EASTER CAROLING, ANYBODY? AND FAVORITE RESURRECTION SONGS.

Young Martin Luther and Carolers Sing For Mrs. Cotta in Eisenach by Ferdinand Pauwels

I will never forget one suggestion made by Leah Libresco in her book Building The Benedict Option: A Guide To Gathering Two Or Three Together In His Name: Easter caroling.

Why not? After all, we go Christmas caroling. Why not Easter Caroling? 

Now, while there are many great Resurrection Day songs (more on those later), I can only think of three that I'd use for Easter caroling. But do we need a long list? After all, we'd only sing at the most two or three songs at each place.

Plus, when we sing at shut-ins and the like, wouldn't they not only enjoy hearing familiar songs but being reminded that Christ has conquered sin and death?

Reminder - the blog title mentions two parts. Often in a two subject blog, you do one and then the other. In this case, though, I'll combine the topics, and start with three songs that are favorites on the resurrection and that would be great for caroling:

• "Christ Arose" (aka "Low In The Grave He Lay"). Isn't that a triumphant song for the season?
• "Christ The Lord Is Risen Today." Excellent and theologically deep and sound lyrics by Charles Wesley, as you'd expect. I did hear someone mention, though, that John Wesley did not include this song in early Methodist Hymnals. 
• To the more contemporary, how about "The Easter Song," written by Annie Herring, originally recorded by the 2nd Chapter of Acts (which includes Annie), and recorded by several others like Keith Green, Glad, and Jess Ray.

Now, there are other great songs for that time of year that I would not consider material for caroling, but other great resurrection songs. Pardon me for putting them in random order.

• "Tell The Whole World" by Becky Ugartechea. My all time favorite song. Upbeat, and the ending is enough to get you excited to tell the world. Unfortunately, I don't know how to access it if you don't have the project: not on Spotify, not on YouTube, not anyplace either. :( 
• "Star Of The Morning" by Leon Patillo. Great, powerful keyboards, great singing. It's also been covered by Shirley Ceasar.
  
• "The Victor" by Jamie Owens-Collins. This classic has been covered by the Green brothers: Keith and Steve. 
• "He Lives" by Erick Nelson. Yes, this is a more obscure one, but definitely a great song on the resurrection.
• "Love Crucified Arose" by Michael Card.
• "The King Is Alive" by Function. And you thought Erick Nelson was obscure? But you can find it on Spotify.
• "The Holy City" by Mahalia Jackson (and probably others). A classic.
• "The Roar of Love"/"I Heard The Stars Sing Before" by 2nd Chapter of Acts. This pair, back to back on their "Roar of Love" album based on C.S.Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" refers to Aslan the Lion, but is the meaning different?
• "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered" by Petra. Energetic song with John Schlitt's exciting singing.
• "Graverobber" by Petra. This one is from the Greg Volx era, focusing not just on Christ's resurrection but ours as well.
• "What A Day" by Alisa Turner. A newer one.
• "Christ is Risen" by Mia Fieldes. Another newby. Check both her and Alisa out on Spotify.
• "Living Hope" by Phil Wickham; still another contemporary one, but I think it's better known. For example, we sang it this morning (Easter) at my church.
• "The Garden Tomb" by the Isaacs. Yep, it's time to get into Southern Gospel.
• "She Found Jesus Alive" by Carroll Roberson. This is a song I could never stay depressed listening to.
• "Last Night" by Karen Peck and New River. Very solid song.
• "Russian Easter Festival Overture" by Rimski-Korsokov. Okay, it's instrumental. Is it dealing with the Resurrection, or with festivals celebrated that time? After all, the composer was an Agnostic. But it makes me think of Christ's being raised. Very energetic, and I have a tradition of listening to it on Easter. I like it better than Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (I've never been able to get into Mahler.)

One last thought: Don't worry. I'm not going to suggest Good Friday caroling.

SUNDAY HYMNS, PART 21 OF 22: HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING (MERRY CHRISTMAS)

 

"All of Creation Worships" by Jeff Reynolds

Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth and mercy mild - 

God and sinners reconciled!"

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, 

Join the triumph of the skies;

With th'angelic host proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem."

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Christ, by highest heav'n adored,

Christ, the everlasting Lord:

Late in time behold Him come, 

Offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,

Hail th'incarnate Deity!

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Hail the heav'nborn Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings, 

Ris'n with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by, 

Born that man no more may die;

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

Come, Desire of Nations, come!

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman's conq'ring seed, 

Bruise in us the serpent's head.

Adam's likeness now efface,

Stamp in thine image in its place;

Second Adam from above, 

Reinstate us in Thy love.

 Hark! the herald angels sing, 

"Glory to the newborn King!"

 

NOTES ON HYMN

• First off, Merry Christmas! Or for you guys, Joseph Christmas! 
• How many of you following have read through the first three verses, and then pause to see a fourth you've never seen before? Growing up with the Worship & Service Hymnal, I only knew the first three.  But then I attended a church whose hymnal (Praise! Our Songs and Hymns) included the fourth verse. Cyberhymnal includes a fifth.
• This is another hymn written by Charles Wesley. I had a Calvinist joke that Wesley believed you had to earn your salvation so he made the music for this song hard to sing. Uh, not Wesley's fault. I don't know what tune they sang this to during Charles' lifetime, but he died before the composer to this song was born. That composer? Felix Mendelssohn. And do you expect Classical composers to write easy songs to sing? By the way, Mendelssohn was raised Lutheran and also composed the Reformation symphony.
• By the way, my favorite hymn word writer is Charles Wesley. My favorite classical composer is Mendelssohn. No wonder I love this song.
• This song's meter is a 7,7,7,7 double. One interesting thing? Another Wesley song, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" has a 7,7,7,7 meter, which adds a lot of "Alleluia"s ot it. So you could sing "Christ The Lord is Risen Today" to Mendelssohn's tune, dropping the alleluias and using two verses for each round. Or you can sing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" to the tune of "Christ the Lord is Risen Today, with the alleluias and doubling the verse number.