John 20:1-10
Text: Robert Lowry (1826-1899) Tune: Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
1. Low in the grave he lay—
Jesus my Savior!
Waiting the coing day—
Jesus my Lord!
R/Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er his foes
He arose a victor from the dark
domain,
And he lives forever with his saints to
reign,
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!
2. Vainly they watch his bed—
Jesus my Savior!
Vainly they seal the dead—
Jesus my Lord!
R/
3. Death cannot keep his prey—
Jesus, my Savior!
He tore the bars away—
Jesus my Lord!
R/
MEDITATION
I grew up in the last generation of Christians who spent Sunday night in church at
evening services and Wednesday night Bible studies. This was before the Ed
Sullivan show, or Steve Allen, became our Sunday evening devotionals. In a way the
Sunday evening services were vesper services, if you think liturgically.
The service generally involved a special speaker, missionary, singer, a singspiration,
or even an old 16mm movie run on a rickety old film projector that few could thread
properly. One of my favorite memories is watching my father looking on in
increasing frustration while a deacon or two would ponder its intricacies,
unsuccessfully, before we could watch the movie. When he heard that I could learn
how to do it my Junior high school, he made me take the course!
Every session would begin with a singspiration. We usually sang from the Gospel
songbook the church had in the pew rack, alongside the Concordia hymnal. This was
an old Lutheran tradition: the songbook alongside the hymnal, both important.
Sunday morning we used the hymnal, more formal; but Sunday evening, the
spiritual songbook came out and we had rousing times with both the American
gospel songs as well as Scandinavian spiritual songs, many by Lina Sandell,
“Children of the Heavenly Father,” or “Day by Day,” etc. We often used the English
songbook of Swedish Augustana, Youth’s Favorite Songs. Many of its selections came
from the beloved Hemlandssånger of 1892,
This hymn came from our other gospel songbook, Christian Service Songs. My dad,
who had studied choral directing at Augsburg, would lead us. He loved the way this
hymn matched the words. The stanzas are dark and forbidding, like the grave. And
then the refrain rockets up, out of the lower clef into the heights, matching the
meaning of the text unusually well. He would have us linger on the penultimate
Arose! Those Sunday evening services have now gone the way of the dodo bird.
The music and songs we heard and sang as kids bring us back to those moments
when we hear them later in life. This one takes me back to those small gatherings in
a shoddily built small mission congregation in Oregon, after the war. Most of our
people were migrants from the Midwest. It was a small, poor, beginning
congregation. Every Sunday night we gathered, the winter rain sparkling in the
streetlights outside, and people rejoicing in their Savior. Although I was the
youngest there by decades and often a reluctant attendee, I cannot forget how Christ
made their very simple lives alive with joy, Paradise gleaming in their eyes past the
make shift sanctuary where we sang. “Up from the grave he arose!” Thanks be to
God.
HYMN INFO
Robert Lowry (1826-1899), who also wrote “Shall we Gather at the River,” became
one of America’s best known composer of gospel songs. Born in Philadelphia, he
attended the University of Lewisburg. A brilliant student he later served there as
Professor of Rhetoric. He became a pastor, and was known as a fine preacher. After
several pastorates, in 1880 he left for Europe where he studied among other places
at Leipzig, the place for composers at the time. These links direct you to a variety of
renditions from around the world. Sing along!
LINKS
Harmonious Chorale/Ghana
Free Presbyterians in Belfast, Ireland
Virtual Easter hymn sing/Mennonites
Pre-school children/Panama City/with actions/fun