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The opening theme song 'Saints Alive!' is a song of celebration and praise
to God, which boldly proclaims that God and His people are very much alive
and that He is at work in His Church by the power of His Holy Spirit.
'Power to be Witnesses' recalls the words of the angels at the Ascension of
Jesus (Acts 1:11) - "Why stand there gazing up to heaven!" and the promise
that Jesus had made to His disciples about the power He would give them to
spread the Good News starting at home in Jerusalem and reaching out to the
ends of the earth. It reminds us that God's work is still not completed.
The words of the third song are familiar to Christians all over the world.
'Breathe on me Breath of God', the prayer-hymn written just over a hundred
years ago, is used with a gentle tune as the disciples wait in prayer in the
upper room, and leads on into an ethereal climax of praise as the Holy
Spirit gives new ways of expressing the mighty things God has done.
There were three great Jewish festivals to which every male Jew living
around Jerusalem was legally bound to come- the Passover, Pentecost and the
feast of the Tabernacles. Pentecost means "The Fiftieth", and was 50 days
after the Passover. The Feast itself had two main significances. It
commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai and was a sort of
early Harvest Festival celebration. It had one other unique characteristic
in that the law laid down that no labour could be carried out on that day.
So it was a holiday. Jesus chose Pentecost for the special reason that it
would be a gathering of Jews from all walks of life and countries. Whenever
God works in power men crowd round to ask what is happening. On the day of
Pentecost that question was posed by the amazed pilgrims from all over the
civilised world, and Peter, using the 'Song of Joel', tells how God is
fulfilling His promise to pour out His Holy Spirit.
In 'O Listen Here, O Israel' with its penetrating repeated phrase 'it was
for YOU', Peter's sermon continues in forthright and uncompromising terms to
present Jesus of Nazareth ("whom you killed") as their Messiah.
The wonder of the resurrection, the crowning proof of the authority and
identity of Jesus, is told in the third part of Peter's sermon with its
exultant refrain 'God Raised Him Up'.
The preaching of this Good News calls for a response and results. The
response is given in the well known and beautiful words of Isaac Watts hymn
'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'. Roger Jones' new, haunting and
meditative melody works wonderfully to portray these words.
The result is celebrated in the song 'Brothers and Sisters' as Christians
enjoy the fellowship and love they have in Christ.
The theme of the resulting unity in Christ is taken further in the next song
'You Are Mine, and I Am Yours' where the love of the brethren is a
demonstration to the world of what God can do.
'Saints Alive!' is a continuing story, and fittingly the cantata closes in
a timeless and open-ended fashion with the living Church raising her voice
in praise to the living God for His goodness. Though the tune is new, the
words of the finale 'All People That on Earth do Dwell' have been used for
four centuries by Christians and, since they are based on Psalm 100, for
over two thousand years before that by God's people.
Mike Thomas
Revelation Secretary
November 1998.
Based on a commentary
by the Rev. Colin Bevington.
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