Auld Lang Syne - December 31, 2021

Auld Lang Syne - December 31, 2021

 

Deuteronomy 4:9 - Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. 

 

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about being done with 2021.  I get it.  I’m done with it too.  At times, the pain of this year was unbearable.  Even as I recall it right now, the tears form in my eyes.  I can’t remember a more difficult year in my 50+ years of life.  And of course, I’ve had way better than so many millions of people.  Am I ready for hopefully a better 2022?  You bet I am.

 

If only it was that easy – just tearing the last page from the 2021 calendar and all the badness was purged and all the goodness was ushered in.  We know it won’t be that simple – 2022 will be here tomorrow and just like today, more will die of Covid-19 in our country.  Racism will still be with us.  Deep divisions will persist.  People will still be hungry and looking for jobs.  Suicides, domestic violence, and mental health crises will still be at alarming levels.  I have hope that 2022 can be better than 2021, but it won’t be better by us just pretending that all that ugliness is behind us.

 

The song for today opens by essentially asking the question, should the past be forgotten?  The answer is no.  Part of the way we move forward in 2022 is that we remember what we’ve come through and we build on the lessons that ordeal has taught us.  2021 has taught us many things that we will need to make 2022 better.  The Birmingham Choir that sings “Auld Lang Syne” is singing that Scottish tune in an Alabama church that once forbid black people to come in.  That’s progress made on the realization that the prejudice of the past is wrong.  2020 and 2021 has forced me to see prejudice in myself that I didn’t know was there.  It would easy to conveniently slip back into that ignorance than it is to be honest about the soul-stretching work I need to do so that I may love better than I did in the past. 

 

Don’t get me wrong.  At midnight tonight, I will indeed celebrate this hellish year being over.  But I will do so with the resolution to be clear-eyed about another difficult year that is ahead of us.  I pray for God to lead us as continue to work to avoid further harm, do all the good we can, and stay in love with God.

 

Question:  What have your learned about yourself in 2021 that you will need to make 2022 better?

 

Prayer:  Thank you God for bringing us through the past year.  Heal us, strengthen us, and draw us together that with your help we can face the year ahead with confidence and faith. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for all those working to get COVID-19 vaccines to the masses all over the world.

 

Song - Community Choir in Birmingham - Auld Lang Syne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFdKpKLGxs

Sing We Now of Christmas - December 30, 2021

 

Sing We Now of Christmas - December 30, 2021

 

Psalm 51:10-12 - Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 

Today, we look at a  traditional French carol, NOEL NOUVELET, which literally means “Christmas comes anew.”  This tune dates to the late fifteenth century and has dozens of stanzas not translated into English.  It is believed that these many stanzas were a walk through the twelve days of Christmas.  In more recent times though, the song was shortened to focus more on celebrating the figures in the Creche, the handmade French nativities found in almost all French Christian homes. These nativity sets are more central to the French than even Christmas trees. The practice in many homes was to sing the carol while dancing around the nativity as a way of “entering into” the story of Christ’s entrance into the world.  This is the way Christmas comes anew each year as we take time to enter into the story as a participant instead of a casual observer.  

 

                As you look back on Advent and Christmas this year, have you been able to enter into the story or has it all been a blur?  It’s not too late. Spend a few moments with the figures of the nativity before this season ends next week.  Imagine you are a shepherd steered to the manger by the visitation of angels.  Or a wise man in a far-off land who has heard the message that a king has been born and you begin a long journey to pay Him homage.  Or even Mary or Joseph with a baby in their arms anticipating the joys and sorrows ahead being the earthly parents of the very Son of God.  In what ways could you place yourself in that first-century stable?  To the extent that we can do that, we allow Christmas to “come anew” for us this year and every year. 

 

Question:  How has Jesus been reborn again in your life this year?

 

Prayer:  Son of God, help me be present again in the stable where you entered our world and inhabited our human experience.  Help me experience the power as if I had been there in person.  Be born for me again this new year.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for your own spiritual needs today. 

 

Song: Sing We Now of Christmas – Straight No Chaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnOsTczXEiA

Go Tell It on the Mountain - December 28, 2021

 

Go Tell It on the Mountain - December 28, 2021

 

Isaiah 40:6-9 - A voice says, “Cry out.”

    And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

    Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall,

    but the word of our God endures forever.”

