For God Alone: Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today!

The past forty days of Lent, much of which were spent sheltered in-home, have granted us time to rest and reflect on God, His word, our loved ones, and many others dear to us. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we have considered our own frailty. You and I have considered and reflected on scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments through A New Day and For God Alone posts. God’s word has guided us on our journey toward this day - Resurrection Day - God's Final Word.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, 
and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

Every Easter for the past many years, Christians have begun Easter Sunday worship singing Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today to the glorious tune, LYRA DAVIDICA (1708). Gratefully, this Resurrection Day 2020, quarantined as we are, will be no different. Congregations across the globe, including our own, First Baptist Richardson, have prerecorded their own settings of Charles Wesley’s timeless hymn, and so we shall sing with joyous praise.

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Dying once, He all doth save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!*

My first memory of this hymn stems from the Christian folk musical, Celebrate Life! by Reagan Courtney and Buryl Red. After learning this musical during Mission Meeting of 1973, MK's in Cali, Colombia insisted we include Wesley's hymn for our English speaking Easter Sunrise Service in Cali. What a glorious memory!

Years, ago, while I served Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, I called my friend, Tom Stoker, who was, at the time, Minister of Music at Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, and asked what arrangement of LYRA DAVIDICA he placed before the Broadway congregation each Easter. Tom’s reply: Easter worship must begin with John Rutter’s setting! (Tom left this earth much too soon in May of 2015.) From that time forward, I placed John Rutter’s arrangement of Christ, the Lord Is Risen Today before every congregation I served until 2018. Based on Matthew 28:6; Acts 2:32, 1 Peter 3:18, and Revelation 1:17-18, this hymn has been part of Resurrection Sunday worship throughout Christendom for generations, and, I suppose, will remain so for years to come.

May all our praises this Day of Days be glorious, and resound with the absolute truth: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

*Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today, Charles Wesley (1707-1788)



He Is Alive/Easter Hymn, Celebrate Life, Buryl Red/Reagan Courtney

Covenant Presbyterian Church, PCA, Nashville, Elizabeth Smith, Organist

© Paul R. Magyar, DMA, 2020

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