Pastor’s Message  OCTOBER 2001

„And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:17 (RSV)

“Alles, was ihr tut mit Worten oder mit Werken,
das tut alles im Namen des Herrn Jesus und dankt Gott, dem Vater, durch ihn.“

Kolosser 3,17

It was around July 4^th that I picked up a CD called “America so beautiful” with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Anxious to get further immersed into this country’s culture and history, I purchased it, and I really enjoyed listening! One of the peaces featured on this CD is called “Thanksgiving Prayer”. It sounded splendid and somewhat familiar – and yet it didn’t. There had to be some history to it - and so I started doing some research. Here is the text of it in different versions:

This hymn, almost carol-like in character, originally was the prayer of thanksgiving sung by the Dutch to celebrate their final victory, with the help of England, over the Spanish oppressor in 1597. The Dutch text with its traditional tune was first published by Adrianus Valerius in his Nederlandtsch Gedenckclanck, Haarlem, 1626. The hymn, however, has become popular in this country through the German use of it. After two centuries of obscurity, the Viennese composer and choir director Eduard Kremser (1838-1914) rediscovered the hymn, arranging it for a male choir in 1877. This is the reason why the tune is generally called “Kremser”. There are several German versions of the text, the one by Karl Budde, 1897, being the most widely known. It quickly became hugely popular, not the least because it was one of the best loved hymns by Wilhelm II, the Kaiser. It perfectly reflected the Prussian alliance of “throne and altar”. For a while, it almost became a second national anthem in Germany, played by army bands at the close of almost all major public meetings. Movie buffs mightl remember it from “Fridericus Rex” and "Kolberg" (1944) as well as from Josef Vilsmaiers "Stalingrad" (1994). At that time, it had already become the symbol of a kind of “Durchhalteparole”, and “God” had been transformed by the Nazis into a kind of primitive, tribal deity, fitting only their national identity and aspirations. Thus, in the fires of the air raids and the crematoria of the Shoah, this hymn and its triumphant theology got burnt out in Germany.

The second English text by Julia Bulkley Cady Cory is a very free rendition of the hymn, eliminating the references to war and making it rather a hymn of general thanksgiving. Cory, daughter of a noted New York architect and a Sunday school teacher, wrote these words 1902 at the request of J. Archer Gibson, organist at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. Gibson deemed the commonly sung text, "We Gather Together" as too militaristic. The first public performance of the hymn was the next Thanksgiving Day. It appeared in Hymns of the Living Church in 1910. Cory addresses God as “Redeemer, Creator”, thus placing God and our praise into a christological connection.

There is an imminent danger in using “God” in civil religion, because there is no generic “God”. You have to be honest what and whom you mean by invoking God. For Christians, all God-talk has to be rooted in the self-revelation of the Trinity, which means nothing else than that God revealed himself, his innermost being, in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spririt. This is what the Confessional Synod at Barmen in 1934, facing the heresy of the German Christians, who saw God’s providence at work in Hitler, solemnly declared: “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.”

Sisters and brothers, most of this was already written when I left for Germany on September 6. However, in the aftermath of the terrible events of September 11, I believe a proper reflection on our talking about God has become even more imperative. I myself am searching for language that can help me in reflecting, processing and praying. I have turned to Scripture, especially to the Psalms, but also to the New Testament, which tells us of the “cross-- relic of another Ground Zero -- a memorial to the ghastly death of an innocent man. It is fittingly described as tragic, brutal, heinous. Yet, all that I know of the love of God is indicated by it, and it points to a grave that has been emptied by Love”. (Dorsey McConnell, Adagio to Ground Zero. http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/joy177.html). And I am taking to heart the advice of St. Paul: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Your Pastor Dr Holger Roggelin  

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