Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

“Jesu Juva” or the letters J.J. That simple Latin prayer means, “Jesus, help me.” Whatever the musician Johann Sebastian Bach wrote, whether it was a composition for a wealthy court patron, or simply a liturgical complement to the pastor’s sermon, he included those two letters at the beginning of his work. “Jesus, help me.” It says, in whatever we do, all assistance comes from our Savior through the means of the Holy Spirit, and, all glory of our accomplishments completely belong to Him and Him alone. But more on that later.

The Church commemorates Johann Sebastian Bach today because it was the day in 1750 on which he was “born into heaven,” that is, departed this life and entered the eternal life that was promised to him and given in the water of Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Bach was never really popular as a person or through his music while he was living. He was known only as the organist and choir director in Leipzig, Germany, a position he held over 25 years. His most enduring works were specifically meant not for performance in a symphony hall, but to fit right in to the church’s liturgy. Bach wrote a full cantata based on the hymn of the day for every Sunday’s (and holy day’s) Divine Service. It would follow the assigned readings, just like our hymn of the day does, and it prepared the congregation members of St. Thomas Church for the hour-long sermon that would follow, and the Lord’s Supper that would be served after that. His Passion oratorios, St. Matthew and St. John, were intended to be sung as part of the Vespers services on Good Friday. Bach made his music for a specific purpose: it was not to draw attention to his skills or to make a dramatic show over the themes and subjects of the Bible. The St. Thomas Lutheran Church kantor wanted his music to preach God’s Word and bring the Gospel of forgiveness and everlasting life to those who would hear it. And it does that to this very day, as witnessed by a revival of Bach’s music in Japan that happened late last century, leading many people to hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus. It wouldn’t be the first time that this man was called “The Fifth Evangelist!”

The words of Saint Paul in our reading from Colossians would have been central to the thinking of a musical theologian such as Bach. Week after week, the people who attended his church, as the same with all of you who attend here, were not coming to church in order to consume a product, to get a theological lesson, or even to be urged into world-changing action for the Lord. You have come because God has called you with His Gospel voice. He has washed you clean in the water of Baptism, buried you with Christ and raised you up from death with Him through faith in the powerful working of God in your life. He takes care of the rest. The record of debt that you owed to God because of your sins? That’s been canceled. It was nailed to the cross and set aside because Jesus paid the price for you. No more legal demands hold their sway over you. As an heir of righteousness set free from sin’s slavery, you now are released in the confidence of Christ’s perfection to be Christ’s light simply by being who you are.

How come it isn’t as simple as that sounds? What gets us discouraged? Do we desire recognition, praise, accolades? Perhaps it’s success, results—we’re frustrated with the difficulties and the cross, in short, the thorns and thistles that we encounter as we live our Christian life. Our sinful human nature opposes us and gets in the way of the good that we know from God’s Law that we ought to do. The letter to the Colossian Christians doesn’t sugar-coat it: “you were dead in your trespasses.” This death did not come to you merely because you committed certain sins—you already had this death in you from birth, and your trespasses against your heavenly Father just affirmed the obvious. When you realize this, its impact certainly weighs heavy on your conscience and you are not going to find yourself in a very happy state of mind. Soon you start to believe that you don’t know how to pray. You lose sight of the blessings that your heavenly Father has promised to you each and every day. Because of this, we all could too easily become disqualified because people whom we respect may try to shake us to our senses and insist on the law’s strict demands. They promise success for us if we are just a bit more committed, a bit more organized, a bit more intent on our purpose of what we are supposed to be doing.

Paul says these are not the answers. The substance belongs instead to Christ. He is the head, from whom the whole body of the Church—that is you—are nourished and held together as with joints and ligaments, growing with a growth that is totally from God. Yes it is true, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, there is no getting around that. Even your so-called righteous deeds were worthless rags, yet your Lord still made you alive in Christ, He has forgiven all your sins against His laws. You are declared righteous and perfect because God doesn’t look at you and see your sins on you anymore. He sees Jesus’ perfection instead, and He counts it in your favor by faith. In the Lord’s Supper, the Sacrament of the Altar, the fullness of deity that dwells in a human body, the Body of Christ, is put into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sins and His Blood is poured down your throat as a testament to the full confession of the one true faith that you believe in unity with one another.

These are the gifts that are handed out to you here in the Divine Service. This blood-bought forgiveness will help and sustain you from day to day and assure you of the life everlasting that you know you don’t deserve, but God wants you to have it at the cost of Jesus’ suffering and death. And because Jesus knew that you needed His constant help, He gave you the privilege of prayer. Jesus was taking a lot of time to pray and His disciples took notice. They also knew that John the Baptist had taught his own disciples how to pray. When they asked Jesus, they then received a very precious gift from Him, a gift that you also have in your possession as a redeemed, forgiven, Baptized child of your heavenly Father. You have the Lord’s Prayer, and every Christian prayer that may be built on its solid foundation of faith. In the Lord’s Prayer you see every attack that comes at you from the devil, this evil world, and your own evil flesh, the sinful nature inside you.

Jesus has conquered all those enemies for you, and provided your spiritual needs and your physical daily bread even before you have asked Him for it. He will strengthen your faith, though it may waver due to struggles and trials. Of all the countless blessings you receive each day from Him, only a small percentage of your prayers might have a slight delay to their answer, or they may not be right for you to have at the moment. Those are only the earthly things that you are asking for, requesting something from God that you can see and touch. It’s not wrong to bring every request to your heavenly Father, but also don’t neglect the fact that many, many more blessings, most of them the spiritual blessings that you cannot yet perceive, are being lavished upon you every second.

If you need more of your Lord’s strengthening through His Word, you might try music. Paul’s letter to the Colossians continues a little further on from today’s reading when he says: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Whether you are listening to a Bach cantata by yourself, or singing a Christ-centered hymn with fellow redeemed believers in Church, that music can convey the Scriptural words in a way that simple speaking can’t quite accomplish. Bach himself understood that, and Martin Luther praised the value of good music as a servant of God’s Word. This is also a good gift from your heavenly Father to help you and prepare you for the day when you will be born into heaven, and leave this sinful world of suffering behind.

Johann Sebastian Bach was largely forgotten by most people soon after his death. He was remembered only as someone who did his job, his Christian vocation week after week, without needing the thanks of the people who heard God’s Word proclaimed through his music. In fact, no one paid any attention to his music until the 1820s, when fortunately enough, the people of Germany were entering a revival of Lutheran theology that many people call a second Reformation. Felix Mendelssohn, a man who was born a Jew but became a devout Lutheran, discovered Bach’s works and conducted his St. Matthew Passion for the first time in almost 100 years. But Bach himself was never concerned with popularity or the accolades of men. He wanted to make it abundantly clear that all glory in whatever we do belongs to God alone, since He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, including our talents in music or any other useful art. That is why at the end of each of his musical compositions, Johann Sebastian Bach included another prayer, this time writing it in three letters, S.D.G, standing for the Latin phrase, Soli Deo Gloria: To God Alone be the Glory. At the top of the page he asked Jesus for His help, since nothing we do is worthy without Him. But with Christ’s once-for-all death for sin and the power of His resurrection, that’s how you, too, can be sure that you are rooted and built up in Christ Jesus the Lord, knowing that He has done all the work of your salvation, so that all thanks, praise and glory be given in the Church to God alone.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Gen. 18:17–33 I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.
Psalm 138 I will praise You with my whole heart
Col. 2:6–19 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him
Luke 11:1–13 Our Father in heaven