Ephesians
2:20 - Sunday’s hymn of the
day, The Church’s One Foundation (LSB
644). Paul pictures a house when he speaks of the structure of the church. The
foundation is solid as the church is based on the Old and New Testaments the
prophets and the apostles. The tested stone on which the church rests is Christ
on which everything centers around. With such a structure the church moves
forward victoriously.
"The
Church's One Foundation" is a Christian hymn written in the 1860s by
Samuel John Stone. This hymn describes the church's relationship to its "foundation" being Jesus Christ. The
church is represented as the collective Christian fellowship of the earth as it
is wholly united by its savior, the son of God.
"The Church's One Foundation" was composed
as a primary answer to the division within the Church of South Africa generated
by John William Colenso, first Bishop of Natal, who denounced much of the Bible
as untrue. This issue is referenced to within the fourth verse of the lyrics
"Though with a scornful wonder men
see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed."
When Bishop Colenso was dismissed for his teachings, he pleaded to the higher
religious authorities in England.
It was then that Samuel Stone became included in the
discussion. It sparked him to draft a set of hymns based on the Apostles' Creed
in 1866. He titled it, Lyra Fidelium; Twelve
Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles' Creed. "The Church's One Foundation" is
based on the ninth article, The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints.[2]
[1] The Crucifixion Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcut copyright ©WELS used with permission
[3][3] Collect for Proper 11, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
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