An Example of Traditional Hymnody as Pastoral Care
Our Lutheran identity is not merely some kind of tribal identification. Rather, the hymnody from our own tradition confesses our own theology - which is often missing when we borrow hymnody (or even worse, “songs”) from outside of our tradition, just because they say stuff about God, or for a funeral, considering that granny liked that “old-timey” hymn when Roy Rogers sang it on the radio, or some other kind of shallow justification. Worse yet is the corpus (corpse?) of Contemporary Worship pottage and modern (and maudlin) lowest common denominator of supposed church music. Often these hymns are selected for funerals because we need something “religious” - and often the survivors aren’t Christians, but they have heard one or two “religious songs” before.
By contrast, a traditional Lutheran funeral includes hymns as pastoral care for the survivors and as a confession of Jesus Christ: the crucified and risen one, who brings us comfort and hope in the face of death, and not merely a rote ritual that everyone simply has to get through.
Most of our great Lutheran hymnody is old - because it has stood the test of time. This does not preclude good modern hymnody (indeed there are excellent hymns from the 20th century in our hymnal), but it simply takes decades or centuries to fully put hymns to the test, to sift and assay them for their staying power.
And indeed, hymns are powerful because they are confessions. They work their way into our hearts and minds. Advertisers know this. Pop musicians know this. And truly, churchmen know this as well.
One of the best examples of hymnody as pastoral care is the Martin Schalling (1532-1608) composition from 1569, which we know as “Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart.” It is found in Lutheran Service Book (LSB) 708. It is sung to the tune of Herzlich Lieb, published in Strassburg in 1577. According to Joseph Herl, the author was a pastor whose “first major posting after years of study at Wittenberg was in the city of Regensburg, where he arrived in 1554. This peaceful pastor was forced to make a choice between faithfulness opposing the Flacian heresy, and his livelihood. He chose the former and was required to leave the city. This was not the last such episode in his life, nor was this the only case of suffering for faithfulness.” As Schalling wrote in this hymn, “Let no false doctrine me beguile”). At his next call in Amberg, Herl relates, Pastor Schalling was once again removed from his church and his home - along with his wife and children - on the Tuesday of Holy Week (Companion to the Hymns, p. 969). Interestingly and on a side note, this is the same day that Issues, Etc. was cancelled in 2008.
This hymn is often used in traditional Lutheran funerals. The words - especially those of Stanza 3, capture what happens at a Christian’s death, and why a Christian funeral is completely different than that of an unbeliever. For it acknowledges what is happening at the moment: burial of the body into a tomb, and that in spite of the reality of decomposition, the body is nevertheless “safe in peaceful sleep” until our Lord’s “reappearing.” The hymn acknowledges the reality that the angels come for Christians who die, escorting their souls to “Abraham’s bosom” which is “home.” And because of this, we can be “unfearing” even of our own deaths.
The hymn then shifts to the future, when Jesus awakens us from death, and we see the “glorious face” of our Lord, our “Savior” and “fount of grace.” We bid our Lord to “attend” our prayer, and the hymn ends on the crescendo of the triumphant note of prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ that we Christians who die “will praise [Him] without end.”
Like many of my brothers in arms under the cross, I make use of this hymn in pastoral care. And indeed, Stanza 3 appears in the Pastoral Care Companion on page 93 in the Commendation of the Dying. I also use it instead of the stanza from “Abide With Me” on page 135 of the Committal.
It is especially poignant here in South Louisiana, as we have above ground tombs. The older tombs are literally narrow chambers that often require the handles of the casket to be removed at the graveside in order to fit it into the opening. The pallbearers also often have to muscle the casket into the tomb. When I pray the committal, I reach my hand into the tomb itself, laying it on the head of the casket for the Lord’s Prayer and the blessing - my feet in the world of the living, but my arm extending into the narrow chamber where my parishioner sleeps, awaiting his or her awakening. The tomb provides a kind of echo-chamber to amplify and resonate the sacred words in both the narrow chamber and in the outside world.
