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We begin with a psalm of rejoicing, extolling the God who makes us secure and who does not abandon us to the pit. (Psalm 16) Then we begin to hear from the apostle Peter, as we will throughout Eastertide, both in his preaching to the citizens of Judea and Jerusalem (Acts 2:14a, 22-32) and in his letters to the early church, even to those who believed in Jesus but had never seen him. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

From John’s gospel, we hear the account of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in the upper room on that evening of the resurrection day, and then again a week later. Jesus gives to them the Spirit that can free people from sin, and returns to allay the fear and doubt of those who find it hard to believe his resurrection. (John 20:19-31)

The readings, the Spirit, and the freedom from sin is ours to have as well. This is important, since often the fear and doubt are ours too. Nonetheless, we strive to live by faith, striving to believe even when we do not see.

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “Celtic Alleluia” – Fintan O’Carroll and Christopher Walker — Today we introduce this contemporary hymn, which alternates a congregational refrain of “Alleluia” with choral verses that sing of the resurrection.
• Chancel Choir: “We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight” – Michael D. Costello — This recent arrangement sets Henry Alford’s 19th century text to a new tune, arranged for two voices. It is embellished by a flute descant.
  

Instrumental Music:

Much of our music today is provided by our choir interns, past and present. Thank you to Jessica, Matthew, and Sarah for sharing their talents with us.

• Prelude: “Sonata K. 292 for Bassoon and Cello” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — This sonata is essentially a duet, performed today on bassoon and French horn. Jessica and Matt included this piece in their recital earlier this year.
• Offertory: “Now the Green Blade Rises” – arr. from Ken Heitshusen — Listeners might recognize this Easter carol first as a Christmas carol – Noel Nouvelet – sung as “Now We Sing of Christmas.” The beautiful Easter text sings of the meaning of Christ’s resurrection for our lives, using metaphors perfectly suitable in the springtime of the year.
  Heitshusen’s arrangement is for a chorus, but we’re extracting vocal parts for use by the flute, oboe, and organ.
• Postlude: “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” – G. F. Handel, arr. Gordon Shuster — This familiar aria from Messiah is arranged for French horn and piano.

In our service, the story is captured in Matthew 28:1-10. This marvelous event is one of the ways God continues God’s faithfulness and makes manifest an everlasting love, as spoken in Jeremiah 31:1-6. “Everlasting” means that it is for us too, just as Paul exhorts the early church to be raised with Christ and to set hearts and minds on the ways of Christ. (Colossians 3:1-4)

So for us it is a day of unbridled rejoicing, with sights and sounds to magnify and amplify the splendor of this good news. Awake, dear hearts, with gladness.

Choral Music:

• Introit: “Awake My Heart with Gladness” – J. S. Bach — This chorale sets a 20th century text by Laurence Davies to Bach’s 18th century harmonization of Johann Cruger’s 17th century tune of Auf, auf mein Herz. (How’s that for a collaboration?) Davies’ text is similar in character to Paul Gerhardt’s text by the same name, which may be more familiar to some readers. Its two stanzas waken us first to rejoice, and then to rise up to tell the story to others. It is sung by the Chancel Choir from the balcony.
  
• Song of Praise: “Mighty Resurrection Day” – Nancy Gordon — Our Kingdom Kids sing one of their Easter songs with us today, helped along by the Chancel Choir. The song tells the story of the shake and the rattle and the stone that was rolled away.
• Anthem: “The Risen Conqueror” – Hartsough/Handel — This is the 107th consecutive performance of this anthem on Easter morning at SRC, whose Chancel Choir has sung this anthem from the inception of the congregation. It borrows music from Handel, and sets to it a text by Palmer Hartsough, apparently by an arranger by the name of Foxwell.
  
• Introit: “Alleluia! Christ Is Risen!” – William Mathias — This late 20th century anthem typifies Mathias’ style of rhythmic and percussive chord clusters alternating with staccato melodic counterpoints to the vocal material, which is essentially a chorale sung in distinct phrases. Mathias alters the harmonies from verse to verse, particularly in the descending lines of the third strophe.
  