You who bring good news to Zion,

    go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

    lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

    say to the towns of Judah,

    “Here is your God!”

 

John Wesley Work Jr. was the son of two music/choir directors.  His son, John Wesley Work III, also became a music director.  Music was obviously the language and passion of the Work family.  Work Jr. took a special interest in African American Spirituals.  He loved them so much he began to collect them and publish them.  It was difficult work because most of the spirituals were never written down.  They were passed down by singing them from generation to generation and plantation to plantation.  Nevertheless, Work Jr. would find people who knew the songs, have them sing them to him and he would write down the music.  “Go Tell It on the Mountain” was in his second published collection of spirituals.

 

I try to imagine what it would be like to sing this song as a slave.  Of course, I can do no such thing but just the exercise in trying leads me to marvel at the faith of African people who have been enslaved, brutalized, and dehumanized by white people and somehow, they are able to hear good news in the faith that those same white people proclaimed to them.  There is something about the “news” itself that transcends and is untainted by the evil tendencies of those who proclaim it.  The slaves that sung this song somehow knew that 1800+ years after it happened, Jesus’s birth was good news for them that needed to be told “on the mountain.”  I am in awe of the power of that and I think about it every time I sing this song.  If makes me think of Paul speaking to the church at Philippi:

 

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.  Yes, and I will continue to rejoice . . .”  (Phil 1:15-18) 

 

The truth is that the only way Christ is ever preached today is through flawed human beings.

 

Questions: How have you heard the good news even through deeply flawed individuals?  How have others heard the good news from you?

 

Prayer:  Lord, forgive us for our sins.  Help us be better in the future than we are now.  But Lord, use us even now to tell others about the good news that Jesus is born. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for oppressed and enslaved people all over the world.

 

Song:  Go Tell it on the Mountain – James Taylor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEEioq76_JM

12 Days of Christmas - December 27, 2021

 

12 Days of Christmas - December 27, 2021

 

Romans 5:1-11 - Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace[a] with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

 

The Twelve Days of Christmas began on Christmas Day.  It is the span of time that takes us from Christmas to Epiphany on January 6^th.  The song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is obviously attached to this yearly period, although almost nothing can be said for sure about the song’s origins, development, or meanings.  Most scholars believe the lyrics were originally a poem from the 17^th or 18^th Century.  It has been proposed that the poem was a memory game of sorts played by children.  The song has been sung to at least 68 tunes (you read that right) and the also all the lyrics have multiple variations in all the many versions of this song.  No one has verifiable proof of the meaning or significance of the lyrics,

 

However,  in the late 20^th century, a theory was proposed that this song was used as a cryptic catechism for Catholic children at a time and place when practicing Catholicism was dangerous.  There are multiple versions of this theory and to date, there is no good evidence to support them.  Despite that fact, I actually like that use of the song because it helps me remember some of the more important sets of content in our Christian faith.  Here’s my favorite version of this pneumonic device:

 

Day One – The Partridge – Jesus, the one and only Son of God

Day Two – Two Turtledoves – The Old and New Testaments

Day Three – Three French Hens – Faith Hope & Love

Day Four – Four Calling Birds – Four Gospels (Matthew. Mark, Luke & John)

Day Five – Five Gold Rings – The Torah (1^st Five Books of the Old Testament)

Day Six – Six Geese a-laying – The six days of active creation (God rested on the 7^th)

Day Seven – Seven Swans a-swimming – 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit (Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Encouragement , Giving, Leadership, and Mercy) To be clear, this is not an exhaustive list of the gifts of the Spirit…for that reason, the seven swans is not my favorite part of the song.

Day Eight – Eight Maids-a-milking – The eight beatitudes

Day Nine – Nine ladies dancing – Nine Fruits of the Spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control)

Day Ten – Ten lords-a-leaping – Ten Commandments

Day Eleven – Eleven Pipers Piping – Eleven faithful apostles (Judas betrayed Jesus)

Day Twelve – Twelve Drummers Drumming – The twelve tenets/beliefs of the Apostles Creed (I’ll let you count them)

However the song came to be or what it’s meaning was originally (if it even had an original meaning), I love the to sing it today because it brings to mind to the beautiful aspects of our faith. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun (especially if you try to sing it faster with every verse!)

