free variable

I was absently leafing through the Lutheran Book of Worship this Sunday. The LBW organizers grouped hymns by use in the year, by use in the service and topically, so there are sections like “Holy Communion”, “Advent”, “The Word”, and “Christian Hope”. There are maybe a dozen hymns in the “Justification” section, but I think I’ve only ever sung three or four of them as an adult member of various ELCA congregations. That’s bad enough.

However, if one has any doubts about the spiritual and theological health of the ELCA, one need only look at the asinine With One Voice hymnal, released into the wild in 1995 by Augsburg Fortress publishers. It is organized in much the same way as the LBW, but has no “Justification” section whatsoever. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a copy of the Hymnal Supplement 1991, which is also used by some Lutherans, but I’m not holding out any hope that it has any good justification hymns, for the following reasons:

1. The Hymnal Supplement 1991 is published by “GIA Publications”. Are you wondering what that stands for? It stands for “Gregorian Institute in America” — people who wouldn’t know justification if it imputed them in the rear.
2. As far as I could tell from using it in college, the Hymnal Supplement is the liturgical equivalent of an anthrax-laced envelope — an attempt to “get back” at Lutherans for 500 years of having better hymns by inflicting the sort of Marty Haugen and David Haas dopery that has been a staple in RC churches since VCII on innocent, quietist Scandinavians.

Seriously, read the text to any of Luther’s great justification hymns — Erhalt uns, Herr will do nicely. Do you honestly think anyone with a last name of “SJ” could write anything remotely approaching that?