Often, people attending committals that I conduct have never heard the hymn “Lord, Thee I Love With All My Heart.” And those who haven’t are often quite moved by its third stanza: both its soaring beauty as music, and its powerful confession of the reality of the death of the body, the soul’s removal to paradise, as well as the future event of Christ’s return, “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” - when soul and body are reunited, and our beloveds will reawaken in their very flesh. For parishioners who know the hymn, this is not a new experience, but rather builds on the repetition of many committals, but more importantly, many times in the Divine Service when this hymn is sung.
For in a sense, the liturgical worship of the church is a rehearsal of, and preparation for, death - both that of our loved ones and ourselves. There is simply no CoWo jingles or ditties that can compare to the comfort and confession of this magnificent piece of musical prayer that has been with us for more than 450 years. The emotional impact of this piece is not contrived, but flows from a solid confession of Christ and of His work as set into art: the traditional artform of the Lutheran chorale. It is a theologically rich composition that is eschatological, but also offers comfort in the here and now. It is truly pastoral care that is sung.
Pastors, if you use the Pastoral Care Companion, you might want to mark page 93 for use at committals, and also make frequent use of this hymn in your Divine Services. I once filled in at a church for a Sunday Divine Service and wanted to make use of it, but found out that the congregation had never sung it. And this is a parish that is more than 150 years old. This hymn is far more important for our congregations to learn than anything “new” in the hymnal.
On a personal note, when my son died, I led the committal myself. I sang Stanza 3, and without having the words before them, I was joined by my many parishioners and other Lutherans who gathered around the tomb to both give my wife and me comfort, and also to confess before the world that we believe in the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The hope of the resurrection is amplified as immediately after we sang, as per the Pastoral Care Companion, we made use of the paschal greeting: “Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!” - which resounded heartily in the cemetery, the words echoing defiantly off of the stone tombs. Once again, my parishioners were well familiar with the paschal greeting because we make use of it in Eastertide (I begin and end my sermons with it, and I greet parishioners with it). The paschal greeting is the perfect conclusion to Stanza 3 of this wonderful hymn. It is also pastoral care, and is also one of those ancient traditions that remains ever “contemporary.”
Just on an aesthetic note, I prefer the TLH musical arrangement (Hymn 429) to the LSB version. LSB restored the original words after LW had changed them, but LSB opted to retain the LW revision of the tune. My congregation sings the TLH melody. For a long time, we printed the TLH hymn as a bulletin insert (reproduced above), but now we just indicate that we are singing LSB 708 to the TLH tune, and everyone simply knows it.
Here is a recording of the Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei singing the TLH setting: Stanza 3, “Lord, Let at Last Thine Angels Come.” Here is another chorale arrangement: “Lord, Let at Last Thine Angels Come.” And here is the whole hymn, “Lord, Thee I Love With My Whole Heart,” according to the setting in LSB, used as a distribution hymn.
Finally, here is the text of the hymn:
Lord, Thee I love with all my heart;
I pray Thee, ne’er from me depart,
With tender mercy cheer me.
Earth has no pleasure I would share.
Yea, heav’n itself were void and bare
If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.
And should my heart for sorrow break,
My trust in Thee can nothing shake.
Thou art the portion I have sought;
Thy precious blood my soul has bought.
Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, my God and Lord,
Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word.
Yea, Lord, ’twas Thy rich bounty gave
My body, soul, and all I have
In this poor life of labor.
Lord, grant that I in ev’ry place
May glorify Thy lavish grace
And help and serve my neighbor. *
Let no false doctrine me beguile;
Let Satan not my soul defile.
Give strength and patience unto me
To bear my cross and follow Thee.
Lord Jesus Christ, my God and Lord, my God and Lord,
In death Thy comfort still afford.
Lord, let at last Thine angels come,
To Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep
My body safe in peaceful sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me,
That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face,
My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.
Footnote: the line “and serve and help” (LSB) is an inversion of “and help and serve” (TLH). My wife, the church secretary who prints the bulletins, and who is also the footnote queen, noticed this a long time ago, whereas it got right past me until now. The delightful Dr. Herl, in the Companion to the Hymns, surmises that it was a typo when LSB was being prepared, and he takes full credit for it! So it seems that we may some day need a critical edition of our hymnal.