• Chorus: “Hallelujah” – G. F. Handel — This year we revive a tradition of singing this popular chorus from Messiah to close the service. Members of the congregation may join us.
  

Instrumental Music:

We are very fortunate to have many talented individuals as part of this community of faith. I am grateful to all who offer their talent, time, and energy to providing special music today. These include Brent on the piano for the prelude; Chad and Zach on guitars and Micah on piano for the Kingdom Kids; Amanda on flute; and Kaitlin, John, and Jim in the brass trio. Thank you to all.

• Prelude: “Rigaudon from Le Tombeau de Couperin” – Maurice Ravel — This suite is a collection of movements that Ravel wrote to memorialize several of his friends and associates, some of whom had perished in war. It is not so much a memorial to Couperin, but appears to have been inspired by a visit to his tomb. This movement of the suite might capture what we might experience on a visit to the Empty Tomb.
  
• Interlude and Offertory: “Victimae paschali laudes” – Theophane Hytrek — The 11th century hymn is one of the earliest hymns of the resurrection, and one that endured with great reverence and affection. Its plainsong melody can be recognized in other materials as well (including a local favorite, the entry of the flute into the fervent pleas of the “Agnus Dei” of John Rutter’s Requiem). “Christians, to the Paschal Victim offer your thankful praises — a Lamb the sheep redeeming, Christ, who only was sinless, reconciling sinners to the Father.”
  Theophane’s meditation on this ancient hymn begins quietly, then crescendos to an exuberant finish at the closing Alleluia. With some apology to Hytrek, I have broken up his piece a bit, borrowing its beginning to play as the Interlude, and then to play the full piece as the Offertory.
• Postlude: “Finale from Fifth Symphony” – Charles Marie Widor — This toccata is a favorite to many, and Easter Sunday would not be the same without it.

Our service opens with the festive words of the psalmist, filled with thanksgiving, and renewing promises to pray and keep our word with God. (Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19) We hear the account of Jesus’ meal with his disciples, at which he stooped to wash Peter’s feet, and exhorted his disciples (and us) to love one another similarly. (John 13:1-17, 31b-35) And at the time of the Lord’s Supper, we hear a portion of the account of the Passover meal, to be celebrated as a festival, and observed perpetually. (Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14)

Sharing this meal in the context of John’s gospel add a particular emphasis to this remembrance. John declares that Jesus was crucified on the Day of Preparation, the day the Passover lamb was slaughtered and readied for the festival. In this context, we have all the more reason to remember and adore our Paschal Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “Just As I Am” – Gordon Bruns — We conclude our Lenten observance with the same prayer with which we began it. Charlotte Elliott’s familiar text addresses the Lamb of God, singing our acceptance of the invitation to come, believing the promise of our redemption, laying down our burdens, receiving the abundant love of God.
• Chancel Choir: “Agnus Dei” – Charles H. Giffen — This setting of the liturgical text provides a framework for our prayers of thanksgiving and intercession.

Instrumental Music:

• Prelude: “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” – J. S. Bach — This ancient hymn sings of the redemption of the human race in the obedient sacrifice of the Lamb. This arrangement is one of several organ settings of the hymn by Bach, and this evening Sarah will use her flute to bring in the ornamented melodic line.
• Postlude: “O Lamb of God Most Holy” – J. S. Bach — Another simple organ setting of Bach, this is based on the hymn tune, “O Lamm Gottes unschulding.”
  

First, we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, as the townsfolk and children shouted, “Hosanna! Save us!” We begin our service in the Gathering Place, much as crowds might have gathered at the gate of Jerusalem, collecting palms to wave before their Savior. The words of Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 set a festive mood, recounting the joy of entering into the place of God. The Gospel appointed for the opening of the service is Matthew’s account of that procession wherein Jesus arrived, not on a steed, but on a donkey. (Matthew 21:1-11)

Soon enough, however, we are reminded of the somber reason for Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The choir anthem expresses it; the Readers’ Theatre summarizes Lent’s Encounters with the Cross and draws the focus to Jesus’ impending suffering and death; and the rest of the readings also give expression to the meaning of this week. Isaiah 50:4-9a sings of the resolve of the Innocent One to be obedient, to enter into the fray, and to trust that God will vindicate him and save him from shame. Then Paul sings the great Christ-hymn of Philippians 2:5-11, singing of the humble obedience that led this One to the cross and his subsequent exaltation.

