Easter Sunday
How can I participate in new life?
Poetry
Chrysalis
Three days of white
threads wound
fine
around
around.
Three days of light
shrouded linen
fine
white
light woven.
Three days of...
Where hast thou laid him?
And she thought,
Are his wings still wet?
when he said,
Touch me not.At the Tomb
The angel was like lightning— sudden, unexpected, brilliant, electrifying. Gone before I comprehended him. Despite his earth-shaking message and newly donned sinews that first resurrection morning, it wasn’t him I came to see. I turned instead to the garden and found a Caretaker waiting, ready to bridge death’s rift with a single word addressed to me: Mary.
Pantoum for Mary at the Tomb
Her weeping is the only sound; the birds hold their breath. What’s missing, what she fears—this is all she can think. She has her back to Him. If only she would turn around. Curled in on herself, she perches between light and what’s missing. What she fears is all. She can think her arm braces her, but it blocks her progress, curled in as she is on herself, perched between dark and the light which, coming from above, catches both aslant. She braces herself, but her arm blocks her progress. We observe from ground level. We know the secret. We see through the light from above that catches both aslant: He is there, endlessly patient. Observing from ground level, we know the secret: this is the moment just before the moment of what matters; He is there, endlessly patient. He waits for her to turn her face to the future before he calls to her. In this moment just before the moment of what matters, the sun is shifting. The shadow on His face will withdraw as He waits for her to turn her face to the future. Before He calls to her, His face, though hidden, is bent toward her. As the sun shifts, the shadow over His face will withdraw. His palms are open; surely comfort is there. His face, though hidden, is bent toward her. He is about to call her name. He stands with comfort in His open palms; I want to tell her to turn around. Maybe He is about to call her name, and then all shall be well, and all shall be well. I want to tell her to turn around. Maybe it’s His love for her, in her pain, that makes Him pause. All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well, but we are all, each, stuck in this moment. Perhaps in His pauses, in our pain, there is love for us. If she could stop weeping, she might hear the birds. Everyone alive is stuck in this moment. I want to turn around.
Music
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia! Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth reply, Alleluia! Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia! Fought the fight, the vict’ry won, Alleluia! Jesus’ agony is o’er, Alleluia! Darkness veils the earth no more, Alleluia! Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia! Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
History
This classic Easter hymn can be traced back through Charles Wesley, the cofounder of the Methodist Church, who based his work—“Hymn for Easter Day”—on an earlier Bohemian hymn, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today,” which itself can be linked to a fourteenth-century Latin hymn.
“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” was first heard at the inaugural service for the first Methodist chapel, the Foundery Meeting House, before being published in the hymnal Hymns and Sacred Poems. The song broke from the traditional hymns of the day, which were often para- phrases of scripture with a more solemn tone and mu- sic, by evoking a joyful, uplifting feeling. In addition, the text is written in present tense, which gives a sense of including not only those who lived in Christ’s day but also those who live today.
In Wesley’s original version, the song had eleven verses with four lines apiece, but it is now usually reduced to four to six verses, depending on the hymnal. There was a tradition among the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches to refrain from using the word “Alleluia” in their services during Lent and then begin using it again on Easter Sunday, which might explain why the “Alleluia” refrain began to appear in hymnals during the early nine- teenth century.
Like many hymns, the text has been set to a variety of tunes over the years. The most popular is called Easter Hymn, which is an anonymous tune that appeared in Lyrica Davidica in 1708. It has also been sung to the tunes Llanfair, Savannah, and Resurrexit.
by Michael D. Young, from Sacred Days, Sacred Songs
Scripture
“And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun…” —Mark 16:2
“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen.” —Luke 24:5-6
Activity Ideas
Watch the sunrise.
