Epiphany 2, 2006
The Only Son from Heaven

Today’s hymn of the week is “The Only Son from Heaven” (LW 72) by Elizabeth Cruciger. Elizabeth Cruciger was born in about 1500 to a nobleman in Poland (her place of birth is located southeast of Berlin). In 1522 she fled a nunnery associated with the Order of Prémontré in Treptow, Pomerania (on the Baltic Sea, northeast of Berlin). She found refuge with Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558) who earlier had been teaching theology at the school of the city council of Treptow. Bugenhagen, won to Lutheranism by writings of Martin Luther, moved to Wittenberg in 1521 to study theology there. Elizabeth came to Wittenberg with Bugenhagen. She was a close friend of Martin Luther’s wife, Katharina von Bora (1499-1552), also a former nun. She married Casper Cruciger in 1524, who was a close associate of Luther’s. She died already in 1535.

Today’s hymn, “The Only Son from Heaven,” is the first Lutheran hymn written by a woman – but not only for women (Gal. 3:28). It first appeared in one of the earliest Lutheran hymnals, the Enchiridion (“Handbook”), published in 1524 in Erfurt, Germany. The hymn was also included in early Lutheran hymnals published by Luther himself in the 1520s. Apparently, today’s hymn is a rewritten version of a much older poem which we also happen to have in our hymnal, in the Christmas section: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (LW 36) by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, a Christian writer living in Spain 348-413 (see also LW 76 and 188). At a time when many were confused about who Jesus really is (just a special man?), this hymn proclaims clearly who Jesus is: the eternal Son of the Father, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. He is the One of whom the old prophets “chanted … with one accord.” He therefore deserves all our praise and adoration, both now and forever more. In other words, this hymn is a confession of the unchanging Christian faith you can sing. It sings God’s praise rightly. It lets us join the church’s song which prophets and apostles, and fellow Christians like Prudentius, already many centuries ago “chanted … with one accord.”

Elizabeth Cruciger picked up this hymn and rewrote it carefully and conservatively. This is quite remarkable because she lived 1100 years after Prudentius. Why would she bother with such an old hymn? Today, this is considered weird and impossible. In our consumer culture fashions and fads change at a confusing pace. If we know anything about our world, then it is that we think we need new stuff all the time, also in the church. Much indeed changed between the time when Prudentius lived in Spain and when Cruciger lived in Germany. Much has also changed between the time when Cruciger lived in Germany and us today in Carver, MN.

But one thing hasn’t changed across all time, space, and sexes: God’s Word. It remains the same because God doesn’t change every 10 years. Cruciger’s hymn expresses this truth, which is really comforting, when you think about it. Sure, it reminds us that we shouldn’t try to reinvent Christianity every year. We aren’t the first ones to believe in the gospel; let’s respect our older siblings in the faith. But, and this is more important, this also teaches us: We need not reinvent the Church every year. It’s already there for us, as God’s gift, miraculously preserved in God’s word and through the ages. More specifically, God’s gospel is the same, because Christ our Savior is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebr. 13:8). Human fads prove relevant only for a very short time; a few months later they’re forgotten, catching dust in a second-hand store. Christ will remain relevant for our lives today and forever. The church’s ancient hymns reflect this “durable” aspect of the gospel: It’s not always different, but always the same. And though it’s “old” (as old as God), it’s always new and refreshing to the sinner crushed by the law, who longs for God’s salvation. The gospel, the New Testament of the forgiveness in Christ (Rom. 11:27), is therefore the ever-new song of the Church (Ps. 96:1-2).

Now on to Cruciger’s hymn itself. First, like Prudentius, she answers the question: who is Jesus? This is crucial also in our times when people think that all religions (and churches) are basically the same, regardless of what they believe about Christ. He’s “the only Son from heaven, foretold by ancient seers, by God the Father given.” He now “in human form appears.” We can see God’s Son in the Man Jesus. This is what the season of Epiphany (“Appearing”) we’re in right now is all about: God appearing in the flesh of Jesus. Even though God has become Man in Christ, there’s no “sphere his light confining.” When God became a Man, this did not lessen his being God. In fact, God shared everything that is his as God with the Man Jesus when he became flesh (Mat. 11:27). The Man Jesus is the one true God; Man isn’t just glued to God in one way or another (he might fall off then!). There is perfect communication between God and Man in the one Person of Christ. This objective fact assures our salvation: In Christ, the barrier separating us from God, sin, has been overcome once for all; God and man are now intimately united. Being man as such doesn’t separate us from God; being a sinner does. Christ has dealt with this problem by becoming a Man without ceasing to be God and by living and dying in our place to bring us in fellowship with God. He is the gospel, communion between God and man, in one inseparable Person.

That Christ was born at a particular time was no accident. That day was a “time of God appointed,” a “bright and holy morn.” This day was the one “foretold by ancient seers,” as we learned from stanza one. On that day “the king anointed, the Christ, the virgin-born” stepped forth. Why? Not to demand the adoration of all men. But “grim death to vanquish for us, to open heav’n before us and bring us life again.” Again the gospel itself, wonderfully stated: Christ came not to be our master, but to be mankind’s champion against death, sin, hell. He came to conquer them by his life and death as the God-Man. This key thought Elizabeth Cruciger adds to Prudentius’ ancient hymn. This is how she builds on it and makes it better: It’s not only true that Jesus is God’s own Son. It’s also comforting that he is that due to his specific gospel mission: “grim death to vanquish for us.” The gospel needs no sentimental belittling of suffering and death, of the bad stuff in our lives. The gospel confronts the tough stuff right on because Christ confronted it right on: He didn’t go around telling people that death wasn’t that bad after all. He came “grim death to vanquish,” and to do this “for us.”

The third stanza calls upon God to “awaken … our spirit.” Why? “To know and love you more.” Christians desire to know God more. This is why we’re so grateful to God for the Bible, for the Small Catechism! No more darkness and ignorance about God; about God’s will in law and gospel; about true prayer; about Baptism; about Absolution; about the Lord’s Supper. No more dull uncertainty, but bright certainty. What a precious gift! Why would it be good to know and love God more? By God’s grace, “in faith to stand unshaken, in spirit to adore, that we, through this world moving, each glimpse of heaven proving, may reap its fullness there.” In other words, we pray that God would give us an increase in knowledge and love of God so that our faith would be strengthened. Then we will, though moving through the world, safely arrive in heaven. But already now, in the world, we “prove” “each glimpse of heaven,” which is to say: already now God graciously grants us a “foretaste of the feast to come.” This happens when our sins are forgiven and we “experience” God’s goodness with our senses of hearing, touching, and tasting: In his Word and Sacraments God gives us this “glimpse of heaven” to strengthen and comfort us as we are “through this world moving.” The gospel, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper: these means also give us faith in the heart. Faith’s first fruit is to adore God “in spirit” and truth (John 4:23-24). In other words, only the heart that believes in Christ can truly worship God. This is why in Lutheran worship, unlike in any other church, God’s faith-creating activity in Word and Sacraments is at the core and center. We always come to church as sinners; we confess our sins; we are forgiven for Christ’s sake, and thus faith in Christ is created. Out of this faith flows true praise. We can’t simply skip forward to praise without dealing with the fact that we have, in fact, worshipped ourselves and not God during the week. We’d do great harm to our souls if we left out confession and forgiveness. This would make our praise hollow and shallow: our heart would not be in it, as “upbeat” as we might feel for the moment. Emotions change quickly. Yet God’s Word abides forever. In God’s Word we therefore want to take refuge by faith.