Two Resurrection Hymns

            A few years ago I noticed there were not nearly as many Resurrection songs as Christmas carols in our hymnal, so when I came home from church, I wrote new lyrics to a familiar hymn melody. A few years later, I did the same thing with another tune.

            The first hymn is theological and lofty; the second hymn is interpersonal and friendly. The first feels old and elegant; the second feels like Gospel.

            I hope you enjoy either or both as you revel in the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Feel free to use them in your churches next year around this time. Please keep my name with them.

Resurrection Hymn

© 2004 Roberta Tucker Brosius

 (Tune:  All Creatures of Our God and King)

All children of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Christ Jesus broke forth from the grave;

Salvation to the world he gave.

O praise him, He is risen,

Alleluia, He is risen,

Alleluia!

His only son the Father sent,

To crush the serpent his intent.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

The Lamb of God for man was slain,

His blood to purge the sinner’s stain.

O praise him, He is risen,

Alleluia, He is risen,

Alleluia!

His sacrifice was once for all,

Redeeming man from Eden’s fall.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Within the temple veil was torn;

Redemption to the earth was borne.

O praise him, He is risen,

Alleluia, He is risen,

Alleluia!

All children of the Father sing;

Hail Christ, your resurrected king!

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Praise God who Son and Spirit gave

Praise Christ who triumphed o’er the grave

O praise him, He is risen,

Alleluia, He is risen,

Alleluia!

Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!    

© 2009 Roberta Tucker Brosius

 (tune: Revive Us Again)

When John’s hope was crushed

For he’d seen Jesus die,

Then Mary came running

With this joyful cry:

“Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

Hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

The Lord lives again!”

Two walked down the road,

Grieving that Christ was dead,

Until Jesus walked with them,

Gave thanks, and broke bread.

“How our hearts burned as he taught us,

Christ must suffer and then

Enter glory! Hallelujah!

The Lord lives again!”

“I will not believe

Without touching his hands,”

Said Thomas; then Jesus

Before him did stand.

“Hallelujah! I am risen!

Touch my scars, doubting friend.

Hallelujah! I am risen!

Your Lord lives again!”

He went back to fish,

Since he’d turned from his Lord.

But when Peter saw Jesus,

He swam for the shore.

“Simon Peter, do you love me?

Feed my sheep, my dear friend.”

“Hallelujah! I’m forgiven!

My Lord lives again!”

With Peter of old,

Mary, Thomas, and John,

We are praising our savior

This glad Easter dawn.

Hallelujah! Christ is risen!

Hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! We’re forgiven!

The Lord lives again!

Beyond the Fab Four

Crash Course 8

            (No, not the Beatles. Not that Fab Four. I mean the Fabulous Four Gospels.)

            The Gospels are not the only place to read about Jesus. The New Testament epistles tell lot about him, too. Peter and John, both disciples and eyewitnesses, wrote five letters between them.

            In his first letter, Peter calls Christ a “lamb without blemish or defect…chosen before the creation of the world… " (1:19 – 20). Only a lamb used in Israel’s sacrificial system would warrant the phrase “without blemish or defect.” Peter understood the significance of Christ’s substitutionary death. Peter also speaks of the resurrection and coming return of Christ (1:3 and 1:7). 

            Peter reveals two intriguing facts about Christ that I haven’t found elsewhere in scripture. (Illuminate me if I’ve missed them.) He says the Spirit of Christ indwelt and guided the prophets who wrote about him in the Hebrew Scriptures (1:11). He also writes that after the Lord’s resurrection, he preached to spirits of the disobedient Noah-era people “in prison.” (3:19 – 20)

            That’s something coming from a fisherman.

            I always imagine Peter excitedly exclaiming, “I was there!” Fifty days after the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter told a Jerusalem crowd, “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of this fact.” (Acts 2:32) Some years later when Peter wrote his second letter, he said, “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (1:18). 

            I was there! I was there!

            John writes in the first few verses of his first epistle about Christ’s incarnation (taking on human flesh). “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard…(1:1 – 3)

            In less than 75 words, John manages to say in 7 different ways (highlighted by me) that he was an eyewitness, an earwitness, a handwitness of Christ. 

