The Language Of The Soul
Sermon
A SEASON OF SAINTS
Sermons For Festivals And Commemorations After Pentecost
July 28
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1750;
Heinrich Schutz, 1672;
George Frederick Handel, 1759; Musicians
Today we're commemorating three great composers of sacred music in the Baroque Era: Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich Schutz and George Frederick Handel. We remember them together because they lived and wrote in the same historical period and in a similar music style. And we remember them today because July 28 is the anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, and Bach is clearly the most important of these three composers, if not the most important composer of Christian music who ever lived.
Remembering these composers helps us celebrate our great heritage of sacred music and reflect on the importance of music in the life of the church, but it also leads us to think about the relation between our faith and music, in particular, and the arts in general.
Heinrich Schutz was born in 1585, exactly 100 years before Bach and Handel, and 102 years after Martin Luther. Schutz was among the earliest eminent Lutheran composers, and helped create the great Lutheran tradition of choral music. Music had been near the core of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther was a music lover and a musician himself, and he knew what Madison Avenue advertising agents would discover 400 years later: that music is a powerful way to communicate ideas to people.
In the Catholic Church of Luther's day, only the priest and the choir sang; the people in the congregation just listened. What's more, the music was all sung in Latin, which none of the people in the church understood. So the musical parts of the service were prime nap time for most people in the congregation.
In Luther's church, music became the treasure of the common people. First, he restored the practice of congregational singing, and wrote many hymns and chorales that are still favorites today: "A Mighty Fortress," "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come," "Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee." He also introduced the practice of singing in German, so the people in the congregation could understand and learn the words. Most of the common people of Luther's time couldn't read, but they could memorize the words of the hymns they sang on Sundays, and sing them during the week at home as they worked in their fields; and teach them to their children; and spread the word of God in their singing.
So the Lutheran church was a singing church. And by the end of its first century in existence, it was developing a tradition of church music - choir and organ music as well as congregational hymns. Heinrich Schutz, who came along at that time, was a great composer of church music for the German people in the German language. His music is famous for its technical genius, but also for its sincere devotional quality. Almost all his music consists of musical settings of biblical texts. In Schutz's hands, Scripture and singing were joined together for the benefit of the common folk.
George Frederick Handel was a different sort of composer altogether. Handel is of course best known to us for his great oratorio, Messiah. Most of us would consider Easter incomplete without Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," and Christmas incomplete without "For Unto Us a Child is Born," both of which come from Messiah. But Handel didn't write church music at all: all his music, including Messiah, was written for the musical theater. Handel started out writing Italian operas, and when he moved to England and his operas started to go out of fashion he wrote oratorios, like Messiah, which were originally operas on religious themes. His religious operas were enormously popular, and Handel lived out his life as a wealthy man.
That puts Handel's religious music in a different light, doesn't it? Doesn't it spoil the Hallelujah Chorus to know that Handel wrote it to sell concert hall tickets? Not at all. Great music is great music, and the proclamation of Christ and his resurrection is powerful in Handel's oratorios regardless of the musical setting for which he wrote them. Most sacred music, devotional art and religious books have been created by people who were trying to earn a living at it, and that doesn't diminish the beauty of the work any.
But Handel's music raises a more important question about the relationship between faith and the arts. Opera was a pretty questionable art form in his day, and many Christians didn't approve of it. It was fancy and frilly, and dealt with some of the more risque aspects of love and romance, and with crimes of passion and the like. If there had been fundamentalists and phonographs in Handel's day, I'm sure fundamentalist preachers would have been smashing and burning opera records and playing them backwards to find Satanic messages in them. So a lot of tongues were clucked and fingers wagged when Handel wrote operatic music with biblical themes - operas about Jesus himself, even. Still, over the last 200 years, Handel's slightly disreputable religious music has enriched the lives and faith of millions of Christians.
Our faith and arts maintain that relationship to this day. "Christian rock" music is an example, as are Hollywood movies about religious subjects and Christian literature in comic book form. It's all commercial and it moves close to the boundaries of good taste. Some people categorically deny that Christian faith is compatible with rock-and-roll music, or the silver screen. Others claim that all secular art, music and literature are somehow "humanistic" and destroy religious values. Those people need to remember how their hearts raced and the hair on the backs of their necks stood up with excitement and joy the last time they heard the "Hallelujah Chorus," and remember that Messiah was the big commercial hit of 1741 in the English musical theater. Nobody has to like rock music or modern art or schlocky movies, but we need to judge them on the merits of the ideas they express, and not call a particular art form anti-Christian simply because of what it is.
Handel was considered the greatest organist and composer in the world in his day, except one. Handel's own best friend said that only one musician in the world was greater than Handel: J. S. Bach. Though Bach and Handel were the same age, and wrote in similar styles, there is a stark contrast between them. Where Handel dealt with religion for the sake of his music, Bach always wrote his music for the sake of his religion. He always thought of his music as a way that he could serve God: at the end of nearly every music manuscript he wrote either "in Jesus' name" or "to the glory of God."
