On the Selection of Hymns for the Divine Service, Part 3

The "Hymn of Invocation"

It is practically universal in Lutheran churches today to begin the Sunday Gottesdienst with a hymn.¹ It is such a standard practice that it is second nature to most of the people sitting in the pews—it would be strange indeed if the hymn were omitted. After all, what could be more fitting than beginning the Divine Service with a hymn of praise?

What we find, however, when we turn to the historical record, is that this was not always the case. Of course, before the Reformation, the Roman Mass contained no rubric for a hymn anywhere in the service. In those days, the hymn was largely the property of the daily office, as monks and nuns gathered seven times a day and during the night to sing the Psalms and chant a hymn of Ambrose, Sedulius, Gregory, or any of the other ancient hymnists. Meanwhile, certain songs became paraliturgical folk hymns among the laypeople. As we have covered in brief before, both of these genres proved to be rich material for the Reformation to build and expand upon. Nonetheless, the general state of hymnody at the time was poor enough that Luther could write,

I also wish that we had as many songs as possible in the vernacular which the people could sing during mass, immediately after the gradual and also after the Sanctus and Agnus Dei.… But poets are wanting among us, or are not yet known, who could compose evangelical and spiritual songs, as Paul calls them, worthy to be used in the church of God.²

So we see Luther’s implicit evaluation of the extant songs at the time. Not every Christian song is suitable to be sung at mass, as we have discussed briefly before.

But note also Luther’s prescription as to where in the service these newly-composed hymns are to be sung: after the Gradual and after the Sanctus and Agnus Dei—that is, during the distribution of Holy Communion. He does not suggest beginning the service with a hymn, as perhaps he well could have. Earlier in the same document, he simply begins with the Introit.

Three years later, in the German Mass (Deutsche Messe), however, we read this: “To begin the service we sing a hymn or a German Psalm”.³ Here we do appear to have precedent for current American Lutheran practice, except that this is followed immediately by the Kyrie. Thus, this rubric serves the function of the Introit. There is not an opening hymn in addition to the Introit in Luther’s rite.⁴

Luther did not see his rite as prescriptive for all of Germany. Nevertheless, in the generations following, church orders drawn up for the territorial churches were modeled on the Deutsche Messe; deviations therefrom were usually minor with regards to the structure or what the rubrics specified. As an example, in all the church orders surveyed in Friedrich Lochner’s The Chief Divine Service, the chief hymn, if it is mentioned at all, always precedes the reading of the Gospel. Similarly, if the Introit is mentioned⁵, it is either in the form of the historic Introits retained from the medieval era or of a hymn.⁶

There is one piece of evidence that may be considered a counter-example of sorts: in the Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal, according to the report of its pastor Johann Mathesius, the people gathered for an hour before the Sunday service itself to sing vernacular hymns.⁷ While this is admirable and certainly worthy of imitation, it should also be considered that this hour-long hymn sing was instituted in response to the reintroduction of Latin liturgical music—Joachimsthal had a prestigious Latin school—and the corresponding reduction in vernacular hymnody during the service itself. So while the service was preceded by hymnody, it was not part of the service itself.⁸ The Introit then, as in the centuries preceding it, was considered the start of the mass.

So go the liturgical rubrics in Lutheranism for the first few centuries after the Reformation. Along comes the Common Service of 1888, a joint product of three American Lutheran church bodies: the General Synod, the General Council, and the United Synod of the South. While it, too, acknowledges the Introit as the proper beginning of the service, and even permits the omission of everything prior to it, nevertheless there is for the first time an opening hymn prescribed in a Lutheran order of service. Of it, the rubric says, “The hymn at the beginning may be a hymn of invocation of the Holy Ghost.”⁹ Then follows the Confession and Absolution.¹⁰ In the Missouri Synod’s Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book of 1918, which introduced the Common Service for the first time into that body, the service begins with the rubric “A Hymn of Invocation of the Holy Ghost may be sung.”¹¹ The Lutheran Hymnal of 1941 (authorized, created, and used by the entire Synodical Conference) removes the option and reads: “A Hymn of Invocation of the Holy Ghost or another Hymn shall be sung.”¹² Note here also the permissiveness TLH introduces as to which hymns may be chosen here.

