Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal

Abstract

Reviewed by: Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days by Gracia M. Grindal Philip Nesvig Jesus the Harmony, Gospel Sonnets for 366 Days. By Gracia M. Grindal. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021. 369 pp. Drawing upon the long Christian tradition of harmonizing the life and ministry of Jesus, Gracia Grindal has expanded this form by writing 366 gospel sonnets to match any modern calendar year. Using the harmony provided by Johannes Thorbjørnson Ylvisaker (1845–1917), Grindal astonishingly wrote her sonnets on a daily basis for an entire year. One could assess Grindal's success with the sonnet form, but poetry does not take pride of place in this remarkable [End Page 202] collection. Proclaiming Jesus does! Grindal is preaching to us on every page. The reader is aware that the iambic pentameter rhythm is the structure for each poem. Yet the form is the servant of the proclamation. Each sonnet is one piece of a comprehensive sweep of the biblical message. On one level, the entire Bible story drives each sonnet with a selected gospel pericope plus two additional biblical texts per poem. On another level, the preaching and devotional proclamation of each sonnet reveal the enduring value of Grindal's masterpiece. The reader meets Jesus before and after his public ministry. As such, the starting point for the devotional use of this work is the Advent-Christmas season with but 24 sonnets. The public ministry portion of Grindal's book begins with John the Baptist's pointing to "the Lamb of God" and concludes with the Johannine "These were written so you might believe in Jesus." (Jn 20:31). The same could be said about the sonnets. The reader will be impressed by the Christocentric focus of the sonnets. As the supporting non-Gospel Bible passages are read, Jesus appears in the sonnets much as Luther discovered him in all of Scripture. The result is a profound appreciation for the "red thread of salvation" (xvii). The sonnets proclaim the paradoxical glory of Jesus' death. Lutheran theological themes and points of emphases enrich the texts. Poetic paraphrases, puns, allusions, turns of phrase, slogans, artfulness, wry humor and metaphors provide both profundity and play. They delight the reader. Names of Christians throughout the centuries appear with some occasional surprise as an echo of the texts in their witness. We meet St. Francis, Hieronymus Bosch, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as well as some lesser knowns who gave their ordinary but impressive witness. This sonnet collection is best appreciated by those who have worked the biblical texts for years, namely, experienced preachers and all students of the Bible. Having said this, all readers will benefit from engaging the three daily texts as well as the sonnet. The true goal of each sonnet is to evoke the living Word, thereby preaching Jesus to the reader. Some books require a slow read because the thought process and the argument presented are intricate and [End Page 203] intellectually demanding. Other books require a slow read because they are so rich in meaning that they must be absorbed in due time. Grindal's work is the latter type. Jesus the Harmony deserves to become a devotional classic. Philip Nesvig Tacoma, Washington Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.