Easter Message: A New Song In Their Hearts

AN EASTER MESSAGE
With A New Song In Their Hearts

What a thrill it was to hear former communists singing Charles Wesley’s hymn “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!” Men and women who had been taught not to believe in God were now singing of their new-found faith in his Son Jesus Christ. They were singing words based on the Holy Scriptures, that had long been banned in their homeland of Ukraine.

What had God done? He had brought 21st century Ukrainian evangelists, in the form of the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, to America to share their Christian faith through the concert I recently attended, and others they were presenting on their American tour. In addition to performing a variety of other music they were now sharing their faith through an 18th century English hymn, which to them is a “new song.”

This new song is based on the Scripture accounts of the Resurrection, found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20, as well as the further commentary found in 1 Corinthians 15. As an evangelistic outreach to music-loving Ukrainians, American church musicians Roger and Dianne McMurrin founded the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 1993.

Jesus In Their Voices
How few times had these new Ukrainian Christians sung these words? How many times have I sung these words? If I have sung this hymn only once each Easter since I accepted the resurrected Jesus as my Savior I would have sung it at least 51 times.

As I sing these words again this Easter, what meaning will they have for me? Will I be singing this 265- year-old hymn as a “new song?” Will it have fresh meaning to me? Will the spiritual thrill of my salvation, and commitment to Jesus be in my voice and heart when I sing the words, “Soar we now where Christ has led, following our exalted Head, made like Him, like Him we rise, ours the cross, the grave, the skies”?

Raised in a state orphanage, Valentina was provided with clothes, love, and an education by the Ukrainian government. However, she had not been taught about God. The government had forbidden this. As an adult Valentina’s curiosity about God was very strong. Bravely she visited the church, but found it to be like visiting a museum.

In 1993, through her association with the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Valentina discovered the living Christ. One can only imagine the emotions in her heart as she now sings “Christ the Lord is risen today!”

A New Life Through Song
At age 63, Misha says his life is just beginning. His spiritual journey began in 1992 when he heard the word of God through a prayer offered by conductor Roger McMurrin at the close of a rehearsal for Handel’s Messiah. “He was praying like to a living God,” Misha said. The following year Misha accepted the living Christ and now personally rejoices in song.

Valentina’s and Misha’s stories match many others of the 103 chorus members and 65 orchestra members who have found Christian music to be unlike anything they have ever heard. Singing it touches them spiritually. In Dianne McMurrin’s words, “God becomes real to them through the divine spark of creativity that ordained it. Each time they sing this music, they rediscover that creativity.”

As a “seasoned” Christian who has grown up in a “Christian” nation, will I rediscover the living Christ as I sing the music of Christ’s resurrection this Easter? How will I sing such hymns as “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “Up From the Grave He Arose,” “He Lives,” and “Because He Lives”? Will I sing such praise songs as “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High” or “Lord, I Believe in You” without my mind and heart being in gear, simply mouthing words that I’ve sung many times before? Or, will I, with spiritual and mental understanding, really believe what I’m singing?

Will my singing be an honest expression of my heart, or a meaningless traditional exercise that’s just expected of me? Will my expression of love for the living Christ be as genuine and vibrant as that of my Ukrainian friends?

Perhaps as I am singing that which I truly believe, those who have not yet personally experienced the living Christ will receive encouragement to do so this Easter. My singing may then, in these uncertain and changing times, be the spark that ignites in others the discovery of the Living Hope.

Let us make all the songs we sing of the risen, living Jesus be a “new song” of heart-felt belief, no matter how many times we’ve previously sung them. The living God will be very pleased with this type of “resurrection” singing. Believing what we sing this Easter will very likely have eternal consequences for ourselves and others.

By Roger Wayne Hicks

Christ The Lord Is Risen TodayChrist the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia! Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened Paradise, Alleluia! Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where’s thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia! Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia! By Charles Wesley, 1739