 

Question:  What helps you keep your faith ever before you?

 

Prayer:  We thank you God for the greatest gift of Christmas – Jesus. We also thank you for all the gifts that come from our faith in Jesus.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you know of other faiths today.

 

Song: Graham Ross conducts The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge - 12 days of Christmas

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3502107333238523

What Child is This? - December 25, 2021

 

What Child is This? - December 25, 2021

 

Merry Christmas! Jesus is born! Emmanuel God with us!

 

Galatians 4:4-7, NLT - But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.  God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.[e] And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

 

This is my favorite Christmas carol.  Here is a paragraph from Wikipedia about the song:

 

“"What Child Is This?" is a Christmas carol whose lyrics were written by William Chatterton Dix, in 1865. At the time of composing the carol, Dix worked as an insurance company manager and had been struck by a severe illness. While recovering, he underwent a spiritual renewal that led him to write several hymns, including lyrics to this carol that was subsequently set to the tune of "Greensleeves", a traditional English folk song. Although it was written in Great Britain, the carol is more popular in the United States than in its country of origin today.”

 

This has been my favorite Carol since childhood.  I remember the moment it became my favorite although the details are a little fuzzy now.  What I remember was that I was in church singing this song and at some point in the singing, I realized that this Jesus story that I always heard at church wasn’t a story at all, but history.  Jesus really was born and He really was the Son of God:

 

“This, this is Christ, the King,

Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:

Haste, haste to bring Him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary!”

 

I had answered the title question for myself.  And that is a significant moment for anyone.  At some point your faith in Jesus has to become YOUR faith.  You have to decide for yourself “What Child is This?”  For millions of people, this day is a day of presents and family togetherness and nothing more.  For others, this Child is acknowledged as the reason for the day, but is forgotten after the presents are opened.  For others, this Child is a Sunday relationship.  But for others, this Child becomes a lot more.  For still others This Child is everything.  Their entire life belongs to This Child.  What about you? 

 

Question:  What is your answer to “What Child is This?”

 

Prayer:  Jesus, we welcome your birth to us this day and every day.  You are so many things to so many!  May we be clear not only who you are to us in this moment, but who you want to be to us moving forward.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for Jesus to be known by more people this year.

 

Song:  Chris Tomlin (ft. All Sons & Daughters) - What Child Is This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jroBAl3WW8

Good Christian Men Rejoice - December 24, 2021

 

Good Christian Men Rejoice - December 24, 2021

 

Philippians 4:4 - Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

 

Today we have another Christmas Carol where we cannot trace the original author.  We do know that it is a macaronic carol which means it was written while eating macaroni.  You should try it sometime – macaroni does get the inspiration going.  You too could write a carol sung 100’s of years from now!  Just joking.  A macaronic carol means that it was translated from Latin and the original language.  They usually were upbeat tunes that begged for extra instrumentation like percussion and they lent themselves easily to dancing.  For this reason, macaronic carols were not sung in the medieval Catholic church.  Baptists didn’t like the dancing either.  Just kidding my dear Baptists.  I think someone put something in my coffee this morning.

 

The fact that this wasn’t sung in church did not keep the song from being sung.  It became what is called a “folk carol,” meaning it was sung in celebrations of more a civic or secular nature.  That is heartening to me because the carol is obviously about the birth of Christ and not one of the more secular aspects that were and still are popular in most English cultures. 

 

A couple of other notes of interest about this Carol should be noted. First, the “men” in the first line has fallen out of favor now in the age of more inclusive language.  For that reason, many modern hymnals have changed it to “friends,” “all” or folk.”  The interesting thing about this is that the original Latin version of this song did not even have a reference to “men.”  The literal translation of the Latin first line is “in sweet jubilation.”  In this case the early Catholics were more “politically correct” than their medieval counterparts. Go figure.

 

The other interesting feature of this hymn something I remember thinking was odd when I sung this growing up.  The “News, News” part is not in keeping with the meter of the rest of the song.  Musically, it doesn’t fit.  I wouldn’t have said it that way growing up because I didn’t know what musical meter was (and largely still don’t)  but I knew it was weird.  Turns out, these notes were added on accident by someone who was transcribing the music for Neale, (the English translator).  Instead of having it done again, Neale added the lyrics to match the accidentally added notes.  The rest, as they say, is history (or, as I call it, weird). 

