Sunday’s hymn of the day, A Mighty
Fortress Is Our God (LSB656) is Luther’s great battle hymn of the
Reformation. Based on the Psalm of the day,
Luther’s explanation
of his seal (from a letter he
wrote to Lazarus Spengler, city clerk of Nürnberg, in July 1530):
Honorable, kind,
dear Sir and Friend! Since you ask whether my seal has come out correctly, I
shall answer most amiably and tell you of those thoughts which now come to my
mind about my seal as a symbol of my theology.
There is first to
be a cross, black and placed in a heart, which should be of its natural color,
so that I myself would be reminded that faith in the Crucified saves us. For if
one believes from the heart he will be justified. Even though it is a black
cross, which mortifies and which also should hurt us, yet it leaves the heart
in its natural color and does not ruin nature; that is, the cross does not kill
but keeps man alive. For the just man lives by faith, but by faith in the
Crucified One. Such a heart is to be in the midst of a white rose, to symbolize
that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace; in a word it places the believer into
a white joyful rose; for this faith does not give peace and joy as the world
gives and, therefore, the rose is to be white and not red, for white is the
color of the spirits and of all the angels. Such a rose is to be in a sky-blue
field, symbolizing that such joy in the Spirit and in faith is a beginning of the
future heavenly joy; it is already a part of faith, and is grasped through
hope, even though not yet manifest. And around this field is a golden ring,
symbolizing that in heaven such blessedness lasts forever and has no end, and
in addition is precious beyond all joy and goods, just as gold is the most
valuable and precious metal.
May Christ, our dear Lord, be with your spirit until the life to come.
Amen.[2]
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