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Gottesblog

A blog of the Evangelical Lutheran Liturgy

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Posts in Hymns
How Lutheran Hymns Train For Martyrdom: Meditation on Jesus’ Wounds

 The hymns of the Lutheran Church teach us how to be martyrs for Christ.  Martyrs are witnesses.  The most extreme form of witness is shedding our blood to seal our testimony to Christ, but before a Christian can do that, he must (usually) learn to be a faithful witness in smaller things.

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The Way to Good is Almost Wild

During the decades when we heard little of this from Lutheran pulpits, there were still voices crying in the wilderness.  Gottesdienst’s “Sabre of Boldness” award brought to the memory of at least some of the LCMS clergy roster that Scripture bids us to “quit us like men” and “take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  But the call to war issued by Scripture was rare indeed in our churches, except in our hymns, where departed saints from the Church triumphant bore witness to us.

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