 

In any case, we have a fun carol that begs for folk instrumentation and makes you want to dance – a true example of music for the masses (but not for mass). It actually commands us to rejoice!  If any event should be worthy of such revelry, it has to be the birth of Christ.  So sing and dance to this folk carol today – I double-dog dare you – and see if it doesn’t lift your spirit. 

 

Question:  Has forcing yourself to do something festive (even when you weren’t feeling it) every actually made you feel more festive? 

 

Prayer:  Jesus, as we look forward to celebrating your birth at our services tonight, may you lift our spirits and bring us the good “news, news.”

 

Prayer Focus:  Take some extra time to pray for yourself today – especially for what you are feeling you need most from God right now.

 

Good Christian Men, Rejoice – King's College Choir

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4yYb6yCNws

Joy to the World - December 23, 2021

 

Joy to the World - December 23, 2021

 

Psalm 98

Sing a new song to the Lord,

    for he has done wonderful deeds.

His right hand has won a mighty victory;

    his holy arm has shown his saving power!

The Lord has announced his victory

    and has revealed his righteousness to every nation!

He has remembered his promise to love and be faithful to Israel.

    The ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

Shout to the Lord, all the earth;

    break out in praise and sing for joy!

Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp,

    with the harp and melodious song,

with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn.

    Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!

 

Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!

    Let the earth and all living things join in.

Let the rivers clap their hands in glee!

    Let the hills sing out their songs of joy

before the Lord,

    for he is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with justice,

    and the nations with fairness.

 

The great hymn writer Isaac Watts is the author of this great Christmas Carol. He based it on the above Scripture (Psalm 98) as well as excerpts from Psalm 96 (verses 11-12) and Genesis 3:17-18.  The hymn was published as part of a collection of hymns called “The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament (1719).  Watts saw the psalms in a new light when seen from the point of view of the life of Christ.  If you compare Watts’ verses with the scripture, you will have to admit that great interpretational license was taken.  In any case, it is unique, to say the least, that we have in this great hymn, a Christmas carol inspired by the Old Testament. 

 

Another unique feature of this carol is that it speaks not only of Christ’s birth, but also of His Second Coming.  It speaks of Christ’s birth and Second Coming simultaneously, which is powerful.  The birth of Christ is not just a past event to be remembered and celebrated, but is also a foretaste of what is to come.  It paints the picture of Christ’s victorious birth and life, but also his ultimate victory that is yet to be seen.  Perhaps this is the reason it is such a faith-inspiring song that I look forward to singing at the end of Christmas Eve service every year. 

 

In Christ, all that came before is reinterpreted with new depth AND our future victory is secured and promised to all who believe.  Praise be to Christ and JOY TO THE WORLD!

 

Question:  Are there ways in which your past is now seen differently as a result of your present faith in Jesus?

 

Prayer:  God that is beyond space and time, we join heaven and nature that sings your praises.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Take time to name 10 things you are thankful for to God.

 

Song: Joy to the World – Whitney Houston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHhA-R0netY

Jesus, What a Wonderful Child - December 22, 2021

 

Jesus, What a Wonderful Child - December 22, 2021

 

John 1:16 - From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

 

Many hymnals list “Jesus, What a Wonderful Child” as a African American Spiritual assuming it was a song that was passed down from slaves in the American south.  However, no official catalogues of African American spirituals include this song.  In fact, most African American historians contend that there are only a couple of those old songs that have any reference to the Christmas story.  Evidently, Christmas for slaves was not really celebrated as a religious holiday.  Often, it was kind of a “free” day for them.  In any case, not many of the songs from that time are about Christmas and this is not one of them.

 

Most likely, Margaret Allison, the founder of the 1950’s group called The Angelic Gospel Singers wrote the song.  It became popular in smaller circles over the years but when Mariah Carey covered it on her 1994 Christmas album, it became popular with the masses. 

