Dear Trinity Family,

As I was preparing for this Sunday’s worship, there were a string of thoughts on my mind, some of which found their way into Sunday’s sermon, while others simply inspired. (And it should be said that if every thought or inspiration were put into any given sermon, they would become much longer than the “usual sermon”.) The following devotional thought, such as it is, is based on a hymn which sat in the back of my mind as a bit of unbidden inspiration during my sermon writing which I would like to share with you as a preview of sorts for our worship together this weekend.

This Sunday, October 11th, marks, to the very day, the 89th Anniversary of the founding of our congregation when it held its first worship service at the Odd Fellows’ Hall on the corner of 34th Street and Bunker Hill Road (the brown brick building still standing on that corner today). In 1931, the liturgical date was the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, and according to our congregational history, Vicar Edwin Pieplow preached on the text from Genesis 7:1–“Come thou and all thy house into the ark.”  The Gospel reading provided for that Sunday in the lectionary used in those days was Matthew 22:1-14, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. It so happens that this year this same Gospel is appointed on this Sunday of our Anniversary celebration, and will serve as the text for my sermon.

While writing the sermon, my thoughts were quietly inspired by a hymn text which I remembered singing in college and seminary, as well as studying in a seminary hymnology class.  “O Kingly Love, That Faithfully” was written by the 20th Century Lutheran Hymnwriter and Theologian Martin Franzmann (1907-76).  This hymn was written in 1966, prepared to be a part of materials for congregations to use as a part of the celebration of the 450th Anniversary of the Reformation in 1967.  The tune, KINGLY LOVE, was composed for the text by Lutheran composer, Richard Hillert (1923-2010), who was also the composer of Setting One of the Divine Service in our hymnal, with its well known and loved setting of the Hymn of Praise, “This Is the Feast”.

Unfortunately, the hymn was not included in those Reformation celebration materials, but it was published first in the 1969 Worship Supplement (#757), and later in the 1981 hymnal, Lutheran Worship (#346). In the Worship Supplement, the hymn was listed as being for Reformation, as well as being the “Hymn of the Week” for Trinity 20, with its text being a sung proclamation of the themes found in the Gospel for that day.  The hymn speaks eloquently of God’s constant call of love for His people to come to Him, especially as that call came through the sending of His Son. Jesus and His inviting call to the world is shown in the hymnwriter’s image of the “trumpet none could silence or mistake”, through which the “living breath” of God’s Spirit blew “for all the world to hear, living and clear” the “ancient, true, and constant melody” of God’s song which calls us to Him and His “kingly, lavish, seeking, and holy and ruthless love” which brings and gives us life and shapes us into the new people and new creation we are called to be.

I pray that meditating on this text will be a way for us to prepare for the Word we will hear and celebrate together this weekend. Blessings to you all and I look forward to being with you in worship this Sunday.

You can find a recording of the hymn here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvnAy8AmdOQ

Here is Franzmann’s text (from the Worship Supplement, 1969):

O kingly Love, that faithfully
Didst keep Thine ancient promises,
Didst bid the bidden come to Thee,
The people Thou didst choose to bless,
This day we raise
Our song of praise,
Adoring Thee,
That in the days
When alien sound
Had all but drowned
Thine ancient, true, and constant melody,
Thy mighty hand did make
A trumpet none could silence or mistake,
Thy living breath did blow for all the world to hear,
Living and clear:
The feast is ready–come to the feast,
The good and the bad,
Come and be glad,
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

O lavish Love, that didst prepare
A table bounteous as Thy heart,
That men might leave their puny care
And taste and see how good Thou art,
This day we raise, etc.

O seeking Love, Thy hurrying feet
Go searching still to urge and call
The bad and good on every street
To fill Thy boundless banquet hall.
This day we raise, etc.

O holy Love, Thou canst not brook
Man’s cool and careless enmity;
O ruthless Love, Thou wilt not look
On man robed in contempt of Thee.
Thine echoes die;
Our deeds deny
Thy summoning:
Our darkling cry,
Our meddling sound
Have all but drowned
That song that once made every echo ring.
Take up again, O take
The trumpet none can silence or mistake,
And blow once more for us and all the world to hear,
Living and clear:
The feast is ready–come to the feast,
The good and the bad,
Come and be glad,
Greatest and least,
Come to the feast!

(C) 1969, Concordia Publishing House