Hymns of victory.

Tweet And he said, "Yes, it was written long
ago that the Messiah must suffer and
die and rise again from the dead on
the third day. With my authority, take
this message of repentance to all the
nations, beginning in Jerusalem: There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn
to me." Luke 24:46-27 NLT The day of resurrection! Earth, tell it
out abroad; the passover of gladness,
the passover of God. From death to life
eternal, from earth unto the sky, our
Christ hath brought us over with
hymns of victory.
The Day of Resurrection John of Damascus (eighth century)

Raising a racket

It is said that John of Damascus started
his hymnwriting career with a funeral
hymn for a fellow monk. The monk
wasn't dead yet, but everyone
thought death was near. So John
prepared his song and was singing it loudly in his room, testing it out.
Suddenly the monk for whom is was
written burst into the room and
scolded John for raising such a racket.
Tradition says that John was expelled
from the monastery briefly for causing this disturbance, but then the Lord told
the abbot that John would be doing
great things with music, so the abbot
welcomed John back. And John did some great things,
collecting and organizing the great
hymns of the Greek-speaking church.
His major accomplishment was the
writing of the Golden Canon, an Easter
liturgy still used in the Greek Orthodox church and from which this hymn is
taken. Scholars have called his text the
finest sacred poetry in the Greek
language.

Our "Resurrection Week" readings are
adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers
(1995).
Today's is taken from the
entry for March 30. Digging Deeper/Telling Others:
For more on the meaning of Easter, read 'Why the Resurrection' by Greg Laurie (Tyndale, 2005), also available in 6-
pack for distribution.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible,
New Living Translation and other
publications of Tyndale Publishing
House.