I can think of other church music that also falls short on grounds of quality, but which I enjoy all the same. But, on All Saints’ Sunday, Revelation 7.13-14 brings the blood of Christ insistently to mind. The first three blessings are paradoxes of nature: that poverty, sorrow, and gentleness are all gifts from God. Washing with blood is paradoxical, but, then, so are the blessings that God gives us. That is God’s way of sweeping us through the gates of the new Jerusalem, washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Source: The Times October 27, 2023 19:51 UTC