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Letter To North America #5 - By Robert Kolb
Dr. Robert Kolb writes about Paul Gerhardt, a resident of Gross Hainichen while on his way to Wittenberg.
Letter to North America 5
The train took me from Bitterfeld through Gross Hainichen to Wittenberg. Bitterfeld’s smokestacks become visible even yet across the Saxon plain as a symbol of the industrial abuse of the German Democratic Republic, where pollution did not officially take place because pollution was by definition a characteristic of capitalism, not of Marxist socialism. Wittenberg, my goal, is the scene of the Wittenberg Spring Conference of Reformation historians, and our goal at the conference this year was to explore what made Nikolaus von Amsdorf, as one of Luther’s earliest supporters, a valuable member of Luther’s reforming team and one of the primary interpreters of his legacy after his death. First as a colleague of Luther’s in Wittenberg, then as a parish pastor, and finally in retirement, Amsdorf strove with vim and vigor, if not always with great theological depth, to recall for the next generation what stood at the heart of Luther’s message, and much of his legacy is recorded in the Formula of Concord.
Gross Hainichen’s contribution to German and Lutheran history consists above all in one native son, a mayor’s son named Paul Gerhardt, born almost exactly four hundred years before I passed through, March 12, 1607. Gerhardt’s hymns rang through the Concordia Seminary chapel yesterday as our community celebrated this gift of God who did much more than even a Nikolaus von Amsdorf to keep Luther’s faith and insights ringing in our ears and realized in our lives. His hymns, more than one hundred thirty of them, have served as an instrument of God to teach, to encourage, to comfort, to bless people in lands around the world ever since he penned them as a pastor in Brandenburg and Saxony nearly four hundred years ago.
We usually think of Gerhardt as a man who suffered much. His Calvinist prince, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm, ousted him from office for not observing the regulations. He continued to teach Lutheran understandings of the sacraments and call for the pure teaching of the Gospel even after Friedrich Wilhelm tried to dampen specific Lutheran proclamation in his lands. Gerhardt lost four of his five children and his wife to illness. His times were disrupted by the marching of troops through the land. Gross Hainichen was burned to the ground, Gerhardt’s family’s house included, by Swedish troops, who were on the Lutheran side in the Thirty Years War. That is the nature of war.
In fact, people of Gerhardt’s time took suffering more for granted than we do. That does not mean that it hurt less to lose one’s family or one’s position. But Gerhardt recognized that sin brings suffering, our own sin and other people’s sin against us. So his life is probably not best described as a suffering life. His life is best described as a life of joy and peace in his Savior Jesus Christ. Just as much as Luther, he could glory in the provision of a loving Creator. He did so in terms reminiscent of Luther’s explanation of the First Article.
Evening and morning, sunset and dawning,
Wealth, peace, and gladness, comfort in sadness:
These are Thy works; all the glory be Thine!
Times without number, awake or slumber,
Thine eye observes us, from danger preserves us,
Causing Thy mercy upon us to shine.
Father, O hear me, pardon and spare me;
Calm all my terrors, blot out my errors
That by Thine eyes they may no more be scanned.
Order my goings, direct all my doings;
As it may please Thee, retain or release me.
All I commit to Thy fatherly hand.
LSB 726
And Gerhardt certainly treasured the action of the Holy Spirit, whose benefits in his life he traced from his baptism on.
All Christians who have been baptized, who know the God of heaven,
And in whose daily life is prized the name of Christ once given:
Consider now what God has done, the gifts He gives to ev’ryone
Baptized into Christ Jesus!
So use it well! You are made new – in Christ a new creation!
As faithful Christians, live and do within your own vocation
Until that day when you possess His glorious robe of righteousness
Bestowed on you forever!
LSB 596
But his hymns above all expressed the love and the comfort he received through his Savior Jesus Christ. He confessed and helps us confess
O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down.
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown.
O sacred head, what glory, what bliss, till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
Be Thou my consolation, my shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell.
My heart by faith enfold Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.
LSB 449
Finally, Gerhard leads us, at the end of life, to pray that, although
He comes to judge the nations,
A terror to His foes.
For us he is
A light of consolations
And blessed hope to those
Who love the Lord’s appearing.
Therefore, we pray
O glorious Sun, now come,
Send forth Your beams so cheering
And guide us safely home
LSB 334
God has enriched the faith of many through the continuing ministry of Paul Gerhardt.
Saint Louis
March 19, 2007
Written By: host
Date Posted: 4/9/2007
Number of Views: 614
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