Gregg DeMey 0:07
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose of the word of God. It's Friday, November 4, and Sunday's coming. This is Gregg DeMey. I serve as Lead Pastor at ECRC, and this week in worship we'll conclude by coming to the Lord's table for communion, and singing an awesome song, "The Rising of the Son."
Gregg DeMey 0:25
Part of the song is just a few years old, written in 2017 by John Troast - sounds like toast but with an r - who lives right here in Illinois (in Bloomington). It has a beautifully simple piano part, and a bittersweet chorus with these lyrics: "Jesus, our Messiah, Lamb of God, holy one. Please remind us, in our trials, of the rising of the son." Yes, as a Pastor, I'm acutely aware that as we come forward to receive the gifts of Jesus' Body, Blood, Wine and bread, that we come full of trials, trouble, and temptations. We are in deep need of a visceral bodily reminder of the resurrection; The hope of the rising of the son.
Gregg DeMey 1:08
Then there's a musical surprise in the middle of the song. The melody swells it becomes more hopeful, and a new melody is introduced - except that this new melody is actually about 400 years old. The tune and lyrics of, "break fourth O beauteous heavenly light", are placed into the middle of the song. It feels both incredibly natural and beautiful. Our hope of realizing the resurrection (when this melody appears) feels to me like it gets a bit closer.
Gregg DeMey 1:43
This tune was made famous by J.S. Bach, who included it in his own new harmonisation in the early 1700s, in one of his church corrales. This is a great example of old music being made new, and now being made new again. The profound lyrics have remained - words that point us to Jesus coming, both as a baby in Bethlehem and his promised return in glory when he comes to judge the heaven and the earth, and of his unifying of a church - a family, a body - across time and space.
Gregg DeMey 2:18
I offer these words as a prayer for us today from the song: "Break fourth, oh beauteous heavenly light. And usher in the morning. When life will rain and death will die, oh Jesus come in glory." Yes and Amen. Today and every day.