Sturm und Drang at Bach Vespers

Last night, Sunday Nov. 13, I went with my friend Bob to Holy Trinity Lutheran for their Bach Vespers service. Somehow I had never been inside this church and was delighted to find such a lovely old pile with a high church evensong that was almost Anglican but also rather Roman in style.

The aisle candlesticks were lit before the service, which opened with a lovely motet by Hartmann. The Presiding Minister in a rather dingy white cope and an acolyte in cassock and cotta processed in, the acolyte carrying a two foot pillar candle that resembled a paschal candle without the decoration. After versicles and responses in procession also reminiscent of the Easter Vigil, invoking Christ as the Light of the world, we sang O Christ, You Are the Light and Day, a good sturdy Lutheran hymn. The minister was at the altar looking like he was preparing for communion, but then we saw smoke rising and realized he had been putting on incense in a large bowl. I believe it was Gloria.

Then we had psalms, prayers and lessons followed by an excellent homily by Pastor Robert Rimbo, sometime bishop of Michigan. Since our cantata for the 25th Sunday after Trinity was to be No. 90 (Es reisset euch ein schrecklich Ende), he spoke of the current popular obsession with End Times prophecies and books like the Left Behind series. He assured us this is nothing new. Back in the late first century people were sure the end was very near and the cantata we then heard was evidently inspired by another such era.

The author of the text of Cantata 90 is unknown, but the opening tenor aria says it all: You shall be carried off to a horrible end, you sinful scourners. The mass of sin is at full measure, yet your utterly stubborn mind has completely forgotten its judge.

The service continued with the Magnificat, harmonized by Martin Luther, during which more incense was put on. A little too sweet for my taste but not unpleasant. Then prayers and another good old hymn for the recessional, The Day is Surely Drawing Near. Let's hope not too near. I still have work to do!