There has never been another composer like Bach. Nor has there ever been another figure who represented Lutheranism the way Bach did, except Luther himself. The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church calls Bach and Luther "the two most illustrious personages in the history of Lutheranism," and claims that Bach's Mass in B Minor is "the greatest choral work the world knows."11 Robert Schumann, a 19th century composer, said once that music owes as great a debt to Bach as religion owes to God.12
Bach's music has brought a powerful proclamation of faith to people all over the world. A friend of mine who is a Korean Methodist pastor knew few Lutherans in Korea and wasn't acquainted with Lutheran doctrines, but the first time we met and he heard that I was a Lutheran, he told me "Lutheran is very good." "Why do you say that?" I asked him. And all he answered was, "Bach!"
Growing up in a family that was musical as well as Lutheran, I always thought of Bach's music and the whole experience of faith as somehow inseparable. And as I studied both music and religion in college my appreciation of Bach and my awareness of the greatness of our church and its heritage both continued to grow, and played a big part in my decision to go to seminary and become a pastor - and eventually a church historian. Even earlier, during that stage most of us go through as teenagers when life seems baffling and depressing, the one thing I found that could always lift my spirits was the music of Bach. Sitting in front of the stereo listening to one of Bach's passions or cantatas, I couldn't help but be filled with the knowledge of God's goodness and Christ's love.
More than anything, it's faith in the overwhelming goodness of God and the saving death of Christ that comes through Bach's music. Bach intimidates most organists and choirs because his music is so intricate and complex, but for all the complexity of his music, there is never any confusion about it, never a note that seems wasted or unnecessary, never a weak point. It's like a reflection of God's creation itself, in which the immensity and the detail seem overwhelming, but nothing is extra or out of place. And for all the emotional intensity of Bach's music, there is never anger or harshness in it. Bach wrote only in love and gratitude for his salvation.
Karl Barth, an early 20th century Swiss theologian and aficionado of Mozart, once remarked that the angels in heaven play Mozart for their own entertainment, but admitted that in the presence of God they must play Bach.13 The teachings of Martin Luther and the music of J. S. Bach are the Lutheran church's two greatest gifts to the world. And our tradition of church music is only part of the gift of music that God has given to his children. It's that gift of music, the deepest language of the human soul, so powerfully expressed by Bach, Schutz and Handel, that we celebrate today. Amen.
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1750;
Heinrich Schutz, 1672;
George Frederick Handel, 1759; Musicians
Today we're commemorating three great composers of sacred music in the Baroque Era: Johann Sebastian Bach, Heinrich Schutz and George Frederick Handel. We remember them together because they lived and wrote in the same historical period and in a similar music style. And we remember them today because July 28 is the anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, and Bach is clearly the most important of these three composers, if not the most important composer of Christian music who ever lived.
Remembering these composers helps us celebrate our great heritage of sacred music and reflect on the importance of music in the life of the church, but it also leads us to think about the relation between our faith and music, in particular, and the arts in general.
Heinrich Schutz was born in 1585, exactly 100 years before Bach and Handel, and 102 years after Martin Luther. Schutz was among the earliest eminent Lutheran composers, and helped create the great Lutheran tradition of choral music. Music had been near the core of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther was a music lover and a musician himself, and he knew what Madison Avenue advertising agents would discover 400 years later: that music is a powerful way to communicate ideas to people.
In the Catholic Church of Luther's day, only the priest and the choir sang; the people in the congregation just listened. What's more, the music was all sung in Latin, which none of the people in the church understood. So the musical parts of the service were prime nap time for most people in the congregation.
In Luther's church, music became the treasure of the common people. First, he restored the practice of congregational singing, and wrote many hymns and chorales that are still favorites today: "A Mighty Fortress," "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come," "Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee." He also introduced the practice of singing in German, so the people in the congregation could understand and learn the words. Most of the common people of Luther's time couldn't read, but they could memorize the words of the hymns they sang on Sundays, and sing them during the week at home as they worked in their fields; and teach them to their children; and spread the word of God in their singing.
So the Lutheran church was a singing church. And by the end of its first century in existence, it was developing a tradition of church music - choir and organ music as well as congregational hymns. Heinrich Schutz, who came along at that time, was a great composer of church music for the German people in the German language. His music is famous for its technical genius, but also for its sincere devotional quality. Almost all his music consists of musical settings of biblical texts. In Schutz's hands, Scripture and singing were joined together for the benefit of the common folk.
George Frederick Handel was a different sort of composer altogether. Handel is of course best known to us for his great oratorio, Messiah. Most of us would consider Easter incomplete without Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," and Christmas incomplete without "For Unto Us a Child is Born," both of which come from Messiah. But Handel didn't write church music at all: all his music, including Messiah, was written for the musical theater. Handel started out writing Italian operas, and when he moved to England and his operas started to go out of fashion he wrote oratorios, like Messiah, which were originally operas on religious themes. His religious operas were enormously popular, and Handel lived out his life as a wealthy man.
