J. S. Bach on PBS

The first music I ever heard in public was by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). I don’t remember the piece—in fact, I don’t remember anything from those days—but I know I heard it at St. John Lutheran Church, Salem, Oregon. The date was Sep 30, 1962. I was baptized on that Sunday. It was the first time I was "brought out in public," the first time I worshiped, and I was only a mere twenty days old at the time. Needless to say, my role in that service was entirely passive. On that day, the regular organist, Mr. Fischer, had selected a Bach prelude to begin the event. I later learned that he nearly always selected a Bach prelude to begin the service. I subsequently found out that on that occasion Mr. Fischer played Bach’s “Prelude in C” (BWV 547), fitting for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (Sep 29). That’s the first music I ever heard in public.

Growing up in that congregation, I heard a lot of Bach. Mr. Fischer routinely played the Eisenacher's  organ works, as did Mrs. Holsing, who rotated Sundays with Mr. Fischer. After Mr. Fischer’s death, my childhood friend, Beth Sorsdahl, alternated with Mrs. Holsing. (I remember being quite impressed that a teenage peer not only wanted to play Bach, but wanted to do so by learning the most difficult of all musical instruments, the one at which Bach himself excelled.)

Haussmann's famous portrait of Bach (1748)

In those youthful days, I didn’t know the significance of the name “Bach,” nor did I understand his music. (I still don't, at least not fully! Who does? There's always more depths to plumb than even multiple soundings provide.) Maybe because they were so complicated, I simply didn't pay close attention to the pieces of his that were played in the services at St. John. Back then, I was more into the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and KISS and eventually U2. But J. S. Bach was in the mix, too, nearly every Sunday throughout my childhood. I couldn’t avoid him. In fact, in retrospect, his music became a cantus firmus for my life, even if I didn’t always sense the tunes properly or appreciate them fully. He's become more important to me as I've grown older.

When I was a young boy, I served as an acolyte in my home congregation and sat behind Mr. Fischer’s organ bench. (The adults in the congregation called him “Bud,” but I only knew him as “Mr. Fischer.”) I still remember the wry smile on his face when he would turn around during the “sharing of the peace” and extend his hand to shake my own. I was always impressed by how he was able to translate what were for me the indecipherable black notes of his organ sheet music into the beautiful, soulful sounds that came from the pipes hidden behind the curtains on the walls above, on either side of chancel. I didn't know then just how well he was able to do that. I do now. Sunday was often mystical in that way, at least for me. (It helped that Mr. Fischer always wore a white organist's robe over his Sunday best. That gesture communicated something serious about the important task at hand.)

"Bud" Fischer at the organ; my dad is behind him (1960)

Bach resonated deeper in me in college, and still further in seminary. That resonance became even more profound and personal when I developed and taught a university course on Luther and Bach, during my stint as the director of Valpo’s study-abroad program in Germany. During those years, I took students to Eisenach (Bach’s birthplace), Erfurt (where for generations his family had been well-regarded as musicians), Weimar (where he served as court Kappelmeister), and finally to Leipzig, where he served as music director for more than two decades. Yes, we also visited the museums that are devoted to his life and work, and we traversed the venues where he lived and moved and had his being. But tell me, how can a Christian of the church of the Augsburg Confession not get teary-eyed while standing above Bach’s resting place in the chancel of the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, receiving Holy Communion at the end of a Sunday service in the presence of “all the company of heaven”? Talk about a mystical experience!

While that Luther/Bach course continued to be taught in Reutlingen after my departure, sadly it has recently come to an end. So, I plan to teach it anew this next spring, on campus. (Maybe in the future I'll tie it to a spring-break trip to Germany.) So much has been written about Bach since 2010. I have a lot of catching up to do before January.

Tonight, I was encouraged in that endeavor after watching the PBS special, “Now Hear This: The Riddle of Bach,” hosted by Scott Yoo. What a great episode! (A few years back I was blessed to have participated in the Bach Institute at Valpo, organized by my friend and colleague, Chris Cock, and partially led by Dr. Christoff Wolff, who makes an important appearance in this evening's PBS show. Back then, the Institute was gearing up for a performance of Bach's St. John Passion. Another mystical experience!)

