Tuesday, June 9, 2009

going back to yesterday

Pr. Stuckwisch's response to a previous post inspired me to wonder how many times our hymnody refers to Christ in terms of OT characters who serve in their lives as types of Christ. So, for instance the two hymns I've come up with (but I've only started looking):
  1. Christopher Wordsworth puts a bunch in "See, the Lord Ascends in Triumph" (LSB 494 - slightly different version here) - Enoch, Aaron, Joshua, Elijah. Rev. James Douthwaite has a nice Ascension sermon based on the hymn.
  2. Then, no sooner had I wondered this than I found, while doing devotions yesterday, the assigned hymnody referred to Christ as our "second Adam" ("In the Shattered Bliss of Eden" - LSB 572).
so, dear Fathers Weedon and Stuckwisch, I know you are reading this. What other hymns am I not thinking about?

4 comments:

  1. I love these two that you mention, Pastor Leistico. Another one that belongs to somewhat the same category, which also happens to be one of my favorite new hymns in the LSB, is "Christ Sits at God's Right Hand" (LSB 564) by Rev. Stephen Starke.

    Also, "All the Earth with Joy Is Sounding" (LSB 462), another strong Starke hymn.

    Then there's the classic Easter hymn from St. John of Damascus, "Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain" (LSB 487), which portrays Christ as the new and greater Moses.

    There is a richness to this typology, which the fathers recognized and used to good purpose in their preaching and catechesis.

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  2. Concerning 487, when scanning the TLH handbook's index, under names for Christ it lists "Israel". Like you, I've always taken Christ as Moses in that stanza - but the handbook sees it more as an "Israel reduced to One" situation!

    The handbook also lists Christ as Gideon for "O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe" (the appropriately numberd 666 in LSB).

    Then there are all the "David's Sons" hymns - a friend did a Lenten series on all the sons being types of Christ.

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  3. Oh, yes, Gideon in LSB 666 is a good one. And I love the irony of that number for that hymn.

    On Moses vs. "Israel-reduced-to-one," I'm not sure we can parse that difference too finely. For they were all "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."

    I've heard of that "sons of David" Lenten series ;-)

    Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I'm always gratified to read them, whenever I am able to give it my time and attention.

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  4. from your smiley, I'm feeling like I'm missing something... perhaps you wrote such a series?

    btw, often when I'm reading your comments on your blog, I feel like you've taken my jumbled, tohu wavohu thoughts and put them in order by expressing them clearly.

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