The Hymn of the Month is “I Know My Faith Is Founded” (LSB 587). The German text was written by Erdmann Neumeister, who was a pastor, organist, and schoolmaster in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1941, the hymn was translated into English by The Lutheran Hymnal.
The music of the month is Lord of Our Life, a sturdy partita by Kenneth T. Kosche, which uses the mighty tune ISTE CONFESSOR. The first four movements include “Theme,” “Trio,” “Bicinium,” and “Chorale,” and are interpretations of the first line of each stanza. The partita closes with a bright “Finale.”
Commissioned for the 150th anniversary of Concordia Publishing House on September 11, 2019, pastor and hymnwriter Stephen P. Starke, and Kevin J. Hildebrand, kantor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, have produced For Faith, We Praise You, Lord, a sturdy hymn written to the tune VERITY.
The five-stanza hymn is scored for SATB choir, congregation, organ, and trumpet. The hymn charts the Christian life lived in faith, from birth in Holy Baptism, to the altar at the Lord’s Supper, and into the harvest field as workers in God’s earthly kingdom. The post below showcases each stanza of this hymn along with explanations and reflections on the lyrics.
After the festivals of Pentecost and the Holy Trinity, the Church begins its longest yet perhaps least-celebrated season of the Church Year: the season after Pentecost. What comes at the end of the post-Pentecost calendar is not one of the Church’s grand festivals, but rather, a reminder that the end times are near. In this way, the season after Pentecost reflects the Church’s life as faithful members in Christ.