For details on the show, go here.

I told my wife the other day that if it is at all possible, I would be very grateful if Bach’s music were the last I were to hear in this earthly life. Talk about a stairway to heaven! (Or better: Talk about a foretaste of heaven on earth!)

A Sermon: "I Came to Cast Fire upon the Earth"

A few weeks ago I was asked to preach my first sermon in an ELCA congregation, Christ Lutheran Church, in Valparaiso, which happens to be the congregation to which my family and I belong. The text was Luke 12.49-53. That morning several thunderstorms rumbled through town. Lightening came close to striking the church building. (Not sure what to make of all that!) And a teen-age girl was baptized in the second service. That service was taped. To listen to the sermon from that service, go here.

Pericope of the Week: Schlink's 1954 Address to the Second Assembly of the WCC

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which convened in Evanston, Illinois. The German-Lutheran theologian, Edmund Schlink (1903-1984), delivered the opening plenary address. His remarks were translated as "Christ--The Hope of the World" and published in The Ecumenical Review and The Christian Century.

Hans Spalteholz and I have provided a fresh translation of this address in the first volume of Edmund Schlink Works: Ecumenical and Confessional Writings (The Coming Christ and Church Traditions and After the Council), which I edited in 2017. This five-volume project is being published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Earlier this year (March 6), which also marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Schlink's death (20 May 1984), I posted the first two sections of his famous address. Below are the final four sections (pp. 269-275 from vol. 1 of ESW):

III.

            Christ is thus coming to the world as its Redeemer and Judge. We do not in truth hope for him as Savior of the world if we do not at the same time await him as Judge of the world. Just as little, however, do we fear him in truth as Judge, if we do not await him as Savior. Then he will receive some and the others he will reject. He will raise up the ones to life and the others to death. To some he will say, “Come to me, you who are blessed by my Father,” and to the others, “Go away from me, you who are cursed!” (Mt. 25.34, 41). He will shatter to pieces the rule of the mighty, of the rich, of the self-secure with their unrighteousness, and he will destroy the complacency of the satisfied, of those who are laughing and dancing, and those who are at home in this world. But the spiritually poor, those who suffer, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the peacemakers (Mt. 5.3ff.), those who look longingly for his coming (Mt. 25.1ff.)—all these he will save.

            This future separation is taking place already now. Through the word of the cross God is already now putting to shame the wisdom, the virtue, and the power of this world, and he is saving the foolish, the unworthy, and the powerless. “God chose what is low and despised in this world, even things that are not, in order to bring to nothing what is something” (1 Cor. 1.28f.)

            Already now the coming redemption is taking place. Already in the midst of this world, the gospel announces the acquittal of believers in the coming judgment. Through baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the believer takes part, already now, in the power of the resurrection to come. Whoever is reborn to a living hope through the Holy Spirit is already a new creature. Christ thus gathers his people through the gospel, already now in the midst of this world, to walk with him in a new life. In the church the coming new creation [Schöpfung] is already a present reality:  “If anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature [Kreatur]. The old is past. Behold, everything has become new” (2 Cor. 5.17).

            For this reason, the time in which we live is the end time:

            In his resurrection Christ broke through the spell of this world and was exalted to be Lord over the world. All people and powers are subject to Christ, whether they know it or not, whether they acknowledge him or revolt against him.

            In his coming again he will make his victory visible to all and bring to an end every tumult of this world.

            The time of this world is thus solidly circumscribed by the victory of Christ. To break out of this encirclement is absolutely impossible. In this situation of hopelessness, the call of the gospel sounds forth, by which the world is summoned to acknowledge its Lord. It is the end time. That means, “Today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!” (Heb. 3.7f.).

            That this is the end time seems to many people to be disproved by the nearly 2000 years that have elapsed since the coming of Jesus. Many have become perplexed about the promise of his future appearance. But the long stretch of time is no refutation of the promise. It is not a sign of God’s weakness, as if he were unable to fulfill what he proclaimed through Jesus and the apostles. It is the time of God’s patience, God wills that many be saved. It is the time of the church, of the growing body of Christ. But when the body of Christ shall have grown to full stature, when the number of the elect shall have been completed, then the world will pass away and then shall the new creation step forth from its hiddenness.

