On Easter Sunday morning, the sanctuary was filled with people happy to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection together. The service began with the orchestra playing an arrangement of “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” followed by “Beautiful Savior.” The pieces were both performed beautifully and set a joyful tone for the rest of the morning. The congregation then joined in singing hymns together, including “Christ Arose,” “He Lives,” and “Because He Lives.” The final chorus was sung a capella, and then Erik Calhoun led in prayer.  

After Pastor Dave Lambert welcomed the congregation and online viewers to the service, the combined choir and accompaniment orchestra assembled to present the Easter cantata, “Echoes of Easter.” The program began with “Hallelujah Medley,” with several familiar Palm Sunday worship songs, then a chorus which repeated the lines, “Hallelujah, what a morning. Hallelujah, what a day. Hallelujah, love has conquered the power of the grave!”

Narration, read by Ed Habre, was interspersed between songs throughout the program, and emphasized that the celebration of Easter is praising God for the love He showed to mankind by providing a plan of salvation through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. The second song told precisely that story with the lyrics, “To the great and the small, the king and the beggar, Love is sending a Savior.”

The program continued with the song “Gethsemane,” describing the last supper Jesus shared with the disciples, and His prayer of surrender at the Garden of Gethsemane. The choir sang, “Father, not My will, but Thine be done, so the world will know Your redeeming love. If the cross demands every drop of blood, not My will, but Thine be done.” In the next song, imagining Jesus’ perspective as He died, the lyrics said, “I gave all I had to give, and it was worth the loss, to say I love you, from an old rugged cross.”

The cantata ended with jubilant messages in two final songs, “He Walked Out” and “There’s Still Power in the Blood.” Easter is still celebrated many years after that first morning because there is “still salvation in His name, forgiveness in amazing grace.”

At the end of the musical presentation, Brother Dave preached, using 1 Corinthians 15:19-23 and 25-26 as his text. He said the day Jesus rose was the day the sting of death was ended. Because of the Resurrection, Christians have no need to fear the grave. Instead, there is the hope of Heaven and eternity with the Lord. Whatever lies ahead, everyone can have that hope because He lives!