Today Friday 2 April is Good FridayGood Friday is the low point of the three days Christians call Easter. Today Christians remember that Jesus the God-man died on a cross as a sacrificial demonstration of God's extreme love for humankind. So this morning I did some remembering with other members of my habitual worship community – Ngaio Union Church. It leads onGood Friday leads on through Saturday, to Sunday, Easter's high day, That third day commemorates resurrection and God's continued involvement in the world. It's a day of celebration. It's a day for singing. On Sunday Christian worshippers around the world will raise their voices in song. Paul the Apostle, writing a guiding letter to one of the early churches, urged them, whenever they worshipped, 'to speak to one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.' Since those early biblical times christian worshippers have always sung. EarwormDo you ever live with an earworm – a song or tune lodged in your head which just won't go away? I have had one running for the last few weeks. It's a hymn/song from a Sunday morning service a few weeks ago. It's called: Will you come and follow me? Unlike some earworms which really bother me, this one I like. I'll certainly be singing it right through Easter. I not only like the tune but the words are a great picture of Christian life as I see it. So I thought I'd share it with you as an Easter present.. ShoesOn YouTube I found a most innovative presentation. Here it is. Just turn on your device's sound, go full screen, then click the arrow. Did you like the shoes? Did you like the song? John Bell wrote the words and harnessed them to the engaging old Scots tune Kelvingrove. (If you'd like to see a conventional video presentation of the song, please click here. At the end of the song click the arrow top left to return to this blog. Otherwise another version of the song may appear. YouTube carries quite a number of versions and sometimes they are linked together.) AskingSometimes this song is called The Summons, because it imagines that Jesus himself is speaking, asking anyone who is listening if they will follow him. I don't much like 'summons'. It sounds a bit peremptory. So if it were my song, I'd delete 'summons' from the first line of the last verse and then nobody would use that word as the title. In the verse I'd use a kinder word like 'invite' or 'offer' or 'asking'. A with God in God lifeI often feel deeply sad and even frustrated by the way many of my friends and contacts see religion. They see it as a set of strictures – 'have tos' or 'don't dos'; membership of a repressive structure. You may have read that before. I've certainly said it before and the sadness of the misapprehension does still sit with me. 'Set of strictures' doesn't cut it. God issues an invitation to live in a spiritual sense with god. 'Come and follow' means 'come and be with'; ‘come and live with'. It's an invitation. Just look at what we can do if we accept the invitation the song throws out: ‘let the blinded see'; 'set the prisoners free'; 'care for both the cruel and kind'. 'And never be the same.' Its a spacious and transforming invitation. Easter flags it. It's for all. Happy Easter! □
Credits Bible verse: Ephesians 5: 19 (ASV) Ngaio Union Church photograph – Barbara Walker ##########
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