“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!” ELW 373 and LBW 130
1 Christ the Lord is ris’n today!
All on earth with angels say;
Raise your joys and triumphs high;
Sing, O heav’ns; and earth, reply.
2 Love’s redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won.
Lo! The sun’s eclipse is o’er.
Lo! He sets in blood no more.
3 Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;
Christ has burst the gates of hell.
Death in vain forbids his rise;
Christ has opened paradise.
4 Lives again our glorious king!
Where, O death, is now your sting?
Once he died our souls to save;
Where your victory, O grave?
5 Hail the Lord of earth and heav’n!
Praise to thee by both be giv’n.
Thee we greet triumphant now:
hail, the resurrection, thou!
6 King of glory, soul of bliss,
Everlasting life is this:
Thee to know, thy pow’r to prove,
Thus to sing, and thus to love!
Devotion
As a trumpet player, I can’t help but involuntarily shudder as I come across probably our best-known Easter hymn. Half asleep with bleary eyes, I would stumble in the dark to the balcony of our home church for countless sunrise services. There, we’d greet Easter morning with the bright sounds of my trumpet accompanying the church organ as the opening worship song.
I can’t help but think of the disciples on that first Easter morning. Half asleep with bleary eyes and weary hearts, they were not greeted with lively music or shouts of “Alleluia! He is risen!” No, I suspect the morning on which they found that empty tomb was a quiet one – a silence that belied the truth of the amazing miracle of our risen Lord. And yet every voice and every horn in heaven was sounding!
Prayer
Risen Lord, even in the quiet and dark times of our lives, may we hear the bright sounds of your resurrection. Amen.