This week was the third Sunday of Easter, and our songs were gathered around the theme of....Easter. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan
Because He Lives by Bill and Gloria Gaither
Inbreaking by Jameson McGregor
Amazing Grace by Citizens & Saints
How They Fit In:
There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.
Death In His Grave: We sang this song to narrate again the defeat of death that we observe in this season.
How Great Thou Art: This song gives us language to situate the death and resurrection of Jesus within a broader observation of God's grandeur. The song begins with an observation of the wonders God has made throughout the cosmos, and goes on to observe the trajectory of God's making all things new. In the chorus, it offers us a chance to practice channeling this wonder into praise of God.
Because He Lives: This song takes a few swings at articulating the ways in which the Resurrection shapes the way we engage life now--particularly life's uncertain elements. It offers us the chance to pull the thread between Jesus' breaking through one of the more absolute elements of finite existence (death), and any anxieties we might have about life. Put differently, the Event of the resurrection calls into question what we think we know about how the world works, and gives us reason to hold the stubborn hope that God is actively working to redeem every broken part of creation. This connection is easy to pay lip service to, but really living as though it were true is a life project.
Inbreaking: I've been working on this song for a couple of months. For the first few weeks, I had a handful of lines, but had no idea what they meant. As I kept working at it, I started to see Easter themes emerging. Taken all together, this is a song about the Risen Lord raising us also, both as individuals and as the Body of Christ. It's not squarely focused on the events of Easter, but it is intimately concerned with the role that Eastertide plays in the life of the Church year.
Amazing Grace: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Amazing Grace then: The Resurrection is a transformative act of grace that has implications for the whole of creation. It is a Yes to life and the created world. This song talks about the implications of the Resurrection for our lives, and we sang it to rehearse speaking the truth about God's ongoing redemption project in our midst.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM