APRIL 2023
CENTENARY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
The Flush of Love’s Light “And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.”
T
hese final, rapturous words in the hymn “What Wondrous Love Is This” have always startled me. I’m struck, again and again, by the way in which such a brooding hymn, whose first verse speaks of Jesus “bearing the dreadful curse,” makes such a triumphant turn.
This year on Good Friday, we sing this dramatic hymn before tracing Jesus’ footsteps toward his painful crucifixion and glorious resurrection. And in this journey from Good Friday to Easter, we glimpse what Jesus knew - for him and for uslong before he bore “the dreadful curse": death leads to life, love leads to freedom. If God is love, then Jesus reveals to us the truest nature of love for all of humanity. Longtime Winston-Salem poet, the late Maya Angelou, captures this notion in poignant fashion: In the flush of love's light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. On Good Friday, the Chancel Choir lauds the cross as “our one reliance.” Indeed, Jesus demonstrates in devastating fashion that our very humanity requires us to surrender and relinquish. Our freedom, our union with God, is hidden in the depths of God’s love given to us, calling us to give all that we have and all that we are. May the journey through Holy Week dare us to give our lives to one another, to bravely sing on, illumined by the flush of love’s light. Jonathan Emmons Director of Music Ministries