A Collection of Dad's Essay's & Writings - Welcome

- FAITH -
“One life is all we have and we live it
as we believe in living it.
But to sacrifice what you are
and to live without belief,
that is a fate more terrible than dying.”
here is the unimpeachable fact that Faith is considered to be many things, but for those who consider
it a freedom, there can be no argument. For those who believe it to be a part of civilization is another
facet of truth and those believe it to be a form of happiness, can live in security. But it is also a power,
a form of aesthetics and morality. So the Christian faith must be a combination of what is spoken in
the Credos, the teaching of Christ, a form of disciplined and tasteful worship combining the Liturgy,
the Word and all the Sacraments. Over two thousand years of religious rites has rendered a variety of
forms, divisions and dissention and in 1517, the most honest and the Middle Ground was found that gave mankind a
form of worship and belief that combined Christian principles with common sense, a purpose and honesty. What
evolved in the previous 1500 years became the basis for the most honest form of Christianity since the Week of the
Passion. What Luther achieved was the pure, the untainted, the honest and the most intelligent form of Worship and
Word.
What the new freedom gave, though, was also a distortion of religion and religious values that brought with it
many divisions within the protesting reformers in the 16th century and in only the four major faiths within the
Roman Catholic, the Orthodox, The Anglican and the Lutheran, did God and Christianity get its most honest
evaluation. Only in the Lutheran Faith did Aesthetic Worship and the Teaching Word attain its perfection by
combining all the elements of proper worship and clarity of thinking.
At the time of the upheavals within the church in the years from 1519 onward, it was only Luther who understood
and appreciated the fine hymns in the Latin Hymnody and, 15 of the 38 hymns he translated into the German
language were from this source. Zwingli, Calvin and Knox ignored the whole body of these fine hymn texts and
sometimes offered crude vernacular paraphrases of the Psalms. Lutheran authors such as Gerhardt, Arnt Heermann
and others offered verses closer to Scripture when offering new German hymns and also translated many from the
Latin. But in the pre-Reformation days there were no hymns sung by the people at Mass. The use of hymns was
associated with Hour Offices and the Father of Latin Hymnody was St. Ambrose.
In the whole of hymnody there is little question that the best texts where those written by great poets, early
theologians and men of the Middle Ages, Reformation and Renaissance. The finest music composed for use as hymns
in the congregations of Lutheran parishes were those that came out of the Reformation era and the two centuries
following as well as those composed in England, Germany and Scandinavia in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Martin Luther, who was not only the great reformer and renewer of the ancient church, was also a man of culture
who understood the profound meaning of hymn texts and noted that they deserved the best musical dressing. It is
true that Luther and many of the Reformation composers used tunes they heard in the taverns or love songs of the
minstrels and troubadours, but he qualified it with the comment that the devil didn’t deserve all the good tunes. But it
can be said that Luther not only taught the German nation to sing in church, but led the way in a significant
development of German culture in general. It gave every parish congregation an opportunity to participate in the
worship service in more ways than one. He regarded music as one of the greatest gifts given to man by God.
In the early years, the Lutheran hymnody reflected the mystery of worship and Holy Communion and there was
some liturgical conservatism and mysticism retained by reformers not only in paraments, church buildings, but in
music. So Lutheranism had a sense of historical continuity as well as a high appreciation of the esthetic. Good
hymnody offers a sense of reverence and honor due to the Almighty, rather than secularizing it by stooping to the
lowest common denominator in verse and music. Hymnody serves the Almighty, not the secular pop scene. The
hymnody should also complement the Liturgy and Scripture.
Certainly the most famous of all Lutheran composers was Johann Sebastian Bach, (1685-1750) whose faith was
deeply rooted in the faith of the great reformer. His greatest sacred choral works such as the “St. Matthew Passion”,
the “Christmas Oratorio” and the “Mass in B Minor” were only a part of his output with over 200 cantatas used at
church services. Also there was a huge collection of organ pieces, with the famous “Well Tempered Klavier”, the
Brandenburg concertos, the four orchestral suites and a wide selection of instrumental works. Bach was a
conservative Lutheran with a great respect for the teachings of Martin Luther and understood the Lutheran doctrines
of the church and the communion with Christ and the ideals of the church. He understood the Church Year and, with
great care and devotion, created Cantatas for every Sunday in the calendar of the church. Such a very large output of
his music is devoted to the church as well exemplified by his 200 cantatas as well as his organ compositions, motets
and Passions. There were many Reformation hymn tunes that apparently are by unknown composers whose names
have disappeared through carelessness or lack on interest in preserving their names. But many of these are found in
various books and listed in the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW) with an indication of their original source. These are
noted as from Gesangbuch in Augsburg, Berlin, Mainz, Munster, Nurnberg and other cities in Germany.