"HE HAS RISEN"

It was a solid, staid, old parish to which I was called just after the war, one that needed a bit of waking up here and there, and on our first Easter, we arranged to have the Sunrise Service begin with a fanfare by a quartet of trumpets sounding forth from the balcony. Well, the trumpeters were quite enthusiastic, and I must admit, quite loud; and, quite frankly, the innovation was not received with unanimous approval. In fact, one elderly lady in the congregation was quite vocal about it. She said: "I don’t mind some changes. After all, you have to expect that with a young, new pastor, but trumpets in the church on Easter, the very idea! That’s carrying things a bit too far." Well, bless her soul, like a lot of other pinch-mouthed Christians, she hadn’t read her Bible car…