sounds of heaven in earth should ring.
Christ has brought us heaven’s choices;
heavenly music, let it ring.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Easter people, let us sing.
– William M. James, 1979
EASTER HAS ARRIVED! After five wonderful, reflective weeks of Lent, our journey to resurrection is culminating this week. And as the hymn above invites us to do, it is time to raise our voices in celebration. “Easter people, let us sing!”
And it also begs a question – What does it mean to be “Easter People?”
That’s the question that will frame a new series starting this week. This series will focus on how Easter people live out our faith in the risen Christ, together in community. We will think about what it means for Easter people to be “doers of the word” and not merely hearers.
We will do this by exploring together the theological themes of the book of James, and think about the unlikely, surprising way the Word of God gets “done” in the world. Each week of the Easter season, we will consider a new chapter of James, beginning with James 1 on the weekend of April 15-16 and continuing through the weekend of May 20-21.
Fear of death can no more stop us
from our pressing here below.
For our Lord empowered us to
triumph over every foe.
Alleluia! Alleluia! On to victory now we go.
– James (v. 2)
The resurrection of Jesus empowers the church, and the victory toward which we are moving is no less than the triumph of good over evil, of love over hate, of grace over condemnation. The triumph is the fulfillment of the Word of God, and the church is the community in and through which that Word is “done.”
Every day to us is Easter! … EASTER PEOPLE, LET US SING!
