We continue in the Easter Season, the Great Fifty Days, which is Easter Sunday to Pentecost. This is the Greater Cycle of the Christian Year (the Lesser Cycle is Advent-Christmas-Epiphany) and is the the most joyous and celebratory time of the year. It focuses on Christ’ resurrection and ascension and the works of the Holy Spirit on Easter and on Pentecost. Our music and liturgy help us see the power and glory and majesty of the Trinity – God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The most popular song of the Easter season is on our hymnal – Christ the Lord is Risen Today #302. Sung by most churches on Easter, it was written by Charles Wesley for the first service in the Foundry Meeting House, the first Wesleyan Chapel in London, in 1739. This was only one year after Charles’ dramatic conversion experience at Aldersgate, where he realized he could actually have a personal relationship with God. The hymn was first published in the “Foundry’s Collection”, which included “hymns set to music as they are commonly sung at the Foundry”. This hymn originally had eleven verses, and was titled “Hymn for Easter Day”. The composer of the music has never been identified, but it was already a popular tune in London by 1708.
We sang this on Easter Sunday this year, but look at it again in the hymnal (#302) and really think about the words and how they help us give voice to our praise to our Risen Lord –
“Raise you joys and triumphs high: Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens and earth reply: Alleluia!”
The Lord is risen, indeed!