Again I say, Rejoice!

Rejoice, the Lord is King:
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing,
and triumph evermore:
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
   Jesus the Savior reigns,
   the God of truth and love;
   when he had purged our stains
   he took his seat above:
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! 
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
His kingdom cannot fail,
he rules o'er earth and heaven;
the keys of death and hell
are to our Jesus given:
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
   He sits at God's right hand,
   till all his foes submit,
   and bow to his command,
   and fall beneath his feet:
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! 
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!
Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord the Judge shall come, [Jesus the Judge shall come]
and take his servants up
to their eternal home.
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Charles Wesley, 1746

Here is a hymn that we usually program as general praise. It is in fact a distinctly Ascension hymn, as you will see in context of this season's columns in Knowing the Score. It begins with acknowledging Jesus as King, and in stanza 2 takes us to and through the cross. This is a master of poetic theology; a gift that Wesley shares with few other hymn writers. Jesus "purged our stains" then "took his seat above." There is a world of understanding there, for those who know the scriptures and who regularly sing the gospel. All the Passion in one brief phrase, and the kenosis hymn (Philippians 2) in another: he purged our stains and took his seat above. Rejoice!

To what end? That every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! So we, the Church, his Body, now live in that confession in confidence: He holds the keys to this kingdom which cannot fail. He rules. Rejoice!

Today's stanza 4 is not included in many new hymnals. But we must see and sing it. This is the work of Jesus now - and also it clarifies the final stanza's indentification of Jesus as Judge. Today I sat in on a mock ordination council. When the candidate was asked "where is Jesus now?" he wisely responded, "relative to his humanity, he is in heaven; relative to his divinity, he is omnipresent." Rejoice!

The destination of Jesus, in the clouds from the mount, was not to a passive position in a restful heaven, but to the next phase of his work. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high ... (Heb. 1:3) Now the point of what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places. (Heb. 8:1)  We read elsewhere "he always lives to intercede for us." Rejoice!

And this is our hope. It is the source of hope for the apostles and the "more than 500" who saw Jesus between his resurrection and his ascension. It is the source of hope for all those who "having not seen him, yet love him." He is our Lord, the Judge, and he is coming again for his servants. He has gone to prepare a place for us, so that where he is we may be also. Rejoice!

And here is how Wesley finished this hymn - not what we find in our hymnals. Sing it to the last 2 lines (the refrain) of the hymn:

We soon shall hear th'archangel's voice;

the trump of God shall sound, rejoice!

Waiting, rejoicing,

Sing on!

And that he appeared

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time ... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

(1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

Matters of importance, in accordance with the Scriptures, attested to by many (when Paul wrote, many witnesses were still living). And from Paul's summary (not to mention the gospel accounts) we get the strong impression that these appearances were over time, and in various places. It is this work of Jesus, between Resurrection and Ascension, with which "Easter" is concerned. Surprisingly few hymns deal with these days - the focus jumps from Resurrection surprise and joy, to Ascension glory and awe. What about the intervening days? That looks like fertile ground for new hymn-writers.

And doubtless, some informed readers will now send me plenty of examples of what I am not finding! (The excellent Emmaus Road anthem, "Slow Down," by local composer Ed Childs, seems to fit in here. Thanks, Ed!)

In keeping then with the mainstream either/or of the season, I continue with some Ascension hymns for our considertion:

A hymn of glory let us sing!
New hymns throughout the world shall ring:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ, by a road before untrod,
ascends unto the throne of God.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

(Yes, the tune here is lasst uns erfreuen.
I provide the remainder of the hymn  without the Alleluia tropes.)

   The holy apostolic band
   upon the Mount of Olives stand,
   and, with his faithful followers see
   their Lord ascend in majesty.
O Lord, our homeward pathway bend
that our unwearied hearts ascend,
where, seated on your Father's throne,
you reign as King of kings alone.
   O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
   all praise to you let earth accord:
  You are, while endless ages run,
   with Father and with Spirit one.

   The Venerable Bede (8th cent.), tr. Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978

(c) Augsburg Publishing House

The "Alleluias" have been added to Bede's rather more straight-forward text. I like it, not only because it allows us to use a beloved tune, but also becasue it distinctly makes the seasonal connections. "Alleluia" is the expression of the church at Easter in particlar.

So, as we wait, and walk, and learn from Jesus, with Alleluias let us

Sing on!

Another Forty Days

Easter proper - Resurrection Sunday - is the hinge between two 40-day periods. Before Easter, the Church at large observes Lent: for the Church, a period of preparation. After Easter, the Easter season which culminates on day 40, with the Ascension: for the disciples, a period of preparation. 