So it is a day of exultation and of somber reflection. Today’s procession, the Readers’ Theater, the anthems, and our prayers and intercessions all seek to make us participants in the Holy Week story. We are not mere observers. All of it was, after all, for us.

Choral Music:

• Kingdom Kids: “Shout Hosanna” – Peter Evans — Our children start our festive gathering with this cheerful song, letting them wave their branches of palms, and shouting their Hosannas to Jesus, riding on a donkey. The rest of us then join their song and follow them as they lead us into the sanctuary.
• Chancel Choir: “Come, Faithful People” – W. R. Voris — This Legacy Anthem of Second Church recounts the narrative of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, with a recurrent call for faithful people to sing Hosanna, fully aware of the events to come.
• Chancel Choir: “Christ, the Life of All the Living” – E. Homburg — Homburg’s 16th century text is at once both a recounting of the cost of the suffering and death of Jesus and a hymn of thanksgiving for the sacrifice made on our behalf. Sung simply as a chorale (to the historic tune from a 16th century hymnbook in Darmstadt), it reflects the dual character of our own observance of Holy Week.

Instrumental Music:

• Prelude: “Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin” – Maurice Ravel — Brent offers today’s prelude and postlude, in advance of his recital at month’s end. The character of this piece should reflect what was undoubtedly a festive and expectant mood at the gates of Jerusalem. It will help to excite our own gathering on this festive morning.
  (The 8:00 worshippers will hear a chorale prelude by J. Wayne Kerr, “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna.”)
• Offertory: “What Wondrous Love Is This” – Charles Callahan — The familiar American hymn is the basis for this meditation.
• Postlude: “Nocturne in C# minor, Op. 27, No. 1″ – Frederic Chopin — In contrast to the opening prelude, this nocturne present a shift in the mood of the morning, ending more reflectively and subdued.
  (The 8:00 worshippers will hear a meditation on “Gethsemane” by David Cherwien.)

The psalmist declares that with God there is power to redeem, and calls upon Israel to hope in God even in the deepest woe. (Psalm 130) Then Ezekiel writes about his vision of dried out bones being hung with new sinew and muscle, as God breathes new breath into them. It is a vision of Israel, and a promise of restoration. (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

Paul writes more about death and life as realms either of the body or of the spirit. More important than the dualism of Paul’s language is the tenet that a spirited, spiritual life is made possible and set free by the new life made known in a resurrected Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:6-11)

Finally, the Gospel reading is the familiar tale of Jesus visiting his friends Mary and Martha after Lazarus has died. They learn that even their friendship with Jesus did not mean he would come in time to prevent the deep sorrow of death. But when Jesus calls Lazarus forth from the darkness of the tomb, they discover the power of God in a new, unfathomable way. (John 11:1-45) Oh, if only we had such dramatic experiences and signs.

Perhaps we have had our own Lazarus episodes, either in epic ways or small ones. When the unexpected glimmer of hope happens, or we are surprised by something new, or we discover that something long lost and gone isn’t lost and gone after all, what meaning do we give them? Is it a lucky break? Coincidence? A mere anomaly?

Or is it the gift of God, who comes to visit us again, perhaps a little later than we wished, but who comes nonetheless to make something new, just for us? And can it be another sign that the promises of God are trustworthy, and that we can continue to dare, out of the deepest places, to cry unto God?

