Songs in Seasons
Carla Waterman, Advent Liturgist
A MIGHTY FORTRESS
Martin Luther, trans. Frederick Hedge
You can pick and choose verses on some hymns. The stanzas emphasize a different facet of the overarching theme, and some facets work better than others in any given service. Amazing Grace is like that. If you skip a verse or two, what you have sung will stand on its own.
But other hymns tell stories. If you drop a verse, the hymn makes little sense. Once you begin, you are committed to singing all the verses, because each verse builds on the last. The classic example of this kind of hymn is A Mighty Fortress is Our God. We are generally most familiar with the translation by Frederick Hedge. Let’s take a look.
1 A mighty fortress is our God,
a *bulwark never failing;
our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
2 Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing,
were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God's own choosing.
You ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he;
Lord *Sabaoth his name,
from age to age the same;
and he must win the battle.
3 And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.
4 That Word above all earthly powers
no thanks to them abideth;
the Spirit and the gifts are ours
through him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
the body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
his kingdom is forever!
*a fortified wall offering unfailing protection
*Lord Sabaoth means the Lord of Hosts
This hymn tells the story of a conflict between the powers of darkness—“the prince of darkness grim” alongside all those who “seek to work us woe”—and God’s own champion, Christ Jesus, the Lord Sabaoth—the Lord of hosts (imagine an army of angels with Christ Jesus at their head). Our lives are the battleground for these two powers amid “mortal ills” that “threaten to undo us." The enemy’s arrows can pierce our unguarded hearts with paralyzing fear, our lives with disease and death, but we are given a bulwark, a fortified wall of unshakeable protection, in which we can take our stand. We stand in Christ. Here we have the Spirit and the gifts. We are strengthened to love truth over lies, faith over fear, God’s kingdom over the kingdom of self—“Let goods and kindred go.”
The “craft and power” of evil is very strong, but the prince of darkness does not ultimately prevail. “One little word shall fell him.” If we stop at verse 3, we are stuck looking for the secret word. What word could win the battle? Are we in a story like the fantasies where there is a secret word that only the high and mighty know? No, this is the “In the beginning” Word. The “Word was with God” word. That Word that is the name above every name. That Word to whom every knee shall bow.
That Word, Jesus, the Son of God, triumphs through us. In the end, A Mighty Fortress is not so much about a place we run to, but about the person who stands in us, with us, and fights the darkness through us.
