Make Up Your Mind

There was one thing last week at the Gerhardt symposium that made a bigger impression on me than anything else.

Two presenters mentioned their grandmothers, singing and singing and singing as they went about their chores. They each mentioned how Grandma had learned many Gerhardt hymns by heart, and that she knew all the verses. Another presenter commented about how his parents had taught the brood of kids many hymns. Several other presenters commented on how important it was that our people get to know Gerhardt hymns, learn them by heart, have those hymns on their lips, and grow to love these treasures.

However, I also heard throughout the week that we need new translations. We heard that so many of Gerhardt's hymns are lacking in the sacramental references that are clear in the original German. We heard that some of the hymns are in language that is too theological and that it needs to be simplified.

The preface of the catechism says about the words that are learned by heart: "Young and inexperienced people must be instructed on the basis of a uniform, fixed text and form. They are easily confused if a teacher employs one form now and another form -- perhaps with the intentions of making improvements -- later on. In this way all time and labor will be lost." Granted, these words were written about the Commandments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer. But there's wisdom there: people cannot be expected to remember words if those words keep changing from one decade to the next.

So which do we want? Do we want new and improved translations? Or do we want to have people hang onto those words they have memorized and prayed and sung and loved? If we want to go for "new and improved," what will the laymen think when the pastors urge us to learn hymns by heart, knowing that they'll just change the words on us again pretty soon, so that whatever we learned will be fuzzed and muddied and lost because of the word-changes?