The Night Will Soon Be Ending

Sharper Iron from KFUO Radio

Rev. Tim Koch, pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Linn, KS, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Lutheran Service Book #337, “The Night Will Soon Be Ending.”

Jochen Klepper wrote this powerful text while he was living during the beginning of the Third Reich in pre-World War II Germany. That context of growing despair makes the hope of the hymn all the more powerful. Although the darkness of sin, guilt, grief, and pain is all around us, Christians have true hope in the fact that Christ, who is the Light of the world, will return. His first coming at Christmas shone this invincible light into our world to give us this hope even now. That’s why we run to the light of Christ as He comes to us now in Word and Sacraments, knowing that He has come for us lost sinners.

Text: The Night Will Soon Be Ending (Copyright: © 1998 GIA Publications, Inc. Used with permission.)

Author: Jochen Klepper, 1903-42

Translator: Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr., b. 1923

“The Hymns of Advent'' is a series on Sharper Iron that looks at a variety of the hymns found in the Advent section Lutheran Service Book. The season of Advent prepares us for Christ’s coming. The hymns of Advent teach that this is more than getting ready for Christmas; the Word of the Lord sung in hymnody helps us to receive Christ as He comes to us now in the means of grace and when He comes again in glory on the Last Day.