That puts Handel's religious music in a different light, doesn't it? Doesn't it spoil the Hallelujah Chorus to know that Handel wrote it to sell concert hall tickets? Not at all. Great music is great music, and the proclamation of Christ and his resurrection is powerful in Handel's oratorios regardless of the musical setting for which he wrote them. Most sacred music, devotional art and religious books have been created by people who were trying to earn a living at it, and that doesn't diminish the beauty of the work any.
But Handel's music raises a more important question about the relationship between faith and the arts. Opera was a pretty questionable art form in his day, and many Christians didn't approve of it. It was fancy and frilly, and dealt with some of the more risque aspects of love and romance, and with crimes of passion and the like. If there had been fundamentalists and phonographs in Handel's day, I'm sure fundamentalist preachers would have been smashing and burning opera records and playing them backwards to find Satanic messages in them. So a lot of tongues were clucked and fingers wagged when Handel wrote operatic music with biblical themes - operas about Jesus himself, even. Still, over the last 200 years, Handel's slightly disreputable religious music has enriched the lives and faith of millions of Christians.
Our faith and arts maintain that relationship to this day. "Christian rock" music is an example, as are Hollywood movies about religious subjects and Christian literature in comic book form. It's all commercial and it moves close to the boundaries of good taste. Some people categorically deny that Christian faith is compatible with rock-and-roll music, or the silver screen. Others claim that all secular art, music and literature are somehow "humanistic" and destroy religious values. Those people need to remember how their hearts raced and the hair on the backs of their necks stood up with excitement and joy the last time they heard the "Hallelujah Chorus," and remember that Messiah was the big commercial hit of 1741 in the English musical theater. Nobody has to like rock music or modern art or schlocky movies, but we need to judge them on the merits of the ideas they express, and not call a particular art form anti-Christian simply because of what it is.
Handel was considered the greatest organist and composer in the world in his day, except one. Handel's own best friend said that only one musician in the world was greater than Handel: J. S. Bach. Though Bach and Handel were the same age, and wrote in similar styles, there is a stark contrast between them. Where Handel dealt with religion for the sake of his music, Bach always wrote his music for the sake of his religion. He always thought of his music as a way that he could serve God: at the end of nearly every music manuscript he wrote either "in Jesus' name" or "to the glory of God."
There has never been another composer like Bach. Nor has there ever been another figure who represented Lutheranism the way Bach did, except Luther himself. The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church calls Bach and Luther "the two most illustrious personages in the history of Lutheranism," and claims that Bach's Mass in B Minor is "the greatest choral work the world knows."11 Robert Schumann, a 19th century composer, said once that music owes as great a debt to Bach as religion owes to God.12
Bach's music has brought a powerful proclamation of faith to people all over the world. A friend of mine who is a Korean Methodist pastor knew few Lutherans in Korea and wasn't acquainted with Lutheran doctrines, but the first time we met and he heard that I was a Lutheran, he told me "Lutheran is very good." "Why do you say that?" I asked him. And all he answered was, "Bach!"
Growing up in a family that was musical as well as Lutheran, I always thought of Bach's music and the whole experience of faith as somehow inseparable. And as I studied both music and religion in college my appreciation of Bach and my awareness of the greatness of our church and its heritage both continued to grow, and played a big part in my decision to go to seminary and become a pastor - and eventually a church historian. Even earlier, during that stage most of us go through as teenagers when life seems baffling and depressing, the one thing I found that could always lift my spirits was the music of Bach. Sitting in front of the stereo listening to one of Bach's passions or cantatas, I couldn't help but be filled with the knowledge of God's goodness and Christ's love.
More than anything, it's faith in the overwhelming goodness of God and the saving death of Christ that comes through Bach's music. Bach intimidates most organists and choirs because his music is so intricate and complex, but for all the complexity of his music, there is never any confusion about it, never a note that seems wasted or unnecessary, never a weak point. It's like a reflection of God's creation itself, in which the immensity and the detail seem overwhelming, but nothing is extra or out of place. And for all the emotional intensity of Bach's music, there is never anger or harshness in it. Bach wrote only in love and gratitude for his salvation.
Karl Barth, an early 20th century Swiss theologian and aficionado of Mozart, once remarked that the angels in heaven play Mozart for their own entertainment, but admitted that in the presence of God they must play Bach.13 The teachings of Martin Luther and the music of J. S. Bach are the Lutheran church's two greatest gifts to the world. And our tradition of church music is only part of the gift of music that God has given to his children. It's that gift of music, the deepest language of the human soul, so powerfully expressed by Bach, Schutz and Handel, that we celebrate today. Amen.
