The Pastor as Hymn Writer

By Prof. Chad L. Bird

Most Lutheran congregations hear at least four sermons every Sunday. That's right­ four. One is preached from the wooden pulpit and three or more others are preached from the "paper pulpit" they hold in their hands, that is, their hymnal. Poetic sermons­that's what (most of) the sacred songs of the church are. The hymns squeeze into a handful of stanzas, sung in two or three minutes, what pastors preach from the pulpit in 15 or 20 minutes.

It ought to come as no surprise, therefore, that the vast majority of these "sung sermons" have been written by those who sermonize every Sunday ­the pastors of the church. From Ambrose in the 4th century, to Luther in the 16th, to Franzmann in the 20th, preachers have hymned their way into the ongoing liturgical life of the church. Though in heaven, they still preach on earth.

Why is it, you might wonder, that pastors write hymns? For most of us who do, the answer is quite simple: It is one more way we preach the life-giving Gospel of Christ Jesus into the hearts of sinners. Woven together in true Christian hymnody is the eloquence of poetry, the truth of God's Word, and the beauty of music. This "threefold cord is not quickly broken," either by time or by changing cultures, for it binds the Church to her eternal Lord.

The Rev. Chad L. Bird is Assistant Professor of Exegetical Theology with a focus in Old Testament Studies at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.