 

My favorite line in the song is “new life, new hope, new joy, he brings.”   When I hear it and/or sing it, it makes me think of all the people I have known that have found Jesus later in life.  I think of a man named Rick in one of the first churches I served who became a Christian while I was there.  He said after he had accepted Jesus, he said he “just laughed out loud for days” because he felt he was free for the first time in his life.  I think of another man Harold who I baptized when he was 92.  He had never felt worthy of being baptized before that and he marveled how accepted he felt.  There was hardly a dry eye in the church that day.  Others I think of don’t have quite as dramatic stories, but their new found life, joy and hope was just as real.  We can make the story of the birth of Christ a big sentimental thing, but this song always reminds me that Jesus’s birth changes lives forever.  I am reminded that his birth has changed my life forever as well. 

 

My mother-in-law Dele used to say to me on my birthday, “Eric, I’m glad you were born.”  I was always moved by that.  Perhaps, we can take a moment today to pray to our Savior, “Jesus, I’m glad you were born.” 

 

Question:  How has your life been different because Jesus was born?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, I’m glad you were born.  I have new life, new hope, and new joy because of you.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those struggling with depression.

 

Jesus, What a Wonderful Child – Mariah Carey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2azO6P2QfQ

Grown-up Christmas List - December 21, 2021

Grown-up Christmas List - December 21, 2021

 

Luke 4:18-19 - “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

As one that is always looking for the scriptural truth in unexpected places, I also have an affinity for many “secular” Christmas songs.  Today is one of those.  David Foster, the prolific songwriter wrote today’s “Grown-up Christmas List” Linda Thompson-Jenner and released it on his 1990 Christmas Album “River of Love.”  Amy Grant covered it on her second Christmas Album, “Home for Christmas” in 1992.  She composed and added a verse to the song and it was her version that became wildly popular.  Kelly Clarkson and a score of other artists have kept new versions coming ever since.

 

                The song is written to Santa Claus, but I prefer to see it as a prayer to God.  The heart of the song is the actual grown-up Christmas list:

                No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end…

To me, the list seems uniquely akin to Jesus’s statement of the purpose of His coming in Luke 4 above.  It’s instructive to remember that Jesus is literally reading Isaiah 61 when utters these words in a synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown.  He rolls up the scroll and then states, “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  The message given to Isaiah hundreds of years earlier is now becoming reality as Jesus begins to fulfill His mission.  If you read the rest of Luke’s gospel, you can see that Jesus goes about helping the poor experience good news that they’ve waited for all their lives.  He sees the afflicted and oppressed free.  He gives sight to the blind, heals the sick and proclaims the favor of God to people who never expected such a blessing. 

 

                To put it another way, he goes about fulfilling the aforementioned grown-up Christmas list.  Beyond that, he creates a community that he charges with continuing that work with the anointing of God’s spirit and the backing of God’s power.  You and I are charged with binding up the wounds of those whose lives have been torn apart.  We are called to be the peacemakers that keep conflicts from escalating into wars.  We are called to aid in God’s healing processes for those who have wounded by disease, violence, and cruelty.  We are the friends to the friendless.  We are champions of what’s right when all those around us seem swept away by what’s wrong.  All of that is summarized by the last item on the list – we are the people who NEVER STOP LOVING! 

                It can tempting to give on this list at times.  It seems like a silly pipedream most of the time.  But so did the idea that God would become a helpless baby.  Christmas reminds us that we are the community of the impossible.  We are those who claim that Jesus is Emmanuel – that in our striving for God’s kingdom, God is WITH US!

 

Question:  What is one tangible thing you can do today to keep yourself committed to loving the world even when it might seem like a drop in the bucket?

 

Prayer:  God, you are the fulfillment of the most grown-up of Christmas lists;  we believe that.  Help us in our unbelief.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those whose lives have been torn apart this year.

 

Song:  Grown Up Christmas List – Amy Grant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmF2rsDHOZc

O Come, All Ye Faithful - December 20, 2021

O Come, All Ye Faithful - December 20, 2021

 

Luke 2:15

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 

Probably my second favorite Christmas Carol of all time, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is one of the older hymn texts we sing at Christmastime.  These verses were originally composed in Latin with the earliest texts found dating to 1640.  Most likely though, it is even older than that and we don’t have a way to know who actually penned the first version.  The lyrics have been paired with many tunes over the centuries, but the one we sing today dates to the mid-nineteenth century.  Again the authorship of the tune is often disputed. 

