My Light and My Salvation,
by Kurt E. Reinhardt. Fort Wayne, IN: Redeemer Press,
2008. Pp 68. $15. Reviewed by Fr David Graham Scott.
Kurt Reinhardt has served
since 1999 as pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
at Kurtzville in South West Ontario. He is a graduate of
Queen’s University in Kingston and Concordia Lutheran
Theological Seminary in St Catharines. He is married to
Tammy and they have three children. His book of 53 poems
connected with me and gave words to my tears.
The title of his book comes from Psalm 27, which his mother
used to read to comfort him in his boyhood fear of the
dark. He writes, “With time my fear of the physical
darkness subsided, but as I matured, I developed in its
place a keen awareness of the spiritual darkness all around
and within me.” At seminary Reinhardt’s deepening
appreciation of Christ’s Incarnation helped him in his
seeking “to give voice to the Light that has come into the
world to dispel that darkness.”
The cover artwork, “Jesus Christ the Word of Life,” is by
Michael D. O’Brien, Canadian novelist and artist. Reinhardt
writes, “His novels have been a source of comfort and
encouragement to me, even as they have evoked a serious
contemplation upon the role of cross-bearing in the
Christian life.”
In his Foreword Professor John R. Stephenson of Concordia
expresses his confidence “that Pr. Reinhardt’s compositions
will be richly used by the Holy Spirit for the catechesis,
consolation, and upbuilding of Christ’s harassed flock as it
endures the foe’s attacks, suffers from the lures of the
world, and is weighed down by the lethargy of its own flesh
in the intensifying woes of these last times.”
At seventy years of age I found the poem
“My life is drawing to its dawn” a singularly appropriate
meditation and prayer. But I think it appropriate for
almost any age.
My life is drawing to its dawn,
The darkness soon will all be gone,
The Son will shine upon my face
And in His gaze I’ll see his grace.
The night will yet grow colder still;
Dear Father, do Thy perfect will,
And let me see those promised rays
That I have longed for all my days.
The dark is deep before dawn’s kiss,
Despair impends before true bliss;
Pray paint the skies of inner sight
With rainbows of Christ’s risen light.
Pour out on me the Spirit’s pow’r,
Give me His fire for this dark hour;
He’ll fan the flames of my belief
And to my fears grant sweet relief.
O, dazzle my heart, Lord, I pray,
With sure hope of the coming day,
That I may bear the night in peace
Until dawn breaks on my release.
Not all of Reinhardt’s poems use this
metre. For instance this one of several different poems on
baptism; I will quote only three of its five verses:
God made all things through His Son,
With His Spirit Three in One;
Now in Baptism our God saves,
Gives new life within its waves.
. . . .
God brought Israel through the sea,
Conquered Pharaoh, set them free;
Now in Baptism our God saves,
Sets us free with mighty waves.
. . . .
Christ was baptized for our sake,
As a Lamb all sin to take;
Now in Baptism our God saves,
Brings us Jesus through its waves.
Or this poem, perhaps the most moving of
all the fifty-three, and certainly echoing Orthodox hymnody
for Good Friday:
The Word that called all into being
Cried out in agony,
As the created nailed their Creator
To the cross on Calvary.
The light that had broken darkness
When He had spoken, “Let it be,”
Was blotted out of heaven,
A cosmic sign for all to see.
The earth that He had summoned,
From the darkness of the deep,
Grated, groaned, and trembled
In witness of His majesty.
The trees that had sprung forth
When He commanded them to be,
Gave birth to the heavy timbers
That formed the suffering tree.
The creatures the Word created last,
In His image made to be,
Hissed at Him with words of hatred
As He hung dying on the tree.
The voice that began before beginning
Fell silent there for you and me.
For after He cried, “It is finished,”
His silence was our victory.
In his Foreword Professor Stephenson
observed that Reinhardt had become “an eloquent expositor of
the monergism of grace”. Indeed he is. But I follow
Orthodox theology in speaking of synergy or cooperation in
regard to grace and free will, although what God does is of
immeasurably greater importance than what we do. St Paul
said, “We are fellow-workers (synergoi) with God (1
Cor 3:9). St John recalls Christ saying to Laodicea,
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine
with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). Indeed Matthew
records Christ similarly: “Come to me, all you who labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). God
invites all but compels none.
Perhaps monergism of grace is that “God’s
gifts are always free gifts, and we humans can never have
any claim upon our Maker.” And perhaps synergism is that
“while we cannot ‘merit’ salvation, we must certainly work
for it, since ‘faith without works is dead’ (Jas 2:17)” (T.
Ware, The Orthodox Church, 221-222). St Paul put
synergy and the monergy of grace together in Philippians
2:12-13: “…work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God who works in you…” and in Galatians
5, nothing avails “but faith working through love.” In any
case, I hear no discordant chords in Reinhardt’s poetic
exposition of the monergism of grace.
On a Sunday on Vancouver Island when the
local Orthodox mission was closed, I chose to go to Faith
Evangelical Lutheran Church, once part of the Missouri
Synod, now in the Canadian offshoot. I wondered how many
Lutheran Churches are named Faith. And so I am somewhat
puzzled that Reinhardt’s book does not have a poem on
faith. Perhaps it is that his faith is so focused on Christ
that he sees little need to emphasize faith. His
sacramental theology sings purely of grace and grace
permeates his poetry. I think his faith is expressed by his
prayer, his contrition, his sense of his need for God, and
his poetic confessions of faith in Christ incarnate,
crucified, risen and interceding for, baptizing and feeding
us at the altar.
Kurt Reinhardt graciously gave me
permission to quote some of his poetry. In my enthusiastic
gratitude for his grace-filled work I quote part of his six
verse resurrection hymn:
What glorious dawn greets this new day?
The grievous stone is rolled away,
The ancient darkness is no more,
The seal is broken on its door!
The deep and overwhelming gloom
Is banished from Lord Jesus’ tomb;
The rising sun invades its night,
Revealing now His peerless might.
. . . .
Entombed with Him we shall not die,
But live to reign in pow’r on high,
Into His death baptized on earth,
We rise to share in His rebirth.
What glorious dawn greets this new day?
The sting of death is put away,
God gives us vict’ry through His Son;
Night fails before the Risen One!
My Light and my Salvation
can be purchased from the Bookstore of Concordia Seminary,
470 Glenridge Ave., St Catharines, ON L2T 4C3 (905)
688-2362 ext. 31, for $15 plus shipping.
