God’s Word is Our Great Heritage
It’s great to celebrate the heritage of the church. This week we celebrate the festival of the Reformation. Last weekend I attended the 100th anniversary of the dedication of Zion Lutheran Church in Walla Walla, NSW, where I had served as pastor in the 1990s.
The current church building, whose dedication in 1924 was attended by over 3,000 people, was the third Lutheran church building in Walla Walla. The previous two were outgrown as the congregation increased in number.
It wasn’t just the building’s heritage that was celebrated last Sunday. Before the service, worshippers were reminded of the heritage of faith that was passed down through the generations. So important was the Christian faith to the original families who arrived in covered wagons after a long trek from the Barossa Valley, that they had put their resources into building a ‘house of God’ for worship before they built houses for themselves. Current worshippers expressed their thanks for the way that their forebears had diligently passed the Christian faith down throughout the generations.
After serving as pastor in that community for over eight years, revisiting Walla Walla nearly 25 years later was also a celebration of our heritage as a family. We were part of their heritage, and they ours, for almost a decade of that 100 years.
Beneath all this rests a far greater heritage – the Word of God – as Nikolaj Grundtvig wrote in the hymn, ‘God’s Word is Our Great Heritage’ (LH 266). This hymn is usually sung to the same tune as Martin Luther’s famous hymn, ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’.
God’s word is our great heritage,
and shall be ours forever;
to spread its light from age to age
shall be our chief endeavour.
It guides on life’s way,
in death is our stay.
Lord, while worlds endure,
may we retain it pure
throughout all generations.
This ‘great heritage’ surpasses that of buildings, history, and people. Peter reminds us, quoting Isaiah 40:8, ‘The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever’ (1 Peter 1:24).
Our ‘chief endeavour’ remains to pass on this great heritage ‘from age to age’ as did the faithful folk of Walla Walla, and of many other places.
There is nothing besides the Word of God of which it can be said, ‘It guides on life’s way, in death is our stay.’
What a blessing it is to hear the apostles and prophets confidently confess, as St Peter did in one of the readings in last Sunday’s anniversary service, ‘For it stands in Scripture…’ (1 Peter 2:6), and to know that we can have the same confidence whenever we read God’s Word.
And, as we give thanks for the great heritage that is God’s Word, may we pray with the hymnwriter, ‘Lord, while worlds endure, may we retain it pure throughout all generations.’