 

No matter who wrote it, I love it.  It is the hymn that I most associate with Christmas Eve.  I have fond memories of standing in church singing this song at the 11:00pm Christmas Eve Service at Mandarin United Methodist Church in Jacksonville with the pipe organ blaring full volume. You could actually feel the music in your bones!  I actually have a specific memory of singing this song and as we sang the title opening line, I had the thought, “I am one of the faithful.”  I was “joyful and triumphant” because Christmas was the next day and I got to stay up after midnight.  I would have to linger in my bed waiting for Christmas morning for a few less hours.  Score!  Fond memories.

 

My experience of this song is different now.  I’m not quite as confident about my faithfulness and sometimes it is the very singing of this song that helps me be joyful and triumphant.  It’s been years since I heard a good pipe organ.  I look forward to getting some sleep Christmas Eve and I pray that my kids are old enough now that they don’t wake me up too early.  The joy and triumph of Christmas is still there sure enough, but it has changed.  It feels less intense than it did as a child, but it also feels less fickle and self-centered.  The joy of Christmas for me now is more about seeing the joy of others.  The triumph of Christmas seems less about getting what I want and more about seeing others joy expanded.  I think about the difference between my childhood and adult experience of Christmas and I am grateful to God for the journey of faith He’s allowed me to have. 

Spend some time today reflecting on how your experience of Christmas has changed over the years.  What does that first line of “O Come All Ye Faithful…” stir in you? 

 

Prayer:  Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning; Jesus, to thee be glory given!

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!  We come and adore you! Amen

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people you will invite to worship with you on Christmas Eve Service later this week.

 

Song:  Westminster Abbey - O Come All Ye Faithful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1wHyMR_SCA 

Silent Night - December 18, 2021

 

Silent Night - December 18, 2021

 

John 1:4-5,12 – “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“…to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

 

Here is the story behind “Silent Night” as recorded on Wikipedia:

 

“Stille Nacht" was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had come to Oberndorf the year before. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, he had written the poem "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked as an assistant priest.

 

The melody was composed by Franz Xavier Gruber, schoolmaster and organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf, now part of Lamprechtshausen. On Christmas Eve 1818, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a melody and guitar accompaniment for that night's mass, after river flooding had possibly damaged the church organ. The church was eventually destroyed by repeated flooding and replaced with the Silent-Night-Chapel. It is unknown what inspired Mohr to write the lyrics, or what prompted him to create a new carol.

 

According to Gruber, Karl Mauracher, an organ builder who serviced the instrument at the Obendorf church, was enamoured with the song, and took the composition home with him to the Zillertal.  From there, two travelling families of folk singers, the Strassers and the Rainers, included the tune in their shows. The Rainers were already singing it around Christmas 1819, and once performed it for an audience that included Franz I of Austria and Alexander I of Russia, as well as making the first performance of the song in the U.S., in New York City in 1839.  By the 1840s the song was well known in Lower Saxony and was reported to be a favourite of Frederick William IV of Prussia. During this period, the melody changed slightly to become the version that is commonly played today.

 

Over the years, because the original manuscript had been lost, Mohr's name was forgotten and although Gruber was known to be the composer, many people assumed the melody was composed by a famous composer, and it was variously attributed to Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven.  However, a manuscript was discovered in 1995 in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers as c. 1820. It states that Mohr wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr, Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. [end quote from Wikipedia]

 

Although Silent Night is the nearly undisputed favorite Christmas Carol of all time, we know that that night Jesus was born was anything but silent.  We know that all was not calm.  And the world in which Christ entered as a helpless babe could hardly be described at bright.  Deep in our souls we want it to be that sentimental serene nativity that sits on our mantle (or wherever it sits in our home) because deep in our souls we need Christ to come into our anything but silent, calm, and all-is-bright lives and bring that serenity.  Perhaps we need that more this year than any year before. 

 

The good news is that Jesus can and does do that.  But we have to make room to receive this gift.  In the midst of the noise all around us, in the midst of all our chaos, and in the midst of our darkness, we have to make space for Christ to make his home within our soul.  We have to intentionally invite him to come in.  And then we focus the whole of our being on the light and warmth Jesus brings when He takes up residence within us.  It isn’t that the noise, the chaos, and the darkness has gone away; it’s that we’ve chosen to focus on something else – Someone Else to be precise. It’s in the midst of that focus that we can sing “Silent Night” and know that it is true.  

 

Question:  What could you intentionally do this Christmas to “make space” for Jesus?

