“Love Lives Again”
Love has come—again in the darkness! Love bursts forth at the dawn of the day.
See, the women have come to discover: Christ has arisen; death is conquered!
Love! Love! Love is the Word of Easter:
Love! Love! Love lives again today.
Love now lives—an angel proclaims it; Love is loose in creation again.
See, the wonder and glory of Jesus; Tell all the world what God is doing:
Love! Love! Love is the Way of Easter:
Love! Love! Love lives again today.
Love has come—and claims us forever. Love is word now unbounded and free.
Love is Jesus alive and among us. Love is our call and gift to others.
Love! Love! Love is the Truth of Easter:
Love! Love! Love lives again today.
Text: Justin Lind-Ayres (used by permission)
Tune: Un Flambeau, “Love Has Come” (ELW 292)
Devotion
As I stated at the outset on Monday, this week gives us a bit of liturgical whiplash with Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost all swirling in the air. This weekend I felt we could round things off a bit liturgically with a whiff of Christmas!
A few years ago, I wrote an Easter text to the beloved Christmas hymn “Love Has Come” (text: Ken Bible; tune: Un Flambeau). Leaning into the Christmas theme of love incarnate, I wrote this Easter word to name the fulfillment of the incarnation in the resurrection. That is, without the truth of Easter, Christmas is purely sentimental. The full meaning of the birth of Jesus, Immanuel, God-with-us, is known to us finally in the risen Christ. For at Easter we encounter the depth of divine love for us that goes into the maw of death itself to unbind and conquer. Resurrection is our Easter word, way, and truth that love lives again! For God is present in love.
Prayer
God of Easter, your love is in the darkness and at the dawn of the day. Hold us in your incarnational resurrected love today and forever. Amen.