Text: Isaiah 35:10
Facebook live: The Only Son from Heaven!
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
In 1545, one year before his death, Martin Luther supervised the final hymnal published in his lifetime – titled Holy Songs. That hymnal had only 120 hymn texts, about twenty percent of the number of hymns we have available in our present hymnal.
Twenty-one years earlier, in 1524, Luther supervised the very first Lutheran hymnal, called the eight-song book which is a collection of eight hymns, four of which were Luther texts.
In twenty-one years, Lutheran’s went from eight hymns available to sing to 120 hymns.
Why such a big change? Luther and his friends emphasized hymn singing.
Why was such a strong emphasis placed on hymn singing?
Listen to what Luther wrote in the preface to Holy Songs, the last hymnal he supervised. Commenting on Psalm 96:1,
“O Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord all the earth,”
Luther writes:
“For God has cheered our hearts and minds through his dear son, whom he gave for us to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. He who believes this earnestly cannot be quiet about it. But he must gladly and willingly sing and speak about it so that others also may come and hear it.”
Because he who believes the gospel, is now led to gladly sing and speak about the gospel, demand for hymns increased.
Remember, when the Reformation began, few German hymns existed for Germans to sing. So, by preaching the gospel, Luther created demand for hymns, and by God’s grace, supply met demand. God raised up more people besides Luther to write new hymns. God raised up a hymn writer named Elizabeth Cruciger.
Born in 1500, Elizabeth had been a nun. She belonged to a convent in Pomerania (an area between Germany and Poland), along the southern part of the Baltic Sea.
Luther’s teaching started to spread, thanks to Luther’s friend John Brugenhagen and by the Holy Spirit’s work, Elizabeth heard and believed the gospel he preached and as a result she resolved to escape from the nunnery.
In 1520, she fled to Wittenberg and found refuge in the Brugenhagen home. Disowned by her parents for converting to Lutheranism, in 1524 she married a theology student named Casper. She and Casper became close friends of Martin and Katherine Luther, and could often be found around the Luther dinner table.
Because of their friendship a conversation took place around the time of the publication of the first 8 song hymnal.
The Luther’s were dining along with the Crucigers, talking about church life and the need for more German hymns. When 24-year-old Elizabeth announced that she has written a hymn. Luther asks to see the text and she showed him, and even gave him the German folk tune she wanted used when singing the text.
Why was such a strong emphasis placed on hymn singing?
Listen to what Luther wrote in the preface to Holy Songs, the last hymnal he supervised. Commenting on Psalm 96:1,
“O Sing to the Lord a new song, Sing to the Lord all the earth,”
Luther writes:
“For God has cheered our hearts and minds through his dear son, whom he gave for us to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. He who believes this earnestly cannot be quiet about it. But he must gladly and willingly sing and speak about it so that others also may come and hear it.”
Because he who believes the gospel, is now led to gladly sing and speak about the gospel, demand for hymns increased.
Remember, when the Reformation began, few German hymns existed for Germans to sing. So, by preaching the gospel, Luther created demand for hymns, and by God’s grace, supply met demand. God raised up more people besides Luther to write new hymns. God raised up a hymn writer named Elizabeth Cruciger.
Born in 1500, Elizabeth had been a nun. She belonged to a convent in Pomerania (an area between Germany and Poland), along the southern part of the Baltic Sea.
Luther’s teaching started to spread, thanks to Luther’s friend John Brugenhagen and by the Holy Spirit’s work, Elizabeth heard and believed the gospel he preached and as a result she resolved to escape from the nunnery.
In 1520, she fled to Wittenberg and found refuge in the Brugenhagen home. Disowned by her parents for converting to Lutheranism, in 1524 she married a theology student named Casper. She and Casper became close friends of Martin and Katherine Luther, and could often be found around the Luther dinner table.
Because of their friendship a conversation took place around the time of the publication of the first 8 song hymnal.
The Luther’s were dining along with the Crucigers, talking about church life and the need for more German hymns. When 24-year-old Elizabeth announced that she has written a hymn. Luther asks to see the text and she showed him, and even gave him the German folk tune she wanted used when singing the text.
Well, Luther was thrilled with the hymn! But the first collection has just been published so he puts her hymn in the second edition, which was a collection of 26 hymns.
Elizabeth was one of five hymn writers who contributed to the hymnal along with Luther who wrote about 70% of the hymns. Yet, Elizabeth’s text … was included in the collection.
She was the first female Lutheran hymn writer and found her own hymn placed next to Luther’s.
Her hymn The Only Son from Heaven, is hymn #402 in Lutheran Service book, and it is common for hymnal editors to place this hymn in the Epiphany section. However, it has been found in hymnals included in the Advent section.
Since we are looking at seasonal hymns written in Luther’s lifetime – which can be a challenge in itself – and since there are few hymns to begin with, much less Advent, The Only Son from Heaven is an Advent hymn for our use today!
As we reflect on this hymn, we want to ask the question, “What does this hymn teach us about Jesus?
First, the hymn clearly teaches who Jesus is. He is the Father’s only son, the son whom ancient prophets foretold, the son who, in the fullness of time, was born of a virgin.
Second, the hymn teaches us what Jesus came to earth to do: to vanquish grim death for us and to open heaven before us. The gospel message is reinforced when we gather together to sing this hymn.
Singing of Jesus leads to a response:
Hearing the gospel, and believing the gospel, results in action.
Stanzas 1 and 2 teach us the gospel. They teach us about Jesus.
Stanza 3 is our response to the message.
It is a prayer.
Hearing about the only son who brings us life again prompts us to want to know and love him more. And so, we ask God to do something, to “awaken our spirit” so that we can indeed know and love him more.
We ask God to “awaken our spirit” so that we by faith in this Only Son can stand unshaken, despite the moving world of temptations and afflictions and changes and chances.
We ask God to use each glimpse of heaven to sustain us in faith until we enter that open heaven that Jesus has prepared for us, where we will reap the fullness of eternal life.
Commenting on Elizabeth one pastor describes her this way:
“Here was the soon forgotten wife and mother, who had been rescued from the nunnery of false belief and superstition, [here she was] writing of how her heart had been awakened to know and love her savior and Lord.
Now she was able to stand in that saving gospel with faith unshaken…
https://wwwcuchichago.edu/globalassets/documents/center-for-church-music/devotions/hymns-of-the-daydevotion-epiphany-2.pdf
While 500 years old, The Only Son from Heaven, is a relatively new hymn for us. The hymn wasn’t included in the older 1941 hymnal. It was included and reintroduced to the synod in the 1982 hymnal, -one here at Peace that we never adopted - appearing with Elizabeth’s first three stanzas and a newly fourth stanza, of Trinitarian praise.
These four stanzas were retained for our current hymnal, now eighteen years old.
And so, we sing it mindful of a young woman who lived during the first few years of the reformation, a woman to whom God gave the gift of faith in Christ, and the gift of confessing that faith through hymn writing.
We sing the hymn mindful that we poor sinners still plead for God to awaken our hearts, to use any glimpse of heaven, whether it’s the Lord’s Supper, absolution, or Holy Baptism.
We sing the hymn pleading for God to awaken our hearts not just to know and love him more but to sustain us with the hope of everlasting life as we travel to the eternal Promised Land.
We ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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