Jan 2003

Fra presten skrivebord

Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of the faithful!

Psalm 149.1

A friend of mine, who is pastor, held his sermon one Sunday. From the pulpit he discovered that a famous professor of theology visited the church that day. He felt flattered by his visit, and satisfied by delivering one of his best sermons ever, that day. After the service, he greeted people in the narthex. When the professor came, he hoped for some nice words about his sermon. But the only comment by the professor was this: Thanks for the hymns you had chosen for today. He learned a lesson of humility that day, but maybe also about the importance of the hymns we sing at the service. Sometimes people comment on the hymns we sing at Mindekirken. In particular, people comment on hymns like What a friend we have in Jesus and Navnet Jesus. People like to sing the best known songs, especially from the bedehus tradition. Others comment when we sing newer Norwegian hymns, for instance by Eivind Skeie. He visited Mindekirken on 17.mai 2001, together with his brother-in-law, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. The latest generation has been a golden age for hymn writing in Norway, and Skeie has contributed substantially to this.

For this year’s LEIF, Edvard Hoem wrote the hymn For du er sjelv ein framand, and our organist Jim Reilly composed the music. Hoem is concerned about our social responsibilities as Christians, and some of his most beautiful hymns are about God as creator. Svein Ellingsen has written the most used baptism hymn, Fylt av glede over livets under. He uses simple words and metaphors and relates life to faith in a way that people may be comfortable with even if they they’re not strong in their faith. He puts words to the joy of the miracle of new life. Ellingsen is in my eyes the best hymn writer we have in Norway today.

The Bible is used in every church. But the hymns we are singing depend on the church. Mindekirken is the only church here around that sticks to the Norwegian language and uses the Norwegian hymnbooks (there are two of them, the red one and the blue called Salmer 1997). Through this we maintain a very rich spiritual heritage. The hymns we are singing express theology. It’s not the academic theology of the seminary, but the theology of experience. We sing about the God who sends sunshine and rain, who is very much alive and active and who has not forsaken those who are poor and oppressed or unemployed. It’s also a theology of grace that allows the faithful to see the sunshine in His face, even through their tears. We also sing a theology of survival that helps us to continue our pilgrim journey through this world. Some hymns express the word of God to us, others our gratitude and praise to God, or simply our requests to God to see the sunshine in His face even through our tears. We also sing a theology of survival that helps us to continue our pilgrim journey through this world. Some hymns express the word of God to us, others our gratitude and praise to God, or simply our requests for God’s

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716