Remember There Was Once a Day

Words by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, 2012
Music: tune, TALLIS' CANON by Thomas Tallis, ca. 1567
Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22
Topics: Christ's love; God's promise; peace; unity; reconciliation

This new hymn text by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette is closely related to the Revised Common Lectionary epistle Ephesians 2:11-22.

Remember There Was Once a Day (Sibelius format)

Remember There Was Once a Day (pdf)

The author writes of this hymn:

Many Christians may not remember a time when they did not know God's love in Jesus Christ because they were baptized as infants and grew up in the church. Still, it is not uncommon in our journeys of faith to experience times when we feel distant from God because of the challenges of life and distractions in the world around us.

Edward Searcy points out, "Just because we have been raised in the church does not mean that we have always been near to God. A preacher [and an individual Christian] will do well to remember with the congregation the various ways in which the church itself wanders far from Christ, becoming alienated from life in the kingdom of God and estranged from the ways of Jesus..." (Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Westminster/John Knox Press, 2009, pp. 255-257).

The good news is that Christ's reconciling love breaks down the barriers between us and God, and between us and others. In Christ, we are made one, and we are made whole. As individual Christians and as a church, we are called to witness to the unity and peace that we have from God.

See Carolyn Winfrey Gillette's biography.