 

Prayer:  Jesus, we know you are the Light that is the “life of all mankind.” Shine into our darkness, bring calm to chaos, quiet us in the midst of the noise.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for all our elected officials at the national, state, and local levels.

 

Song: Five for Fighting - Silent Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHoVlIrLJx4

O Holy Night - December 17, 2021

 

O Holy Night - December 17, 2021

 

Philippians 2:5-11

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

 rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

 And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

 

 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

    and gave him the name that is above every name,

 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

    to the glory of God the Father.

 

Today’s song is the favorite, “O Holy Night” This is the story of how it was composed from Wikipedia:

“In Roquemaure at the end of 1843, the church organ had recently been renovated. To celebrate the event, the parish priest persuaded poet Placide Cappeau, a native of the town, to write a Christmas poem.  Soon afterwards that same year, Adolphe Adam composed the music. The song was premiered in Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey.” 

In 1855, John Sullivan Dwight composed an English version that became popular in the United States.  It is the Dwight version that is still popular today.  I want to include a literal English translation of the French original because the words are quite poignant:

“Midnight, Christians, it is the solemn hour,

When God as man descended unto us

To erase the stain of original sin

And to end the wrath of His Father.

The entire world thrills with hope

On this night that gives it a Saviour.

 

   People on your knees, await your deliverance.

   Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,

   Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

 

May the ardent light of our Faith

Guide us all to the cradle of the infant,

As in ancient times a brilliant star

Guided the Oriental kings there.

The King of Kings was born in a humble manger;

O mighty ones of today, proud of your greatness,

 

   It is to your pride that God preaches.

   Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

   Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

 

The Redeemer has broken every bond

The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.

He sees a brother where there was only a slave,

Love unites those whom iron had chained.

Who will tell Him of our gratitude,

For all of us He is born, He suffers and dies.

 

   People, stand up! Sing of your deliverance,

   Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer,

   Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer!”

 

For me, this beautiful song captures the profound truth of an even more ancient Christian hymn, the “Christ Hymn” which is our scripture from Philippians above.  First century Christians sung those verses to remember the nature of Christ’s life here on earth.  There is another reason they sung it instead of just reading it aloud in worship.  This Christ Hymn is really well-conceived theology.  Just me saying that tends to make it seem cerebral and academic.  But Paul (and other early Christian leaders) knew that singing something has a way of connecting the head and the heart, thinking and feeling, and knowing and experiencing.  The truth of Christ is something we are intended to simply retain in our brains.  We are supposed to experience the Truth with all that we are.  Singing that Truth helps that to happen.

That is my experience when I hear an accomplished singer nail those high notes at the end. (Like Park Kiyoung does in the version I linked to above).   I feel it in the depths of my soul and I connect that feeling with the whole message the song – that Christ has redeemed us by becoming one of us.  So cue up your favorite version of this song and feel the Truth of Emmanuel in your toes!

 

Question:  What helps your faith move from your head to your heart to your hands (what you do)?

 

Prayer:  Thank you for the gift of music Lord.  Use this gift to inspire, sustain, and multiply our faith until every knee shall bow and every tongue confess the Jesus Christ is Lord! Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for our Bishop Ken Carter, our District Superintendent June Edwards (who is retiring at the end of this month), and our new incoming District Superintendent David Allen.

 

Song:  Park Kiyoung - O Holy Night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNxr02zrWDQ

One Last Christmas - December 16, 2021

 

 One Last Christmas - December 16, 2021

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 
Matthew West is the King of the Tear-jerking story-song.  A few years ago, he wrote a song called “ The Heart of Christmas.” The song was written for a movie based on the events that inspired the song for today, “One Last Christmas."  The video tells the story powerfully, so I won’t recount it here.  If you haven’t watched the video, watch it now. I’ll wait.
 
What I love about that story is how contagious love and compassion can be.  The way a whole town rallied around that family is just inspiring.  And yet, this Christmas, it has happened right here on Pine Island.  A few weeks ago, a family in Bokeelia experienced a fire in their home.  It was a family that we were already connected to through our food deliveries.  When we heard about the fire, we responded with resources we had available.  What has happened since has been amazing – as many as a dozen organizations on the island have gotten involved and have rallied around them.  They are going to be okay because of contagious love and compassion. All we did was provide the spark of contagion.
 