IV.

            What does it mean to hope in Christ?

            To hope means not to sleep, but to be awake and on highest alert. To hope means not to dream, but to be awake in radical soberness. Being sober does not mean the calculations of this world, but the expectation of Jesus Christ. To hope does not mean to grow tired, but to be active with the greatest exertion. Not paralysis but activity is characteristic of those in the apostolic age in whom Christian hope is alive, for we do not know at which hour the Lord will come.

            What are the acts of hope?

            The first action of hope is to proclaim the gospel to the whole world. The Assembly of the World Council has rightly made evangelization the theme of its Second Section. Because God redeems through the gospel, and only through the gospel, therefore there is emblazoned above the one who hopes the command of the redeemer to proclaim the gospel. If God has called us out of the bondages of this world, then he send us into the world so that we call the others.

            This command holds true for everyone who hopes in Christ. No one can keep this hope silently to himself or herself without losing it.

            This command makes us debtors to all people. God does not want anyone to be lost.

            This command demands that we repudiate the unquestioned assumptions of our nationality and cultural heritage. Even more, as has often enough been the case in the history of missions, we must become a Jew to the Jews, a Gentile to the Gentiles, weak to the weak—in order to win them. Only in self-denial will we be a servant of Christ (compare 1 Cor. 9.19ff.).

            The command of God the Redeemer requires the greatest haste, for we do not know how much time is still left.

            Absolutely decisive, however, is that we proclaim the gospel purely and rightly.^[[i]] The preliminary work of the Second Section has concerned itself above all with the methods of evangelization. The Assembly itself must deal to a greater extent with the content of evangelization. That is all about the message of God’s judgment over against the world and the sole salvation that comes by faith in Christ.

            Delivering this message appears difficult, for the world does not want to hear anything about its end, and the word of the cross is foolishness to it. And yet the proclamation of the gospel is basically easy and full of unspeakable joy, for we do not have to subject the world to Christ, but rather long ago God has already placed it under Christ. We have only to proclaim to the world the one who is already its Lord. It is not we who have to save people, but rather Christ wants to speak through our witness himself and to do his saving actions. It is not we who bring about faith, but rather God’s Spirit.

V.

            The second action of hope is to work for the just ordering of this world. This is rightly the theme of the Third through Sixth Sections.

            The ones waiting for the coming Christ know about God’s patience and long-suffering, by which he still continually preserves this world despite its arrogance and the fact that it has fallen into judgment. He allows his sun to shine on the good and the evil. He allows both believers and unbelievers to live. He preserves not only the Christians but also the heathen and the anti-Christians. To all of them God the Preserver gives days of grace in which to decide for Jesus Christ.

            For this reason, the command of God the Preserver is at the same time emblazoned above those who hope. He commands us to work for the preservation of every human life, regardless of whether or not these people believe in Christ, and also regardless of their nationality or race or social status. He thus also commands us to be concerned for their freedom, for God preserves people in order that they may make responsible decisions in his presence. But working for life and freedom means being concerned for earthly justice and earthly peace—among individuals, social classes, races, nations, and states—and active participation in the ordering of human society in the broadest sense, not only in assisting individuals personally but also, for example, in law-making.

            Like the command of God the Redeemer, so also the command of God the Preserver applies to every person who hopes in Christ. Such a person cannot leave this expectation solely to political leaders.

            Likewise, this command makes us debtors to all people. Those who hopes are not permitted to restrict their assistance to the circle of those who think like themselves.

            Furthermore, this command demands that we repudiate the customary and unquestioned assumptions, and urges us to great haste, since for the first time in their history the nations face the task of ordering humankind on a global scale, and since at the same time the former orderings show themselves to be both inadequate and broken.

