An ancient Christian hymn from the 4th century becomes the balm and antidote of our world today.
It is the victory song of hope over despair, life over death.
It speaks to all of us alike; none are immune from its power and influence.
It breaks the gallows erected by white christian nationalists today.
They by way of their words and deeds deny the power of Christ.
They alter and bend, they distort and falsify, the Word made Flesh.
They fail to grasp that Light is greater than darkness, Love greater than hate, Peace greater than war, Christ greater than all.
Selections from this ancient hymn are in bold.
Exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, Let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness.
I long for an end to gloom and darkness.
I have my own.
I cannot speak for you.
For too long I have been living under a cloud of instability and cruelty created by a false man and his movement.
I am not the only one.
Arrayed with the lightning of his glory, let this holy building shake with joy, filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.
The mighty voices of the people.
This is what I hear. With their mighty arms they are growing in strength.
Old and young, rich and poor, blue and red, progressive and conservatives alike, voices throughout this country are using their voices to protest loudly and their power to indict.
This has not abated.
Nor will it. It will only grow.
Standing in the awesome glory of this holy light, invoke with me, I ask you, the mercy of God almighty, may pour into me his light unshadowed, that I may sing this candle’s perfect praises.
His light is unshadowed in us, a light of mercy he offers all who strike his Name.
His pure light is the light that conquered death. The only light we are to emulate.
Why traverse a road where an unreality is found, where fear fueled by lies reigns?
Consider she who kissed his ring only to be “let go” and only to be “let go” again for having done so.
They end up alone with themselves.
It is truly right and just, to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.
We know them to be without the human strife and desire that mark our days.
We know them as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
In them, there is no darkness.
This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death, and rose victorious from the underworld.
The underworld is not one any of us were made for, a place where prison bars are strong and unbroken.
Its name is not underworld, its name is fake riches and faux power untold.
It like a black hole draws in many who look away from the Light.
It is the false promise made to Jesus when he was young and in his prime.
He rejected it, proclaiming: “It is written, you shall worship the Lord you God, and him only shall you serve.”
Those who do the same will be victorious with Him.
Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed.
Since life is eternal, outliving the flesh and bones that weigh us still.
O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
The ancient Christian faith devoid of any semblance of what we see today, an indictment of all the false prophets that are so loud we have grown numb.
O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
A necessary fault, the inevitable disposition given at birth and gone AWOL.
By making the mistake, the error, the sin, nature kicks in and sends one to destroy the death that resulted.
Jesus Christ is His Name.
O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the underworld!
An underworld where all matter of nasty happens. It is a world where innocent human life has to die to satisfy the "higher aims" seemingly imbedded in man and woman.
From those in the womb to those in assisted living homes, or those different than ourselves, who look different, act different, believe different, to young innocents impacted by war and trafficking, too many to count.
This underworld lives for itself and it feeds off itself and any who might aporoach.
It is a world not tethered in reality, where faux narratives of events and of others are created with lies that rise like smoke day and night.
It does not stop, it is continuous, 24/7.
It will get bad.. it will grow darker.
An image of an honorable man hogtied in the back of a MAGA pickup truck is just a hint of things to come.
However dark, the darkness will not overcome the Light.
The Light is greater, more powerful, unknown in its ways, but mightier than any faux power.
No power can come close to it let alone extinguish it.
This is the night of which it is written: The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.
Gladness is void of lies, dis and mis informatio. It is devoid of division and hatred.
The sanctifying power of this night dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.
It speaks clearly to us.
The power of this night dispels wickedness, it drives out hatred, it forgives, it restores innocence, joy, and concord.
It brings down the mighty.
Their fall scars the earth.
This ancient Easter Proclamation dates back to the fourth century, but it remains as relevant today as it did then.
For a fallen star remains among us, creating havoc, attacking innocents, judges and kin alike.
His enablers not far behind.
They have risen up before, and their downfall will be a matter for them and no one else.
God waits like the rest of us for their deeds to catch up to them.
One falls but another takes its place. Their opportunities seem endless.
The voice opposite of God’s voice sounds the alarm each time a new seed rises from the ground.
One seed became corrupt from the inside and has risen to unknown power and sleeps not for the time being.
O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human.
Not just a blessed night, but one of terror for many, since the light that brings such joy to some is a pain of great intensity for another.
It is a pain that originates in self.
The unrepentant darkness within when hit with the Light screeches and squirms in pain proportionate to its evil deeds.
We pray you that this candle, hallowed to the honor of your name, may persevere undimmed, to overcome the darkness of this night.
Persevere we must, since overcoming darkness remains with us always.
We do not forget what the children of God suffered in the years 1933-1945.
We remember for a reason. So that it never plagues us again.
Here we must "overcome the darkness of this night."
Receive it as a pleasing fragrance, and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.
That is the light that is you and me, the undimmed light that must persevere to the end.
A light that emits a fragrence so sweet the angels in heaven rejoice.
It will not rest and its scent will rise like a new day.
Count on it.
May this flame be found still burning by the Morning Star: the one Morning Star who never sets, Christ your Son, who, coming back from death's domain, has shed his peaceful light on humanity,and lives and reigns for ever and ever.