In Passion-Book, Friedrich Lochner includes a few hymn stanzas at the beginning and ending of each of sixty-six devotions on the different stages of the Passion History. Musical settings appended by Lochner for less common tunes (in his context) are also included in the book, engraved by Lutheran musician David Schotte.

We have recently been made aware of Schotte’s YouTube channel, The Lutheran Kantor Project, which “aims to provide recordings of the great Lutheran chorales which are lesser known among English-speaking Lutherans. These recordings are designed to increase familiarity with tune and text.”

You can listen to David Schotte play the setting on organ and then sing acapella one of the hymns found in Passion-Book: “Christus, der us selig macht,” or “Christ, Who Saves Us by His Cross.” In the book, the melody and Stanza 8 of the hymn are included in Devotions 5 and 59 while the melody is suggested for the hymn stanza in Devotion 13.

Here is a PDF of the hymn with additional information below from The Lutheran Kantor Project:

Text: Michael Weiße, 1531; tr. composite, sts. 1–7, alt.; st. 8 Moravian Hymn-Book, 1819, st. 8, alt.
Tune: Michael Weiße, 1531.

Based on Patris sapientia, an ancient Latin office hymn traditionally sung on Good Friday, this hymn, originating in Weiße’s Bohemia, became popular in Lutheran Germany. It is most famous for its use by Bach in the St. John Passion, though Bach was only following the lead of Heinrich Schütz in his own Johannespassion from the century before.

This hymn is also notable for its references to the events of Christ’s passion at specific hours of the day, following Scripture’s own record of them. Here, they are translated as the names of the canonical prayer offices, as shown below:

Terce = third hour = 9:00 a.m.
Sext = sixth hour = 12:00 p.m.
Nones = ninth hour = 3:00 p.m.
Vespers = evening = 6:00 p.m.
Compline = bedtime = 9:00 p.m.

For those who want to learn more about why we do what we do in the Divine Service, we always recommend Ceremony and Celebration and The Conduct of the Service. Additionally, we want to call your attention to resources found on the YouTube channel of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Along with recorded services and Bible classes, there is a series of videos from 2018 in which Pr. David Petersen describes historic practices and ceremony within the context of Divine Service 3. The videos combine parts of a recorded service with his commentary. As Pr. Petersen states, “All Lutheran rubrics, in a sense, are ‘may’ rubrics. That is to say, everything in this is adiaphora.” His helpful explanation of these “ceremonies, particularly how they’ve been modified and in practice at Redeemer,” will be of interest both to pastors, who are the primary audience, and also to parishioners, who will benefit from deeper knowledge of the reverence and history of ceremony in the Divine Service.

*Watch the series on YouTube: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six.

In the latter half of the 1800s, Friedrich Lochner was pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he also helped to start the Synod’s teacher training program. Harvey Peters, a vicar from Concordia Theological Seminary – Fort Wayne serving in Iowa, has been a member at Trinity, Milwaukee, since 2019 when his own father was installed as pastor there. It was around that time that Matthew Carver’s translations of Lochner’s works began to be published (including Apostolic Agenda, EP, 2020), which sparked in Harvey a particular interest in Lochner’s life and work. His endorsement follows:

“Pastor Friedrich Lochner’s Passion-Book is a magnificent resource and guide for faithful Christian meditation on the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing upon the treasures that he had found in the devotionals of Lutheran orthodoxy, Pastor Lochner brought the clarity, depth, and piety of our fathers in the faith into his age; thanks to this translation by Matthew Carver, his work has now found new life in our day as well.

“The reader will find a thorough exposition of Christ’s Passion, accompanied by the richest of hymnody and prayer from the Lutheran tradition. You will see the Scriptures find their complete fulfillment in the crucified Lamb of God, and learn of the countless benefits which are now bestowed upon those who seek solace in the sacred wounds of Christ. While we cannot fully exhaust the rich bounty of God’s wisdom and grace found in the cross of Christ, this Passion-Book from Pastor Lochner will serve any Christian reader well as you begin to ponder the depths contained in our Lord’s holy Passion.”
_______

PDFs are now available of the Table of Contents and the entirety of Devotion 12: Jesus Reveals His Betrayer.

We also recommend this article released by the LCMS in 2022 in honor of the Synod’s 175th anniversary. It highlights the course of Lochner’s life from Germany to America: “Motivated by reports of spiritual conditions in America and especially by hearing a lecture of F.C.D. Wyneken, a missionary on furlough from the States and a future founder of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Lochner resolved to go to America and preach the Gospel.”