            The Christian cannot withdraw from the struggle among political programs and secular hopes, for the world wants immortality for itself and considers its programs as salvation. Because Christians are freed from utopianism by their expectation of the Lord, they owe the world a sober witness. They have to expose the real situation of humankind and cut through the fog of propaganda. Because Christians are set free by faith from legalistic thinking, they can never be satisfied with general programs. They have to lift up their voice when doctrine is turned into an anathema and existing law is used to support injustice, and to call for those actions that are required in the concrete historical situation. Because Christians are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, in the struggle for a just ordering they will be selfless in defense of their own interests, but demanding and adamant in their concern for the enslaved, the hungry, and the forgotten. Because Christians have the patience of God in mind, they will oppose with all their strength the use of weapons for mass destruction and they will also seek peace and understanding where this appears hopeless. Because Christians hope in Christ, they will be fearless in the midst of all the menacing threats of this world.

            With all this in mind, we cannot forget that peace on earth is not in itself peace with God. Justice [Gerechtigkeit] in this world is not itself righteousness [Gerechtigkeit] before God. Earthly freedom is still not true freedom, and life in this world is not eternal life. Striving for the just ordering of this world is not the realization of Christ’s kingdom on earth; it is not the new creation. Christ’s kingdom breaks into the world by the gospel. The fellowship of believers is the new creation.

            But God the Preserver commands us to work for the preservation of the world up to the last Day. The world is, after all, still his creation, despite its arrogance. Christ, after all, still died for this world. In the course of the world’s passing away, it is still God’s will to bring his creation [Schöpfung] to its goal in the new creature [Kreatur].

            The command of God the Redeemer and the command of God the Preserver are not to be separated from each other. Not only the evangelization of the world but also working for the just ordering of the world is the action of hope and love and thus the worship service. But both actions are related to each other in an irreversible manner. We are not to proclaim the gospel in order thereby to preserve the world, but we need to work to preserve the world so that many will be saved from the world through the gospel. For God preserves the world in order to bring salvation through the gospel; he does not save in order to preserve this world. Evangelization does not exist in service to the just ordering of this world, but indeed the just ordering of this world exists in service to evangelization. To fail to recognize this has again and again the temptation of the church. It is also a temptation for the World Council. So thus says the Lord: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mt. 24.35).

VI.

            Will we have success with our actions of hope?

            The front is today different from what it was in the apostolic period. Heathenism is in decline. We face the post-Christian person. Such individuals have heard of the gospel. They have experienced the liberation from the bonds [Bindung] of this world and from the lordship of gods and demons. They have heard of the passage, “Everything is yours,… world, life, death, present, future” (1 Cor. 3.21f.). But they have torn this freedom away from submission to Christ. They have usurped the lordship over nature. They have themselves undertaken to create the eternal kingdom of peace and no longer wait for Christ’s coming. This freedom that is gifted by Christ and yet torn away from Christ hangs heavy today upon the nations, destroys their religions, and creates the final cleavage in the opposition between East and West on both sides. This freedom is a menacing threat to life, for freedom without any commitment [Bindung] leads to the use of violence, and the struggle for the rule of the world by these free people leads to horrific annihilation. When looking back on both world wars and focusing on the post-Christian and anti-Christian powers surrounding them, and given the prospect of a third world war with atomic weapons, many people are filled with fear and paralysis, and they allow themselves to think that their actions appear pointless.

            It is said to us, “When this begins to occur, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Lk. 21.28). “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place” (Mk. 13.7). The tumult of this world is for the ones who hope the sure sign of Christ’s coming. The world would not bluster so, if he were not the victor. The autumn storms of this world are the signs of the coming spring. The shocking devastations of this time are the labor pains of the new creation.

            We ask once again:  Will our work have success?

            The gospel travels through the nations of the world. But at the same time our generation is witnessing oppressions and persecutions of the churches to such an extent that the persecutions of Christians in the ancient church could appear almost trivial by comparison. For the sake of the gospel, many have been deprived, been taken prisoner, and were killed. In order to preserve their lives many have denied the gospel and have fallen away from the faith. Mission outposts have vanished and entire regions of the church no longer have churches. Churches that were once mighty have collapsed and now live in the catacombs of our time.