            Handwitness? Sure. Years ago in Fort Worth, Texas, I was beyond excited to shake hands with presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and his wife. I was an eyewitness, earwitness, and handwitness of the future president. 

            How much more memorable for John to have rubbed elbows with the Messiah in a fishing boat, to have passed him the bread at a meal, to have leaned against him as the disciples all reclined in Jewish fashion around the Passover table. To those who were beginning to deny the Incarnation, John could say, “Hold it right there. I touched him. He was really here.”

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. John 1:14, NKJV

Incarnation and Resurrection

            Yesterday’s praise and prayer time at church was heavy on the prayer side. So many needs were expressed as the microphone traveled through the congregation. Cancer. Nursing home admission. An inoperable tumor in a five year old. Shingles. An infant with lung complications.

            People struggling with Christmas because they’re missing someone who’s passed away.

            I felt heavier and heavier as these concerns were voiced, and the very un-seasonal thought came to me:  Life is terminal. The death rate is 100%. Nobody gets out of here alive.

            Then in his sermon, the pastor reminded us of the collateral damage at the first Christmas. In his attempt to kill Jesus, Herod ordered the slaughter of Bethlehem’s sons two years old and younger. With a population of around 1000, it’s estimated that 200 boys were murdered.

            All the candy canes and twinkle lights at Wal-Mart can not compensate for the sorrow felt around the globe and in our own churches and communities.

            Even the Incarnation, the coming of God the Son in the flesh at Bethlehem, doesn’t outweigh the trouble. We need the Resurrection and Ascension to tip the scales.

            The first chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke need the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, because, as Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (17 – 19).

            If Christ has not been raised, then the holiday might just as well be about snowmen and trees and Santa Claus and excess.

            Thank God, Paul goes on to insist, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (20 – 23).

            Thank God, the Resurrection reminds me life isn’t terminal after all. The Resurrection doesn’t just tip the scales; it demolishes the scales. Because of the Resurrection, I can celebrate December’s coming holy day with all its secular and sacred trimmings, in spite of the world’s troubles and my own (hopefully) temporary frailty.

            Merry Christmas and Happy Resurrection.

The Splendor of the Crucified

The Splendor of the Crucified

            I’ve just recently finished studying the Pentateuch with my two Old Testament Tour classes. They read a lot of passages, weird and/or wonderful, that they probably would have skipped, had I not held homework grades over their heads.

            Exodus 28 maybe fits both categories as it describes the clothing to be created to give “dignity and honor” to the Levitical high priest: A linen robe embellished with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; golden shoulder ornaments boasting engraved onyx stones; a breastplate set with semi-precious jewels; and on it goes. Aaron, the first high priest of Israel, must have been an awe-inspiring sight arrayed in garments designed by God himself. Engraved in gold, the words “Holy to the Lord” adorned his turban when this magnificent priest entered the holiest place in the Tabernacle.

            Fifteen hundred years later, another high priest appeared with “no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2).

            A stripped, bleeding man hung fastened with crude spikes to a rough cross. Sharp thorns, mockingly twisted into a crown, pierced his forehead. His flesh had been bruised and tattered by a scourge. Not awe, but revulsion filled those who saw this man disfigured by torture, “marred beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14).

            Jesus was a high priest like Aaron, entrusted with the dreadful responsibility of gaining forgiveness for the sins of his kinsmen. While Aaron presented the blood of animals, the blood Jesus offered was his own. He took on the ugliness of sin to make us lovely in God’s eyes.

            But that is not the last image of Jesus given to us in scripture. After defeating death, he visited with a number of people over a period of forty days. (Paul lists the people in 1 Corinthians 15.) But even that is not the final image we have of Jesus.

            After ascending to his place of honor at the Father’s right hand, our high priest appeared to John the Apostle in breathtaking splendor, his eyes blazing like fire, his face shining brilliantly like the sun, his voice thundering like rushing water (Revelation 1:12 - 16). Though frighteningly powerful and beautiful, Jesus continues to serve us as a priest.

            “There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf” (Hebrews 7:23 – 25, NLT)

            LIVES FOREVER—did you catch that phrase twice in fifty-one words? (I hope my italics helped.) LIVES FOREVER and pleading for you.

            And me.

            Alleluia.