Monday, March 27, 2017

Monday, March 27, 2017

Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”   Ephesians 5:14

Here is one of those lovely, unexpected hymn fragments that are woven into letters and other books in the New Testament. Just a little fragment, possibly of a baptismal hymn, already in existence and being sung by the early Christians by the time Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. Imagine the song in the night: river water may be rushing nearby, or waves splashing from the sea. The smell of chrism is in the air, and the smoke from fire. The renunciation toward the west, and then the turning toward the east, the direction of the rising sun, where Cyril of Jerusalem says, “God’s Paradise opens before you, that Eden … The place of light, that garden which God planted in the east.” And voices chanting in the dark, “Awake, O sleeper…”

Awaken me, O God, raise me up from the dead, and grant me the light of Christ. Amen

• Memorize a hymn.