SINGING THE FAITH - LIVING THE LUTHERAN MUSICAL HERITAGE.  A Project of The Good Shepherd Institute of Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2008.  Richard C. Resch, Executive Producer.  Johnathan Brouwer, Producer, Director.  Daniel Zager, Writer.  Steve Blakey, Art Director.  Tyler Black, Cinematographer.  Approx. 80 minutes.  Distributed by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.  1-800-325-3040.  $24.95

Prosper of Aquitaine was a lay monk and student under Augustine of Hippo.  Readers of Lutheran Forum will most likely be familiar with the observation attributed to him, said to have been written sometime between 435 and 442 AD:  lex orandi, lex credendi, literally, “the rule of praying is the rule of believing.”  The way we worship establishes the way faith is expressed and handed on to others.

Listen to how a church prays and sings, and I will tell you what that church believes.  Singing the Faith – Living the Lutheran Musical Heritage, a four-part DVD produced by the Good Shepherd Institute of Pastoral Theology and Sacred Music for the Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, shows this vital relationship in a delightful format both acoustically and visually stunning.  Kantor Richard C. Resch, the Executive Producer, sets its tone in the following opening statement:

 [The title of the DVD] suggests that Lutherans sing their faith, that they proclaim; they confess what they believe in their hymns.  This is a unique kind of earthly music making.  For here the faithful have on their lips and in their hearts the name and work of Jesus Christ who won life and salvation for them.  This is no ordinary song.  This song soars above all other earthly music in what it confesses and in the benefits it bestows.  This song teaches and admonishes singers as it allows Christ to dwell richly in them.  This song joins singers with fellow saints now living the baptismal life as it unites them with the saints at peace in the life triumphant.  And this is one song that prepares the faithful for an eternity of singing before the Lamb.

Here is a sumptuous feast of sight and sound, the visual arts, both ancient and contemporary, blending with hymnody sung by congregations from Massachusetts and New York to Michigan, Indiana and Missouri.  We are treated to live interviews with such notable scholars as Robin A. Leaver (Westminster Choir College), Daniel Zager (Eastman School of Music), Christopher Boyd Brown (Boston University), Martin Jean (Yale University), and Carl F. Schalk (Concordia University Chicago).  We hear the convictions behind their music from such contemporary composers as Kevin J. Hildebrand (Concordia Theological Seminary) and Stephen P. Starke (St. John-Amelith Lutheran Church, Bay City, Michigan).

The first segment tells of the origins of Luther’s creative work in church music in his use of the ballad to tell of the martyrdom in Brussels in 1523, of two young Augustinian monks burned at the stake for professing their faith in accordance with Luther’s teachings – “Ein neues Lied”.  But Luther turns this “new song” into the singing of God’s praise for granting faith and its steadfast confession.  He saw in music God’s gift and made discerning use of it alongside theology to proclaim the Gospel.  He and his co-workers set high standards theologically, poetically and musically to proclaim and teach the content of the Christian faith.  Especially during 1523-1524, Luther wrote many hymns we sing yet today (“Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice”).  He called upon professional writers and musicians to aid in this work, still the core of the Lutheran chorale tradition, such as the choral settings of Johann Walter (1496-1570) and the hymn by Paul Speratus (1484-1551), “Salvation unto Us Has Come.”  We take the faith in deeply through singing it.  Hymnody teaches, consoles, and praises God all at once.  Luther and his colleagues produced such hymns as praise God and comfort us precisely because they set forth the doctrine of the Gospel.

Salvation unto us has come by God’s free grace and favor;

Good works cannot avert our doom, they help and save us never.

Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, Who did for all the world atone;

He is our one Redeemer.

Not the unnamed god of neo-paganism (the cipher behind countless vapid “praise songs”), but the God who is preached to us with catechetical content, the God who is forever now incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended for us, who is preparing a place for us, the God who comes to make us His own in the waters of Holy Baptism, who feeds us in the consecrated bread and wine with His body and blood – this is the God we confess and adore.  This is the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, praised as we proclaim specifically what He has done to bestow upon us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  The Lutheran musical heritage embodies this.

In the following segment we are given a moving exposition of living the theology of the cross.  In the 16^th and 17^th Centuries, amid the uncertainties born of persecution, devastating plague, epidemics and prolonged warfare, Lutheran pastors became writers of hymns that give strong expression to their faith in Jesus Christ.  Martin Schalling (1532-1608) – (“Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart”), Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) – (“O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright,” and “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying”), and Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) – (“Entrust Your Days and Burdens,” “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth,” and “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized”) teach us to sing the faith, not sing about the faith.  With Schalling, the congregation sings what it is to die a blessed death in anticipation of the joy of resurrection:

          Lord, let at last Thine angels come, to Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home,

                        That I may die unfearing;

            And in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep

                        Until Thy reappearing.

