Albert Schweitzer 		September 4
Medical Missionary, Theologian
Albert Schweitzer was born in 1875 in the Alsace region on the French-German border. He was the son of a Lutheran pastor in the village of Günsbach. From an early age he showed a gift for music, and at nine years of age he was able to deputise for the organist at services in his father’s church. He developed a keen interest in history and natural science. His studies in theology, philosophy and music took him to Strasbourg University, then on to Berlin and Paris. He was deeply religious, and in 1899 he became assistant preacher at St Nicholas’ Church, Strasbourg.
In 1901 he published The Mystery of the Kingdom of God. Schweitzer’s thesis that the teaching of Jesus was dominated by the idea that the world would soon end created a lot of interest. Before long he was lecturing in the university and became principal of St Thomas’ Theological College in 1903. His influential work, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, was published in 1906. In this book Schweitzer surveyed the numerous lives of Jesus that had been published and developed his theory that Jesus spoke from the conviction of a speedy end of the world and that this lay behind his willingness to suffer and die. Schweitzer then applied similar principles to the teachings of Paul in his Paul and his Interpreters, published in 1912.
In 1905 he resigned the principalship in order to follow his desire to study medicine in preparation for missionary work overseas. During the six years of study he supported himself by his organ concerts and other musical activities. At the same time, he published a major study of J.S. Bach. In 1912 he married Helene Bresslau, and in 1913 the Schweitzers sailed to French Equatorial Africa. They established a hospital at Lambaréné on the model of an African village. His work was interrupted towards the end of World War I, and for a time he was interned in France by the French.
After the war, he wrote further works on philosophy and theology, notably The Decay and Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics (1923), and later The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1931). He then travelled throughout Europe giving organ recitals to raise funds to rebuild the hospital, to which he returned in 1924. He worked there for over forty years until his death, returning to Europe for lecture or concert tours to raise money for his work and to see his wife and daughter. His wife’s health prevented her from living at Lambaréné, though she joined him there during World War II. When he died in 1965, he left a compound of over seventy buildings, including a 350 bed general hospital and a leprosy hospital for two hundred patients.
Schweitzer’s life demonstrated his own commitment to the principle of reverence for all life and his belief that 
the essential element in Christianity as it was preached by Jesus and as it is comprehended in thought, is this, that it is only through love that we can attain to communion with God. All living knowledge of God rests upon this foundation: that we experience him in our lives as will-to-love.
For Liturgical Use
Albert Schweitzer was born in Germany in 1875 and educated at Berlin and Paris. He was a brilliant musician, philosopher, theologian and author, who in 1913 put aside an assured life of fame and fortune in Europe to go to West Africa as a medical missionary. There he established a hospital at Lambaréné based on the pattern of an African village. Apart from an interlude in Europe during and after the First World War, and later visits to Europe, he worked for the remainder of his life in Equatorial Africa. He died in 1965.
Sentence
Jesus said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.”		Luke 9:24
Collects
God of constant surprise,
through faith in Jesus Christ
you turn upside down the values of this world
and confound the wisdom of this age;
may the selfless service that Albert Schweitzer gave
out of love for you and reverence for life
increase our commitment and compassion,
that we too may stand against the false values of our age,
in the strength of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus, Lord of all life,
you come to us as one nameless and unknown,
as you came to Albert of Lambaréné;
help us to serve you with every gift we have.
Psalms	8	108:1-6
Readings
Ecclesiasticus 17:1-13	To see God’s glory
1 John 2:14-17		Do not love the world
Luke 18:18-27		Leaving all to follow Christ
Post Communion Sentence
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.	Romans 12:21