurance of their comforting fruits and benefits for the Christian faith and life in Christ. “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized” admonishes the Christian to “firmly hold this gift / And give God thanks forever!” (LSB 596, st. 5). And the Lord’s Supper hymn places a prayer upon the lips of the Christian singer for a worthy and fruitful reception of the Body and Blood of Christ and all that those precious gifts bestow. The catechesis of the hymn thereby elicits faith and confession and prayer, and finally leads to a participation in the Sacrament itself.
In much the same way, Gerhardt’s many other hymns are not simply sacramental in the dogmatic sense of their explicit and implicit teaching, but in their use. For they pointedly serve and support the liturgical life of the Church in the means of grace. His hymns are well suited for singing within the congregation of the faithful and in the Christian home, in such a way that Church and home are bound together by the hearing, confessing, praying, and singing of the Word of God. This is particularly clear, and especially true, in the case of Gerhardt’s hymns for the Church Year. If morning and evening, the New Year, marriage, life, and death are all sanctified by the Word of God and prayer, the entire year of weeks and months is patterned after the life of Christ by the Church’s liturgical calendar of Sundays, festivals, and seasons.
The Holy Gospel is the organizing canon, the heartand substance of the Church Year. It presents us withChrist Jesus, brings us to Him, and, through Him, alwaysleads us back to the Father in His Spirit. Even so, byway of the liturgical calendar we are given to behold thatcrown jewel of the heavens and earth, our dear LordJesus Christ, from a glorious multiplicity of angles; andthe golden sunshine of His Gospel is refracted upon usin a gorgeous array of hues and shades of color. There isa kind of poetry to this yearin itself, in its rhyme andreason, as well as a musical quality to its lovely rhythms.For the corporate life of the community—both gatheredand away, in the chancel and the church, around thefamily table and at bedside—is harmoniously orderedaccording to the genius of the Church Year.
The significance of this liturgical calendar for Gerhardt’s faith and piety, and his contribution to that rhythm of the Church’s communal life, are demonstrated by the number of his hymns written for the Church Year. Of his 139 hymns, approximately three dozen (plus) pertain directly to the Church’s festivals and seasons. That’s better than 25 percent of his total output, in addition to the liturgically-oriented hymns already mentioned (for the daily offices and on the Holy Sacraments); and there are many more hymns that he rendered as metrical psalm paraphrases or based upon other passages of Scripture, and still others that in their more general thrust are particularly well suited for certain Sundays and seasons. Gerhardt learned to sing the Gospel from the liturgical seasons of the year, in which the life of Christ is spread before the Church. In turn, he wrote and sang for those seasons, in order to aid the people of God in receiving the Gospel faithfully and thankfully, in confessing and praying the Word.
It is a shame that more of Gerhardt’s seasonal hymns are not so readily available to Lutherans in our day. Only a third of them (an even dozen) are found in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941); only eight (or less than a fourth) are in Lutheran Service Book (2006). A number of others have previously been translated into English and even published in hymnals here and there, but more needs to be done to facilitate the service of these rich hymns within the life of the Church. (The Gerhardt Hymn Project is a modest but determined effort to gather and produce English translations of Gerhardt’s hymns for the present use of the Church and for publication in future hymnals.) Not only for the sake of recovering a significant piece of our Lutheran heritage, but also because these hymns proclaim the Word of the Lord, confess the Christian faith, and nurture a genuine and godly piety. They do so, in particular, by serving and supporting the Church Year, and in turn by helping to shape and define its seasons.