Johann Olearius (1611–84) composed this hymn specifically for the Second Sunday after Trinity, first publishing it in his monumental 1671 Geistliche Singe-Kunst, a collection of over 1,200 hymns. He structured the text as a Trinitarian commentary on Luke 14: the first stanza addresses the Father whose grace welcomes all who are poor, crippled, blind, and lame in spirit; the second praises the Son who has atoned for our sin with His precious blood and now calls us to His Supper; the final stanza reaffirms that we come as the unworthy guests of the parable, washed in Baptism and fed by Word and Sacrament for the journey. The English translation by August Crull appeared in The Lutheran Witness of July 21, 1882, under the heading “CERTAINTY OF SALVATION.” Unusually, all five of Olearius’s original stanzas survive intact in the Lutheran Service Book.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026