Second Sunday of Easter

April 24, 2011

                Have you finished packing away the Easter Bunny & baskets?  What about the jelly beans, Cadbury eggs & Peeps?  I hope you have some left because Easter for the church is not over for 40 more days!  The liturgical church continues to sing our alleluias and proclaim that Christ is risen to all who will hear.  This season is a time to rejoice and reflect on the meaning of the resurrection and to fashion our lives to be the Easter people that Christ has made us.

                Our processional hymn this week will be Good Christians All, Rejoice and Sing.  The carollike qualities of the Resurrection hymn are reinforced by phrases such as “Bring flowers of song to strew His way,” and of course, the triple “Alleluia” ending.  Alleluias are back!  The original hymn began “Good Christian Men…” but in modern hymnals the words all or friends have been substituted to include everyone.  The hymn tune was written by Melchior Vulpius and first appeared in a his book, Ein schon geistlich Gesangbuch (Sacred Song book), in 1609.

                Jesus Lives! is our gradual hymn to accompany the Gospel text, John 20:19-30.  Again, we will be singing ‘Alleluia!’ at the end of each verse.  This hymn was first published in Hymns from the German in 1864.  The translation by Francis Elizabeth Cox used in our hymnal  (H82) is probably the best-known of the many German-English translations she has made.  Her original opening line was described as “unfortunate” (“Jesus lives! no longer now”) and was revised twice by Miss Cox in the years that followed.  

                The recessional hymn We Walk By Faith follows the sermon on Sunday, that will be delivered by Bishop William Thompson.  This text relates very closely the post resurrection appearances of the risen Christ with the worshiper’s life of faith in the light of the Resurrection event.  This hymn as been used in surprisingly few hymnals, perhaps because it alludes to several incidents in the Resurrection narrative, without focusing sharply, as a sermon normally must, on any one of them.   We will sing:

We may not touch His hands and side,

Nor follow where He trod;

But in His promise we rejoice;

And cry, My Lord and God!

“We Walk By Faith”

The choir will sing the spirited anthem, “Now Let Us All Praise God and Sing” during the call for the offering.  Again, the Alleluia’s are back.  That ought to loosen some change in your pockets!  Or how about some of the green stuff!  Watch for the offering plates and do what the Lord is moving on you to do!  Then be ready to stand at the chord for the Doxology.  “Praise God”!

 “Why Was He There” with words by James McRoberts set to the familiar tune, Finlandia by Jean Sibelius will be sung during Eucharist by the choir.  The final verse ends with the words,

No longer there, no more a Man of Sorrows,

But ris’n, exalted, reigning Prince is He.

                                                                                                                   “Why Was He There?”

May the peace of Christ dwell in us richly this Easter Season as we are called to be channels and recipients of the peace Christ has won for us,Lana

Sources:  Companion to the H82,  Companion to the SDA Hymnal, Tune My Heart to Sing