He's Alive, He's Alive

So weeks (months? a month?) of not posting and here we go two in one day! Relistening to the lyrics of Christ is Risen I realized I wanted to unpack the lyrics a little bit. Particularly the bridge and the chorus which go as follows:

Christ is risen from the dead
trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake come awake

Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh hell, where is your victory?
Oh Church, come stand in the light
The glory of God has defeated the night
Singing Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh hell, where is your victory?
Oh Church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead
He's alive, He's alive.

Writing the lyrics, there's a part of me that feels "this says it so well, where more can I say?" I think mostly just that it relates to my previous post: as a Church we do not deny death nor hell, but we are called (and seek and strive) to stand in the light. That death and hell are not the final Truth, not the end, not the last word. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God" and so too the Word is the final Word, beginning and the end. It gives me goosebumps to think about.

"Come awake, come awake" Slowly I awake (Mary Oliver says "Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell") -- and you can ask any one who has lived with me: I do not awake and rise from bed in the morning easily. It is a journey and a re-commitment to life every morning. But yet the call is to "come awake" and "come stand in the light" and the only reason I can answer this call is that my death, all of the ways I die and am tempted to die, have each been trampled and transformed. because in joy and in sorrow I can cry with joy or with tears "He's alive, He's alive." When I remember I am called to FOLLOW and not MAKE THE PATH, when I remember that Christ first walked the road from death to life, created it made it at great cost (at my cost), when I am awoken...

And there are so many things to awake to: the beauty of the world in nature in people in friendships, in love, in family -- all of which I am invited to be a part of. And so many things to awake to which are hearty breaking: hunger, poverty, thirst, illiteracy. Yet these last my "come awake call" is not to an awakening of the existence of these issues, but to awake to the love God has for the people (His people) who suffer, to awake to His love and to feel it and live it and act it in my own heart in my own life. So He is alive and He is alive in me. What a beautiful call, what a call I wish I could awake to and live out better and more fully!