Saturday prior to Proper 22

 

Matthew 25:1-13 - Our reading is the inspiration for the hymn, “Rejoice, Rejoice Believers.” The believer rejoices only in Christ. The days are getting shorter, soon the harvest will commence. We pray for the safety of all who work to bring food to our table. We also anticipate a harvest of souls.

This hymn of ten stanzas was written by Laurentius Laurenti. It is his finest hymn and emphasizes our Lord’s Second Advent. The hymn was published in the author’s Evangelica Melodica, 1700, entitled “for the 27th Sunday after Trinity.” The complete hymn—unites the imagery of the parable of the Ten Virgins, Matt. 25:1-13 with that of Rev elation 20—21.

The translation is an altered form of Sarah Findlater’s, which appeared in Hymns from the Land of Luther (by her and her sister, Jane Borthwick), 1854, first series.

Another stanza from the original (Stanza 8) translated by Mrs. Findlater, beautiful for its imagery, reads:

Palms of victory are there;
    There, radiant garments are;
There stands the peaceful harvest,
    Beyond the reach of war.
There, after stormy winter,
    The flowers of earth arise,
And from the grave's long slumber
    Shall meet again our eyes!

 

As God’s vineyard will be harvested at the end of days so look to Christ the Lord of the harvest, the one in whom the believer rejoices. 

O God, whose almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy and pity, grant us the fullness of Your grace that we may be partakers of Your heavenly treasures.[1]

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[1] Collect for Proper 22, Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St, Louis

Source of the above hymn is from The Handbook to The Lutheran Hymnal.