Lent is a liturgical artifice. That is, an invention of the church, thoughtfully rooted in biblical, doctrinal, and devotional practices. But it does not "correspond" to a specific biblical historical "event." (None of which rules it out as a sound practice for individuals or churches. But also, which does make it entirely optional as Christian practice.)

The Ascension, on the other hand, is a vital component of biblical historical redemption history! And we know the day it happened, relative to Easter (the Passover). For this reason, the Reformers kept it on their calendars, while many of the old holy days were jettisoned. It was considered one of the "evangelical feasts" - a day to celebrate the Gospel.

Ascension ends a biblical forty day period, during which Jesus appeared to his disciples, and taught them. In this way, it is a mirror of how Lent is postured. The 40-day walk to the cross is a time of teaching in and through suffering. The 40-days between Resurrection and Ascension is a time of teaching out of victory. Then, the only thing left for the disciples - indeed, for the Church - was the sending of the promised Holy Spirit. But let's not get ahead of ourselves!

So, just as we did during Lent, I want to highlight some hymns of these forty days. Hymns that highlight Jesus the Teacher, Jesus in all the Scriptures, and Jesus the Ascended Victor and High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us. We begin with a hymn by Martin Luther, which is the basis of Bach cantata 4, the Easter cantata "Christ lag in Todesbanden" - Christ lay in death's bonds.

Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands
for our offenses given;
but now at God's right hand he stands
and brings us life from heaven:
Wherefore let us joyful be,
and sing to God right thankfully
loud songs of Alleluia!
Alleluia!
   It was a strange and dreadful strife
   when life and death contended;
   the victory remained with life,
   the reign of death was ended:
   Stripped of power, no more he reigns,
   an empty form alone remains;
   his sting is lost forever.
   Alleluia!
So let us keep the festival
whereto the Lord invites us;
Christ is himself the joy of all,
the sun that warms and lights us;
by his grace he doth impart
eternal sunshine to the heart;
the night of sin is ended.
Alleluia!
   Then let us feast this Easter day
   on the true bread of heaven.
   The word of grace has purged away
   the old and wicked leaven;
   Christ alone our souls will feed,
   he is our meat and drink indeed,
   faith lives upon no other.
   Alleluia!

The forty days began with Jesus appearing to his closest disciples on the day of Resurrection. And from the beginning, as with those on the Emmaus road, he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures about himself. That surely began with "and rose on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures." Which is where our Easter/Ascension worship rests as well.

Sing on!

Quasimodo

It is no surprise to most of you, that I like to track the historic church year. I guess I am an amateur liturgist; a "closet high churchman." Still, I rarely get into the arcane aspects of the church calendar. Round about this time, I generally remind readers of Knowing the Score that Easter is not a day, but a season, which begins on Resurrection Sunday and ends at Pentecost. We are fond of saying that every Sunday is a reminder of the resurrection. But when we look at the biblical historical facts, we track a period of actual days that we call "Easter." These are the days from the Resurrection until Jesus' ascension into heaven (40 days later), and then the arrival of the promised Holy Spirit at Pentecost (10 days later, or 50 days after Easter).

In the more ancient and developed church calendars, each of the Sundays following Easter have a special name. (No, I don't know them all; but I can find them quickly.) These names come from the scripture that is featured in that day's reading, and bear the Latin form of that reading. Which is why the Sunday immediately following Easter can go by the rather mundane "Second Sunday of Easter" or ... Quasimodo.

Most of us know the word from the Victor Hugo novel. (Well, probably actually not from the novel itself, but from one or another of its film versions!) The Hunchback of Notre Dame was named "Quasimodo" by the priest who raised him, because he was found abandoned, on the Sunday following Easter, Quasimodo.

Quasimodo elides the first two words of the Latin scripture: Quasi modo geniti infantes, "Like newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that by it you may grow up to salvation - if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:2-3) That scripture continues: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house ..."

Well, I am thinking of these things as the choir will be preparing one of my favorite Easter hymn/anthems. We don't intentionally prolong Easter in our services (except that, as noted above, we see every Sunday as a tribute to the resurrection). But I always think we must come back on Quasimodo prepared to sing more Easter-specifically! And it is, after all, also called "the Octave of Easter" - that is, the 8th day of the season. There's your musical/etymological argument for keeping Easter going at least one more week.

Joy to the Heart
Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes
resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Good Jesus Christ inside his pain
looked down Golgotha's stony slope
and let the blood flow from his flesh
to fill the springs of living hope.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Good Jesus Christ, our Brother, died
in darkest hurt upon the tree
to offer us the worlds of light
that live inside the Trinity.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!
Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes
resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart all in this good day's dawning!

John Bennett, 1920-1991

(c) 1980, John Bennett

As we are in fact the Easter People,

Sing on!