From On the Cantatas of J.S. Bach: Trinity I-VII.
In 2023, Trinity VII falls on July 16th.
Sin and Death : Slavery and Righteousness
The wages of sin is death is the ecclesiastical theme of Trinity VII.
The epistle for the day is Romans 6:19-23. The passage, especially Verse 23, is famously proverbial. The choice of eternal life is made through repentance, and through abandonment of sin, which here is defined as conduct inadmissible to, and unsuitable in, the moral code of Christian righteousness. One chooses which slavery to live by, and in: either in sin, which concludes in death, or in righteousness, which concludes in the Kingdom of Heaven. The choice is Manichean and does not permit of independent interpretation.
One perspective is that one is either self-determinant and, therefore, does not unite with the promulgators of the moral law; or, that one is absorbed into the dependence required by the moral law that is being promulgated. Put another way, one lives in and for the present, or one lives solely for the future. The implication in the Christian code is that the gift of eternity is without compulsion, but the wages of sin are earned within the expectations of those others, including oneself, who pay the wage. I allow I see no practical difference between the two.
Feeding of the Four Thousand
The gospel of the day (Mark 8:1-9) is simpler, as it recounts the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand. The symbolism that Christ is the bread of life is also a commonality of Christian belief, most constantly in the Holy Communion contained in the Catholic Mass and similar rites, where the Eucharist, the bread rather than the wine its more important consecration, is a recollective celebration of and, for a moment, communion with, through the body of Christ Himself, the Last Supper.
Fret not, mortal soul
In cantata 186, Bach uses the natural opposition of hunger and repletion, as presented in the gospel, as metaphorical stand-in for the opposition of mortal sin and Christian righteousness. This structure he employs is the two-part cantata, one part before, and the second after, the sermon; with four solo voices, choir, and an orchestra of strings, oboes, and continuo. It is based on a 1716 version for Weimar, and is for the first Leipzig annual cantata cycle in 1723.
Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht / Daß das allerhöchste Licht, / Gottes Glanz und Ebenbild, / Sich in Knechtsgestallt verhüllt. Fret not, mortal soul, at the meanness of your mortality; God pervades all, and in His image you are made.
The opening chorus, for all the musical forces, is well crafted, the contrast between abundance and scarcity emphasized by using all the forces for the former and, for scarcity, reducing the forces to the choir and continuo. Throughout, the bass line, in the continuo, climbs up repeatedly and without cessation, making implicit the theological lesson, that the wages of sin is death.