Here are a few things — songs, texts, objects — which symbolize Easter for me:
My favourite Easter hymn, Low In The Grave He Lay :
After the message, what makes this song so special for me is the contrast between the more meditative melody of the verses and the rousing chorus.
My other favourite at this time of the year is Easter Song. This is Keith Green’s version:
And here is the original version by 2nd Chapter of Acts:
The “Easter Cross” from the Torchbearer’s DIG (Diakonie in der Gemeinde)[1], a ministry to handicapped people, is a wonderful symbol of Easter. It came about more or less “accidentally” in a woodworking shop for handicapped people when cut-offs were swept up one evening to be disposed of.
As a cross it represents Christ’s suffering and death; the grave with the stone rolled away represents Christ’s resurrection; and the flame-like shape of the cross bars represents Pentecost and the Holy Spirit who enables us to live the Christian life.
And finally, here is a liturgical text I have come to love, the Easter Anthems from the Anglican Easter liturgy — a selection of verses from St. Paul’s epistles: 1 Corinthians 5:7b,8 ; Romans 6:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22.
Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
therefore let us keep the feast;
Not with the old leaven,
nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
Christ being raised from the dead
dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once;
but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin
but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christ is risen from the dead
and become the first fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be:
World without end.
Amen.
May God grant all of us a blessed Easter season.
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“Diakonie” is a term used in German for the welfare and social work of Protestant churches; the Catholic equivalent is “Caritas” [↩]
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The “Easter Cross” from the Torchbearer’s DIG (Diakonie in der Gemeinde)[1], a ministry to handicapped people, is a wonderful symbol of Easter. It came about more or less “accidentally” in a woodworking shop for handicapped people when cut-offs were swept up one evening to be disposed of.