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lutheranhymns) wrote2020-01-13 10:16 pm
lutheranhymns) wrote2020-01-13 10:16 pm
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#594: Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice
This is definitely a Martin Luther original: lots of verses, lots of weird German rhymes, lots of talk about how grace is necessary because good works are not enough.
If you squint you can find some allusions to texts that we often read on Reformation Day, presumably because they were important to Luther's theology. In verse 6 Jesus is quoted as saying "I am your rock and castle." This is a callback to Psalm 46, "God is our refuge and our strength"--that seems much more abstract than the military imagery we have going on here, but Luther famously (and very loosely) adapted that into "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and I think that's the same reference. In verse 8, Jesus says "I make you free, be free indeed!" which is from John chapter 8: "if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." We often read that as the Reformation Gospel even though it feels more indirect, but I guess "freedom" (from sin) is the point.
There's some probably-unintentional humor in verse 2, "in sin my mother bore me" (the narrator). The point is "I have been a sinner all my life, even before I was born I was a human and therefore totally sinful, I need Jesus' grace." But on a skim it almost looks like it's saying the mother was sinful at the time. Which, true, in the sense that all humans are sinful. But the doctrine that Mary was unique in being born and conceived without sin because only someone with special sin-avoiding powers would be worthy of giving birth to Jesus is the kind of super-saint Catholic rhetoric that the Reformation was partially about getting away from.
If you squint you can find some allusions to texts that we often read on Reformation Day, presumably because they were important to Luther's theology. In verse 6 Jesus is quoted as saying "I am your rock and castle." This is a callback to Psalm 46, "God is our refuge and our strength"--that seems much more abstract than the military imagery we have going on here, but Luther famously (and very loosely) adapted that into "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," and I think that's the same reference. In verse 8, Jesus says "I make you free, be free indeed!" which is from John chapter 8: "if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." We often read that as the Reformation Gospel even though it feels more indirect, but I guess "freedom" (from sin) is the point.
There's some probably-unintentional humor in verse 2, "in sin my mother bore me" (the narrator). The point is "I have been a sinner all my life, even before I was born I was a human and therefore totally sinful, I need Jesus' grace." But on a skim it almost looks like it's saying the mother was sinful at the time. Which, true, in the sense that all humans are sinful. But the doctrine that Mary was unique in being born and conceived without sin because only someone with special sin-avoiding powers would be worthy of giving birth to Jesus is the kind of super-saint Catholic rhetoric that the Reformation was partially about getting away from.