Although I write on the afternoon of Easter Monday 2023, a day when many Christians are back at work, in most of the UK, except for Scotland, it is a bank holiday.

It is most beneficial to have a four-day Easter weekend, beginning on Good Friday. This is thanks to having an established Church in England, despite its many faults.

The Church of England’s prayer for Easter Monday is as follows:

Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Amen.

Resurrection theology

Because most of the world’s Christians are back at work on Easter Monday, it is easy to think that Easter was but one day. However, the Church calendar has seven Sundays of Easter. This lengthy period is Eastertide.

Therefore, now is as good a time as any to ensure that Christ’s resurrection stays in our hearts and minds.

In 2012, I posted a series on the reflections of the Revd James Fowler, the founder and president of Christ in You Ministries, which operates worldwide. He is a big proponent of what he calls Resurrection theology, which centres on the risen Christ. Without a risen Christ, we would have no Church.

Readers might find these Resurrection theology posts useful in remembering the joy of Easter. I have also included a Lutheran perspective in the final post below:

Remembering the reality of the risen Christ

Are we bypassing the risen Christ?

A call for Resurrection theology

Christianity IS the Risen Christ

Unlocking the meaning of the Gospel

The extension of the risen Christ

A Lutheran application of Resurrection theology

Hymn: Thine Be the Glory

A popular post on The Conservative Woman is ‘The Easter Sunday Hymn: Thine Be the Glory’, which includes a brief exposition of John 20 and the meaning of the Resurrection.

Excerpts follow, emphases mine:

The resurrection is crucial to Christianity. In I Corinthians 15:14 Paul says: ‘And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.’ No resurrection, no faith. And Paul means an actual physical resurrection, not a mythical resurrection or hallucination as some believe. The stone was rolled away and there was no body.

The tune of the Easter Day hymn Thine Be the Glory was written by Handel in 1747 as a chorus called See the Conq’ring Hero Comes for the oratorio Joshua, which he composed in a month between 19 July and 19 August. However it was so popular that he added it retrospectively to his opera Judas Maccabaeus which had premiered the previous year, and so it appears in both works. When a friend kindly informed Handel that he had written better things than See the Conq’ring Hero Comes, Handel replied: ‘You will live to see it a greater favourite with the people than my other fine things’ …

In 1884, Swiss pastor Edmond Louis Budry (1854-1932) wrote words to Handel’s tune, with the first line À toi la gloire Ô Ressuscité (‘ To you the glory, O Risen’), which was published in the French hymn book Chants Evangéliques.

In 1923 the World Student Christian Federation obtained permission from Budry to translate his hymn into English. The commission was given to a Baptist minister and theologian, Richard Birch Hoyle (1875-1939).

Hoyle was born in Cloughfold, a hamlet near Rawtenstall in Lancashire. Despite having a hearing problem he was a gifted linguist, fluent in 12 languages. He translated about 30 French hymns into English.

The post includes the following choral renditions of this beautiful and rousing hymn:

Here it is given a resounding performance by the First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

For sheer power this has got to be my favourite. It’s by an unidentified player at the Wellington Town Hall organ in New Zealand. There may be one or two duff notes, but it’s joyful!

The full lyrics can be found here.

Often, remembering a hymn or its lyrics is useful in keeping a memory or an idea alive.

May we recall the Christ’s resurrection throughout the year. It is our raison d’être as Christians and our eternal hope and joy.