            It is also true that “this must take place” (Mk. 13.7; Rev. 1.1). The way of the church can be no other than the way of its Lord: through suffering to glory! The judgment begins in the house of God (1 Pet. 4.17). God shakes and sifts his church in persecution in order to test and purify it, in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. But those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God and take up their own cross soon realize that it has already long been borne by Christ. In their suffering, believers participate in Christ. In their disparagement, imprisonment, and death, the crucified Christ becomes visible and he demonstrates the power of his resurrection. They are his most beloved children who are honored by God to be witnesses of Christ, not merely through the songs of praise that come from their lips but also in the sacrifice of their body. Their defeat is in truth their victory. It is not the powerful, privileged church, the one acknowledged by the world, but rather the powerless, suffering church that is the revelation of the glory of Christ. The church that is dying with Christ is the triumphant church.

            Will we see success from our actions? This is the question of hopelessness.

            We do not know what success we will see in this world from our evangelization and our working for a just world order, but we do know most definitely that our work “in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15.58). Christian hope is independent of what our eyes can see before us, whether it be successes or failures. It is not accidental that in the New Testament, talk of hope is directly related to spiritual attacks and trials (Rom. 5.3ff.; Rom. 8.18ff.; 1 Pet. 1.3ff.). Christian hope is grounded solely on Christ. For this reason, it can never be put to shame. Therefore, Christian hope expects always the best from God and is unceasingly active in the struggle against the powers of darkness:  “If God is for us, who then can be against us? He did not spare his own Son…. Will he not also bestow upon us all things with him?” (Rom. 8.31ff.).

            This is not the hope of the world, but the hope of the church. To this hope the church has to summon the world.

VII.

            Is this really the hope of all of us? Is our faith really “the victory that has overcome the world” (1 Jn. 5.4)?

            We are gathered here as separated churches. To be sure, the historical divisions are only to a very small extent due to disputes over eschatology. This observation, however, does not mean that the separated churches really live in Christian hope, for where hope is alive, there the existing differences and separations will be seen with new eyes and a deep shame will result from the fact that we, through our disunity, contradict the unity of the body of Christ and thus make it easy for the world to reject the message about Christ as its sole hope. “Our being one in Christ and our disunity as churches” is therefore rightly the theme of the First Section of the Assembly and is at the same time basically the theme of all sections of this Assembly.

            If hope were really alive in all of us, then we would have less fear in the presence of people than fear in the presence of God; then we would have less concern for preserving the particularities of our church bodies and more concern for how we stand in the presence of God. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5.10). A separation will then take place that will be much deeper than all the divisions within Christendom, a separation which is final. Then the verdict can be handed down against entire church bodies:  “Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3.16).

            If this hope were really alive in all of us, then we would know that not only the world but also the form of the church is passing away. We would more clearly understand the provisional nature of our church activities, of our orderings of the church, and even of our dogmatic formulations. The church too will be transformed. In the new creation there will be “no temple,” “for the Lord, the almighty God, and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21.22). Then we will not only believe the word but we will see God.

            If this hope were really alive in us, then we would rejoice less in the untroubled existence of our church bodies, less in their security and preservation, and rejoice more because the gospel is extended and people are being saved through faith from the bonds of this world. “Only that Christ is proclaimed! … In that I rejoice” (Phil. 1.18). And our greatest renown would be the chains and sufferings of the brothers and sisters from all the church bodies throughout the world.

            If this hope were really alive in us, then we would not stand gazing backwards, but rather we would hasten forwards toward the Lord. We would not be so much in love with the history of our own church body, but rather would be open to the working of Christ in the whole world. By focusing on what lies ahead, the walls between the church bodies become transparent.

            If this hope were really alive, then we would also be able to understand more clearly the non-theological factors that divide the church bodies; for those factors gained their importance only because the church made a pact with the world and expected from it the security that only Christ can give.

            Let us consider:  We all come from Christ, from his death and his resurrection. We all are going towards Christ, the one who will come as Judge and Savior of the world. We all are encompassed by him. He is present in our midst as the one who has come and the one who is coming.

            Let us give him all the honor and put aside everything by which we darken his glory in the presence of the world.

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[i] Cf. AC VII