Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
On Easter Sunday our time of worship began with this traditional greeting and response. We said these words together another six times in our worship liturgy that morning, once more at the start of my sermon, and I heard people greet one another with these words before and after the service too.
This conviction is at the core of Christian faith: Christ is risen! It’s miraculous. It’s full of hope. It’s worthy of praise. The weight of Lent and Good Friday, the weight of the cross, the weight of suffering and death is finally lifted and gives way to glorious light and life.
As we sang in our opening congregational song:
Christ the Lord is ris’n today,
All creation joins to say:
Raise your joys and triumphs high.
Sing, oh heavens and earth reply.
The original words penned by Charles Wesley in 1739 were written just like this with one line after another. But the version we sang on Sunday has an additional “alleluia”—meaning “praise the Lord”—at the end of each line.
I can hardly imagine the song without all of the alleluias! But according to the United Methodist Church History of Hymns, the alleluias were added years after Charles Wesley wrote his original verses. They were added by an unknown editor, most likely to fit the stirring music, but how fitting that they also offer praise to the Lord. So with every phrase, we sing alleluia, praise the Lord.
As in the final verse:
Soar we now where Christ has led – praise the Lord!
Following our exalted Head – praise the Lord!
Made like Him, like Him, we rise – praise the Lord!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies – praise the Lord!
We sang so many alleluias—praise the Lord—on Easter Sunday that they still echo in my mind and heart today.
That’s only fitting, for the good news of Easter is not only for Easter Sunday. In the liturgical calendar, Easter is a season. (I love this visual by Moore and Sprinkle, 2016). That’s why we can say “Happy Easter Monday” as a friend wished me yesterday, and why I wish you a blessed Easter Tuesday today. What’s more, beyond the celebration of Easter Sunday, even beyond the Easter season, God’s resurrection power continues to bring new life year round.
Whatever this day and this year may hold for you, be assured that God’s resurrection power is still at work as it was on that first Easter morning. God works in our lives while it’s still dark, when no one’s looking, in ways that we don’t expect, in the midst of whatever grief or confusion, questions or trials we face. As he met Mary Magdalene in the garden (John 20:1-18), the risen Christ meets us wherever we are, calls us by name, and brings new life.
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Alleluia! Praise the Lord!
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April Yamasaki 
Thank you, April. Just today we decided to go the route of palliative care for Hardy rather than subject him to chemo treatment as this would be so hard on his body. (He is 85). I listened to the YouTube on your blog post and I wept. It’s a hard road (as you know so well!).
Elfrieda
Elfrieda, thank you for sharing this with me. My heart breaks for you and Hardy and your family. May God continue to gently carry you all through this time.