From this point, it appears that the practice of having an opening hymn in the Divine Service took firm hold in American Lutheranism and has continued until this day.¹³ It is a liturgical commonplace. While there is nothing wrong with this practice, it should be acknowledged for the development that it is. Furthermore, the original restriction of this rubric to hymns invoking the Holy Ghost has given way in general practice to include any hymn appropriate to the day whatsoever. Again, this is certainly a fine way to sing more Lutheran chorales. But what if we returned to a consistent practice of a true Hymn of Invocation? What would the benefit be of deliberately, consistently calling upon the Third Person of the Holy Trinity to begin the Divine Service? As a commenter noted a few weeks ago, the classic hymn Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist (“To God the Holy Spirit Let Us Pray”; LSB 768, TLH 231) was often used in this way. Michael Schirmer’s “O Holy Spirit, Enter In” (LSB 913, TLH 235) is another such hymn directed toward the Holy Ghost and appropriate for such a use. Neither are the Pentecost mainstays “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest” and “Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord” out of place, though overuse of these would perhaps detract from the impact of their use on the feast itself. Even a hymn which calls upon the Father or the Son, or all three Persons, would be appropriate.

If there is to be an opening hymn, let it be a true hymn of invocation; that is, calling upon God to bless those gathered in His name with His presence through the saving Word and Sacraments. There is much more to be said on this subject, but it is for another time.

S. D. G.

1. Sometimes announcements are made first, but the worship service proper is generally recognized to begin with the hymn.

2. Martin Luther, “An Order of Mass and Communion for the Church at Wittenberg” (1523): vol. 53, p. 36, in Luther’s Works, American Edition, vols. 1–30, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1955–76); vols. 31–55, ed. Helmut Lehmann (Philadelphia/Minneapolis: Muhlenberg/Fortress, 1957–86); vols. 56–82, ed. Christopher Boyd Brown and Benjamin T. G. Mayes (St. Louis: Concordia, 2009–), hereafter AE.

3. Martin Luther, “The German Mass and Order of Service” (1526), AE 53:69.

4. And, of course, there is no Confession and Absolution at the beginning of the service. Luther recommends a form of admonition to the people after the paraphrased Lord’s Prayer and before the Words of Institution.

5. Those that omit any mention of the Introit are the Braunschweig-Lüneburg church order of 1657 and, more notably, the Missouri Synod’s Kirchen-Agende of 1866. Both begin with the Kyrie; the latter specifies Luther’s troped Kyrie.

6. Friedrich Lochner, The Chief Divine Service, ed. Jon D. Vieker, Kevin J. Hildebrand, and Nathaniel S. Jensen, trans. Matthew Carver (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2020), 46–47.

7. Christopher Boyd Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 39.

8. Brown, Singing the Gospel, 38–39.

9. The Common Service for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1888), xlvi. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Common_Service_for_the_Use_of_Evange/bnRIAAAAYAAJ

10. In the General Synod’s original publication of the Common Service, as noted, the “Explanatory Directions” in the prefatory material allow for the omission of both the opening hymn and the Confession and Absolution (what was later called the “Preparatory Service”) “as occasion requires”. However, a few pages later, the start of the service indicates that this is perhaps not so optional, saying that “The Congregation shall rise, and the Minister, standing at the altar, shall say…”

11. Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1918), 1.

12. The Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1941), 15.

13. In Lutheran Service Book, each of the five “settings” of the Divine Service have a “may” rubric permitting the singing of a “hymn of invocation”. The same is true of its predecessor, Lutheran Worship, with the exception of Divine Service III, which is modeled after the Deutsche Messe and provides the option of the Introit, a psalm, or a hymn.