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “Out of the Deep” – John Rutter — From his Requiem comes this setting of Psalm 130. The piece begins with a cello solo in the low, low registers of the instrument, and at the bottom of the organ’s scale. Rutter “sings the blues” a bit, as the cello’s motifs and the choir’s harmonies sound not unlike the Blues. The setting brightens in the middle, as the singers express the virtues of God’s forgiveness, and it climaxes with the assertion that in God is hope. The piece then closes by receding back to the depths, with a quiet plea to God to hear our voice..
• Chancel Choir: “Your Hands, O Lord, in Days of Old” – Carson Cooman — The text is Edward Plumptre’s old hymn, extolling the healing acts of Christ, with a plea that such healing and enlightenment would still come to us. Cooman sets the text to a new melody, with descant.

Organ Music:

• Prelude: “Out of the Depths” – Georg Böhm — From the 16th century chorale “Aus tiefer Not,” Böhm sets the ornamented cantus firmus (melody) under two voices that move along in surprisingly jaunty movement. The piece suggests to me that faith permits us to move along through our lives in a quiet kind of confidence and joy, rather than getting bogged down in the sadness of our deep, dark experiences. Bach’s setting of the chorale introduces Böhm’s setting.
  
• Offertory: “Spirit of Gentleness” – Karl Osterlund — This setting of our opening hymn also has a spritely counterpoint to the simple expression of the melody. The hymn is selected because of the role of the Spirit in Ezekiel, in breathing new life into the lifeless bones of the valley.
• Postlude: “Kyrie” – Francois Couperin — This is the second movement of his Mass for the Parishes, and is selected to close our Lenten season with this suitable plea: Lord, have mercy.

The Old Testament reading is the account of the selection of David to be king of Israel. Surprise, surprise! God did not choose the older, stronger sons of Jesse, but instead selected David, the youngest, and of all things, a shepherd. (1 Samuel 16:1-13) Who then but a shepherd could write such a moving psalm as the favorite Psalm 23.

St. Paul urges readers to put away things of darkness and to live as children of light. To bring forth what is good and right and true, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)

The gospel reading is the familiar account of Jesus’ encounter with a man born blind. The teachers wanted to ascribe somebody’s fault as the cause of his malady, but Jesus saw it another way — he was as he was so that the works of God might be made known in him. (John 9:1-41)

Can it be true for us too? That we are as we are so that the works of God might be made known in us?

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “Shepherd Me, O God” – Marty Haugen — This contemporary setting of Psalm 23 has become a new favorite of many, inviting the congregation to join on a refrain, and hearing the choir provide a lyrical, poetic setting of the psalm.

Organ Music:

• Prelude: “Be Now My Vision” – Franklin D. Ashdown — Published as “A Gaelic Idyll,” this piece is a lengthy, quiet meditation that evokes images that we might associate with Psalm 23. But it also cites directly the Irish folk song Slane, which is the tune for our opening hymn today.
• Offertory: “Healer of Our Every Ill” – Keith Kolander — This is a simple chorale prelude on a popular new hymn that sings of God’s mercies in transforming our illnesses, needs, and sadnesses into occasions for hope and joy.
• Postlude: “Fugue in d” – Johann Pachelbel — This is simply a favorite short fugue to close out our morning.

The psalm opens with familiar words, known to some as the Venite, inviting a song of praise to the one who formed the seas and the dry land. But the psalm takes a grim shift, closing with words of disgust for the wandering children of Israel at Meribah and Massah. (Psalm 95) The reading from Exodus 17:1-7 tells that story, when the wanderers quarreled with Moses so much that God provided water from a rock as a sign of God’s presence.

Paul seems to be writing to similarly quarrelous readers, encouraging endurance in the midst of suffering, striving for the kind of character that produces hope. In our weakness, Christ died for the ungodly, turning enmity into friendship with God. (Romans 5:1-11)

In the gospel reading, Jesus befriends an unlikely candidate, daring to even speak to a Samaritan woman, let alone to ask her for a drink and then to engage her in conversation about her life. In the discourse, Jesus identifies himself in a metaphor as Living Water, the kind that will not leave people thirsty again, and that will bring forth a similar spring from within those who drink of the water that he gives. (John 4:5-42)

So the offer of refreshment, nourishment, and delight is made to them and to us. The spirit of Christ is a source of refreshment and delight, flowing for us, and through us for others.

