There was once a section of hymns in the hymnal for funerals or death and burial. In The Lutheran Hymnal that included hymns for death and burial, resurrection, judgment, and life everlasting. Some 36 hymns were included. Some are well known but apply to various times of the Church Year as well (Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying). Some are still well known and appreciated (Jerusalem, the Golden). But most of those from that section of that hymnal are long ago forgotten and seldom sung. It is not because they are bad or even particularly difficult. It is that they speak of death in a way that we do not always speak today and so they have slipped out of style.
By the time Lutheran Book of Worship came along, the section was replaced by hymns of hope and a few of judgment. Lutheran Worship echoed that precedent, with most hymns of hope and life everlasting. In Lutheran Service Book there is a list of hymns from various parts of the hymnal appropriate to the occasion of death and burial but the section itself is called Hope and Comfort.
I would offend my Swedish ancestors if I forgot some of the staples of Scandinavian hymnody sung at funerals (In Heaven Above, Thy Holy Wings, How Great Thou Art, and Children of the Heavenly Father). In those hymnbooks there were not so many hymns directly appointed for death and burial but hymns familiar and filled with comfort. I find that this is the primary source of hymns chosen for hymnals today. When I sit to help people plan their own funerals or with families planning the funeral of their loved one, we often have to pare down the many choices that they would love to sing -- songs of praise and hope and comfort each of them knew as well as the ones they knew together as a family.
Honestly, I hope people plan to stay a while and sing because if they follow my wishes, there are many hymns I would love to have sung at my funeral. Often I add to the list simply because we sang that hymn and I found it so profound. Such was the case when we sang again the hymn often chosen as the recessional hymn for Pentecost. It is a wonderful hymn from the pen of the prolific hymn writer, Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig. The son of a pastor, this Dane was born in 1783 took the long route to the ministry, becoming assistant to his
father in a parish in Jutland in 1810. His first sermon was "Why has the Lord's word disappeared from His
house." Needless to say it attracted some attention. After his father's death in 1813, Grundtvig returned to Copenhagen to study literature. attracted much attention, which is rarely the case with
"probationers'" sermons. On his father's death, in 1813, he returned to
Copenhagen, and for eight years devoted himself mainly to literature. In 1821
King Frederik vi. appointed him to be pastor again, ending up at St. Saviour's Church. He opposed the Rationalism and Erastianism
of the day. Grandtvig quickly got into trouble and his songs and hymns were forbidden to be sung. Grundtvig finally returned to preaching at a German parish where he preached for 8 years and published his hymnbook, Sang-Vdrk til den Danske Kirkce
("Song-work for the Danish Church"). In 1839 his suspension was ended. The death of King Frederik vi allowed him some measure of popularity and respect and he was made an honorary bishop in 1839 (whatever that means). Grundtvig is spoken of as the poet of Pentecost. Yeah, you guessed it -- it is that final stanza that moves this into the realm of a great funeral hymn.
503 O Day Full of Grace
1 O day full of grace that now we see
Appearing on earth’s horizon,
Bring light from our God that we may be
Replete in His joy this season.
God, shine for us now in this dark place;
Your name on our hearts emblazon.
2 O day full of grace, O blessèd time,
Our Lord on the earth arriving;
Then came to the world that light sublime,
Great joy for us all retrieving;
For Jesus all mortals did embrace,
All darkness and shame removing.
3 For Christ bore our sins, and not His own,
When He on the cross was hanging;
And then He arose and moved the stone
That we, unto Him belonging,
Might join with angelic hosts to raise
Our voices in endless singing.
4 God came to us then at Pentecost,
His Spirit new life revealing,
That we might no more from Him be lost,
All darkness for us dispelling.
His flame will the mark of sin efface
And bring to us all His healing.
5 When we on that final journey go
That Christ is for us preparing,
We’ll gather in song, our hearts aglow,
All joy of the heavens sharing,
And walk in the light of God’s own place,
With angels His name adoring.
Text: © 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110004930
“In its briefest expression, Grundtvig’s so-called Church view (den kirkelige Anskuelse) consists of the thesis that the fundamental expressions of the Christian Church over the ages are the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion: “the Font and the Table” (Badet og Bordet). The positive meaning of the Church view is that any Christian, simply by confessing and accepting in faith the baptismal Creed, is included into the body of Christ. Hence, the membership of the one and only Christian Church is given by Baptism; the rest must be left for the free working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individual Christians. Baptism stands out as the beginning of the Christian life (faith), to be subsequently nourished by the preaching of the Word (hope), and to find its fulfilment in the Lord’s Supper (love). Grundtvig’s ‘matchless discovery’ in 1825 is that it is the baptismal Creed, not the Bible, which has served as ‘the rule of faith’ in the Christian Church since the days of the Apostles.
ReplyDelete“By the early 1820s, Grundtvig had developed a softer tone in his relation to the State Church, but around 1824-25 he once again became agitated, due partly to personal disappointments about the reception of his own work, and partly to the persecution of the revivalist Pietists. Although he shared neither their negative view of culture nor their overheated appeals to conversion, he nonetheless saw them as expressions of “old-fashioned Lutheran Christianity,” and hence as fellow-Christians.”
https://unipress.dk/media/15578/human-comes-first-smagsproeve.pdf
Which information, I am sure, has no bearing on the goodness of the verse Grundtvig has penned either here in this hymn or in Built on the Rock.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know, visitors to your blog just might be interested in learning more about Grundtvig’s seldom-discussed theology, which had a profound impact on Danish Lutheranism, as a response to the rationalistic state church of his day. You yourself included a summary of some of his biographical information.
ReplyDeleteGrundtvig’s answer to the mistrust of the reliability of the Bible by theologians of his day was to cede infallibility, which the LCMS would not, for a certainty of the living Word founded in the Apostles’ Creed and the Sacraments. All people are created in the image of God first, and the Church then brings them into new life and union with Christ as “living stones” through baptism. There are many interesting parallels between Grundtvig’s theology of the church and current academic Lutheran emphases upon the church as Catholic and universal, rather than specifically German Lutheran, union with Christ, and the primacy of the Sacrament. Grundtvig viewed Pietists as flawed, but typical of a sort of widespread regional, traditional Bible-based Lutheranism. His contemporary view of Pietism as an outsider is invaluable in estimating the character of popular Lutheran thought and culture in the 19th century.
And “Built On the Rock” is my favorite hymn.