Commemoration: Nikolai Grundtvig

Commemoration

September 2

Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, Bishop, Renewer of the Church, d. 1872

Reflection

Nikolai Grundtvig, son of a Lutheran pastor, left a lasting legacy on his native Denmark. He wrote more than one thousand hymn texts, including “Built on a Rock,” founded folk high schools, which raised educational standards throughout Scandinavia, worked toward the introduction of parliamentary government, and resisted the prevailing spirit of rationalism in theology by leading a revival of orthodox Lutheranism, restoring the creeds and confessions to prominence. In his probation sermon preached before church officials in 1810, he wrote, “Holy men of old believed in the message they were called to preach, but the human spirit has now become so proud that it feels itself capable of discovering the truth without the light of the gospel, and so faith has died.” A contemporary church building in Copenhagen is named after Grundtvig (I played the organ there in 1976).

Danes who immigrated to the U.S. eventually formed two separate church bodies, one the “happy Danes” and the other the “gloomy Danes.” The “happy Danes,” reflecting the more liberal outlook of Grundtvig, eventually merged into what was to become the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) in 1962 (of which Concordia was a part) which merged with other church bodies in 1988 to become the ELCA.

Prayer

God of grace, Thank you for your servant, Nicolai Gruntvig, for his living faith and broad learning. Thank you for his love and respect for the tradition of the church, enlivening the church of his day with new hymns that still speak to us today. We give you thanks for all those who have given us song, that we may continue to lift our voices in praise. In Jesus’ name. Amen.