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “Come to the Water” – John Foley, arr. Jack Schrader — The textual basis for this contemporary song is actually rooted in the book of Isaiah, but the imagery of God as one who welcomes the poor and needy is consistent with the metaphors of the day. For the Thirsty (with a capital T), God provides Water (with a capital W).
  
• Chancel Choir: “Living Water” – Emily Crocker — This contemporary anthem cites the gospel reading directly, including also a verse from Psalm 42, likening the human spirit to a deer longing for cooling streams.

Organ Music:

• Prelude: “A Lenten Idyll” – Franklin D. Ashdown — Ashdown’s idyll is a smoothly flowing piece of musical lines that move gently and quietly, pooling along the way is small chord clusters. Although it has no textual basis, I hear motifs that evoke images of journeying and resting.
• Offertory: “As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams” – Robert Buckley Farlee — Embellishing a familiar hymn based on Psalm 42, the offertory picks up on the extra verse cited in the second anthem, another image of refreshment for those weary in their pilgrimage.
• Postlude: “In You Alone, O Christ, My Lord” – Johann Pachelbel — This early baroque chorale prelude is based on an old hymn tune that is probably not very familiar to many, “Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ.” This setting is simple and straightforward, but still conveys (to my ears, at least) the kind of confidence and hope that Paul writes about in today’s second reading. The chorale setting of J. S. Bach closes the postlude.

Psalm 121 is a song of faith, looking to God as source and shelter, especially when help seems far away. Abraham’s faith is what permits him to respond to God’s blessing, and to go where he was led. (Genesis 12:1-4a) Paul amplifies the importance of Abraham’s faith, and elaborates on the importance of grace as the foundation for God’s continuing promise to Abraham’s descendants — and to us. (Romans 4:1-5, 13-17)

Jesus has an encounter with Nicodemus, who we might expect was doing everything just the way he should, except that his heart lacked this attitude of faith. “Be born anew; be born of water and the spirit,” he is told. God wants a regeneration of the heart, that transforms life froma  mere compliance to an abundant believing in the promises of God, the same God who lifted up the Son of Man so that the world would be saved. (John 3:1-17)

One way of understanding this being born anew is to understand it as the coming to faith in Christ, in kind of a once-and-forever change of heart. That is certainly the way I learned it as a child, and I am still taken by the stories of people who experience this newfound eye-opening experience for their first time.

As part of a Lenten discipline, this can also be an invitation to those of us who have professed a faith in Christ for many years. It provokes us to disrupt our own lapses into mere compliance, to regenerate our hearts on a daily basis, to shake up our “going through the motions,” and to be born anew again and again, to behold the grace and promises of God, and — like Abraham — to go where we are led through a desert to a new place.

Choral Music:

Our Kingdom Kids sing for us this morning, two songs: “Sing to the King,” by Billy Foote and Charles Silvester Horne; and “Stand on the Rock,” by Vince Barlow.

This morning also marks Alisha’s coda with the Kids for this season, since the birth of her baby is imminent. We are all very grateful to Alisha for the great care she shows for the children, and for the energy and enthusiasm she fosters in them. Others will fill in for her until she returns in the fall, and we are thankful for their leadership too.

Instrumental Music:

Adelle has returned from Florida and will provide some pre-service music for piano from her Lenten library. Thanks, Adelle.

• Prelude: “The Old Rugged Cross” – Jolene Boyd — This piano duet on George Bennard’s familiar hymn takes a gentle approach, in a calm meditative fashion. Midway through the piece, Boyd adds just a bit of a bluesy taste, while still retaining its devotional character.
• Offertory: “Salvation unto Us Has Come” – Keith Kolander — The chorale is an ancient one, but this treatment is much more in keeping with recent American styles. Motifs are expressed in chord clusters, and Kolander exploits some of the innate rhythms of the chorale by using those syncopations throughout the piece. If you are listening for the melody, you will hear it not only in the solo line, but also in the chord clusters above the solo line in canon.
• Postlude: “Lift High the Cross” – Paul Manz, John Leavitt — Our closing hymn (Crucifer) restates some of the imagery from the gospel reading. The postlude begins with the familiar brief fanfare of Manz, leading into Leavitt’s chorale prelude that ends with a flourish.