       And then from death awaken me, that these mine eyes with joy may see,

                        O Son of God, Thy glorious face,

                        My Savior and my fount of grace.

            Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,

                        And I will praise Thee without end.

 When we suffer loneliness, doubt, fear, anxiety or loss, we need to hear and to sing such hymns.  For they tell of the Lord of all who became Servant of all, who willingly took our sins and grief upon Himself and having suffered in our place gives us life. 

A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, the guilt of sinners bearing.

And, laden with the sins of earth, none else the burden sharing;

Goes patient on, grows weak and faint,

To slaughter led without complaint,

That spotless life to offer,

He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies,

The mockery, and yet replies,

“All this I gladly suffer.”

The third section narrates the outpouring of chorales, cantatas and motets, and music written for the organ, particularly in the early 18^th Century, in the form of chorale preludes, settings of organ music that feature prominently the melody of Lutheran hymns.  Robin Leaver tells how J. S. Bach (1685-1750) was in line with Luther in using music to proclaim the Word of God.  Bach’s cantatas expound the Gospel of the day in musical form.  The music has a theological, proclamatory function.  Following the subjectivizing and corrosive effect of rationalism during the Enlightenment, the 19^th Century saw a revival of Lutheran hymnody and chorale singing with the renewal of interest in Bach’s music fostered by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).  In 1829, he led the first performance of the St. Matthew’s Passion since Bach’s lifetime.  Strikingly, this nearly coincides with the confessional awakening in Europe and America.  Carl Schalk describes the context in which Friedrich Layriz (1808-1859) sought to recover the original rhythmic form of Lutheran hymnody, altered during the period of Pietism.  This section features performances by The Bach Vespers Choir of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, New York City, Rick Erickson, Cantor, and by organist Craig Cramer and organ student Emma Whitten, the University of Notre Dame.  Included also is the congregational singing of the hymn by Wilhelm Loehe (1808-1872), “Wide Open Stand the Gates,” a marvelous exposition of the Lord’s Supper.

This is a living tradition, one whose vitality is demonstrated by the creative outflow of composers whose work is heard in the final segment: Martin H. Franzmann (1907-1976) – (“Thy Strong Word”), Jaroslav J. Vajda (1919-2008) – (“Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels”), Stephen P. Starke (b. 1955) – (“O Gracious Lord, with Love Draw Near,” “The Tree of Life,” and “In the Shattered Bliss of Eden”) and Kevin J. Hildebrand (b. 1973) – (“O Christ, Who Shared Our Mortal Life”).

Alluding to Colossians 3:16, Kantor Resch closes with this statement of conviction:

Some may ask, when it comes to hymnody, could there possibly be a standard from Martin Luther and his Wittenberg friends that still applies in the 21^st Century?  The answer is a resounding “Yes!”  It is the same standard that God gave His children in His psalms and the New Testament canticles.  There the subject is always about how He has rescued all of us in His Son.  These are things that do not change.  That is God’s standard for us to say and sing who He is and what He has done for us.  That is singing that sings the faith, for in it we all teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as we are filled with Christ.

One cannot watch this DVD without much joy and thanksgiving that here, at last, is told and sung the story of the godly musical heritage we in the Lutheran church have been given, and at a time when so many have already tragically surrendered or are about to exchange their birthright for a mess of pop-cultural pottage.  Pastors and musicians in the congregation will find in it a serviceable tool for reclaiming and celebrating this heritage.  As such it will help them understand and teach not only the history of our hymnody but also the divine blessing that is given as we sing it.

The package includes the 80-minute DVD with Dolby Surround Stereo (viewable in four 20-minute segments), a 32-page supplemental teacher’s guide, and reproducible classroom handouts in PDF format.  Every Lutheran congregation will benefit immensely by this resource.

Here in East Africa, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya are discovering the spiritual riches of the Lutheran musical heritage, both in liturgy and hymnody.  The use of Singing the Faith recently at its seminary here in Matongo has given blessed impetus to work now begun on a new hymnal for this church.

Once in a great while, a work is produced for which the whole church on earth can give unreserved thanks to God.  This is such a work.

Thomas V. Aadland is a professor at Matongo Lutheran Theological College in Kenya, Africa