The psalmist begins with the joy of knowing forgiveness, and with acknowledging that it is God who provides perfect guidance and counsel. (Psalm 32) Contrast that to the story from Eden, where the woman crosses a line of demarcation between what God establishes as good and what a tempter and the woman herself decide ought to be good. (Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7)

Paul proclaims that, whether one’s sin is like that of Adam or of some other, the judgement upon sin will be overshadowed by grace, and condemnation will be overturned to justification through the righteousness of a new Adam, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:12-19) This Jesus also encountered the tempter, but resisted the allure and remained steadfast and trusting in the ways of God alone. (Matthew 4:1-11)

We know temptation by many names in many forms. The Lenten journey gives us the opportunity to name our own temptations, the distractions that mislead us, the self-serving conventions that insulate us, the self-centered fears that pull us away from others, and the rationalizations that excuse our transgressions. This we do without fear and even with hope, since there is nothing riding on our own righteousness. We are justified before God because of the righteousness of Christ, whose perfect obedience to the will of God led him to the Cross.

Choral Music:

• Chancel Choir: “The Serpent” – Thomas Pavlechko — This anthem makes use of Richard Leach’s text narrating both the woman’s encounter with the Serpent in Eden and Jesus’ encounter with the Tempter in the wilderness. Pavlechko weaves these dialogues with parallel voices moving up and down the chromatic scale, emphasizing the sibilant voice of the Ssserpent. It is an eerie piece, resolving only when it closes with a prayer that we might keep our ears tuned to what God want us to hear, not to the tempting voices of others.
• Interlude: “Just As I Am” – Gordon Bruns — The recurring interlude this Lenten season is extracted from the orginal anthem sung on Ash Wednesday. The text is the third stanza (altered) of Charlotte Elliott’s familiar hymn.
• Seasonal Hymn: “Light of Life” – Marty Haugen — When Haugen published his hymn “Tree of Life,” he included a set of stanzas that are suitable for the Sundays in Lent, fitting especially well in this cycle of the lectionary. Each week we will sing a common stanza, then include a stanza that reiterates the theme of the gospel reading (and the readers’ theatre). I’ve chosen to sing these stanzas to V. Earle Copes’ tune, “For the Bread,” instead of Haugen’s “Thomas.”
  
• Chancel Choir: “The Cross” – Craig Courtney — Tying into the seasonal art show “Cross Walk” and our Lenten readers’ theatre of Encounters with the Cross, this anthem sings the text of Pamela Martin. The form of the text is similar to that of St. Patrick’s Breastplate — “Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ within me . . .” — in that it states a series of ways that the cross can be a pervasive source of strength and comfort in our lives.
  

Organ Music:

• Prelude: “Return, My People” – Carson Cooman — Charles Hubert H. Parry’s tune Repton carries several texts, including “Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways.” The NCH includes a late 20th century text by James F. D. Martin, “Return, my people, Israel, with penitential tear,” sung to this tune. The text cites Joel 2 (read on Ash Wednesday) — then moves into a more Advent-ish context. Perhaps the prelude can serve to draw on both texts as appropriate for the First Sunday in Lent.
• Offertory: “The Old Rugged Cross” – Murray C. Bradshaw — This simple embellishment of the popular gospel hymn will prepare us for its singing as our closing hymn.
• Postlude: “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast” – Johann Pachelbel — Those who were in attendance on Ash Wednesday will recall that we sang a hymn to this tune (Erhalt us Herr) with a different text, “Again We Keep This Solemn Fast,” based on the ancient hymn of St. Gregory the Great. But this is the text for which the tune is most frequently named, a strong text that pleads for God’s own help in remaining true in and by God’s word in times of distress and temptation.