But what we really know is that we didn’t start that fire – God did.  God entered the world God created because of his love and compassion for us – his desire that we should not “perish.”  The word translated “perish” in this world-famous verse is the word used to describe food “going bad.”  It was “going bad” for us and God intervened because “God so loved” us.  He still intervenes in this way for people every day.  Now, we get the opportunity to be a part of this compassion contagion. 
 
Question:  What could you do today to help someone whose life is “going bad?”
 
Prayer:  Save us Lord from the ways we are perishing and include us in your work of saving others. Amen.
 
Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are facing a new scary diagnosis

 

Song:  Matthew West - One Last Christmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye39mgcHC3E

Did Baby Jesus Cry? (Away in a Manger ) - December 15, 2021

 

Away in a Manger - December 15, 2021 

Luke 2:7 - “…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 

In our exploring the Carols of the season thus far, we have pointed out some of the dramatic license hymn writers have taken with the biblical accounts of the events surrounding Jesus’s birth.  Today we encounter a hymn itself that has apocryphal (meaning not in the bible) stories surrounding it.  Away in a Manger is sometimes called “Luther’s Cradle Hymn.”  This is because the first time it showed up in a published book, it was reported that this Carol was composed by Martin Luther himself and he would sing it to his children every night as they went to sleep.  This was on March 2, 1882, in the "Childrens' Corner" section of the anti-masonic journal The Christian Cynosure.  Under the heading "Luther's Cradle Song", an anonymous author contributed the first two verses, writing:

“The following hymn, composed by Martin Luther for his children, is still sung by many of the German mothers to their little ones”

It would take too long to go through the process of how it came to be known that most likely, the first two verses and the tune were written by an unknown American author in the mid-eighteenth century.  The third verse was most likely added by Charles H. Gabriel in around 1892, but Gabriel also gave Luther credit.  I guess the sentimental idea of the great reformer Luther singing his children to sleep with this song was too hard to confront.  

The other issue that I have always had with this song (and I’m not alone) is the line that reads, “But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.”  I understand the sentiment.  This is the Son of God; he should be above crying.   However, this actually feeds into a belief about Jesus that has been deemed heresy repeatedly by the church – the heresy of Docetism.  The word Docetism comes from the Greek “dokein,” which means “to seem like.”  The idea is that Jesus, while he was here on earth, only appeared to be human.  He was always God, and thus, he never actually felt pain or experienced suffering of any kind.  God is above such human things as the theory goes.

If you object to that, I say “awesome.” because that means you have had some good solid teaching on Christology, or the nature of Christ.  The church, since it’s beginning has held that Jesus was “fully God” AND “fully human” simultaneously.  Hundreds of thousands of pages have been written by theologians over the centuries to try explain how such a thing can be true, but here’s the bottom line for me.  I don’t think we can ever truly know how it is possible to be fully human and fully divine at the same time, but I still believe that is the truth about Jesus.

That’s a long explanation to say that I believed that the dear baby Jesus did actually cry.  That’s how human babies communicate and Jesus was a human baby.  We worry about babies who never cry because that usually means something is wrong.  Jesus got hungry and cried to be fed.  Jesus got scared and cried to be held.  He got hurt and cried to be comforted.  He needed a diaper and cried to be changed.  He experienced everything all babies experienced. 

I love thinking about that because it reminds me that Jesus also has experienced everything I experience now.  He knows what it feels like to feel brokenhearted, abandoned, depressed, angry, jealous, jubilation, excitement, nervousness, and every other emotion I can think of.  Because He knows all of that AND because He is God, he can help me with whatever I’m going through. 

I think about all of that when I sing “Away in a Manger” and it comforts me. 

 

Question:   What do you think about the fact that the Creator of the Universe submitted to become a helpless human baby?

 

Prayer:  Emmanuel, thank you for being with us and being one of us.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for children who cannot live with their parents and are “in the system.”

 

Song:  Lauren Daigle - Away in a Manger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-9vCZXEb4M

O Little Town of Bethlehem - December 14, 2021

 

O Little Town of Bethlehem - December 14, 2021

 

Micah 5:2 - But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,  Here

    are only a small village among all the people of Judah.

Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past,

    will come from you on my behalf.

 

Phillips Brooks was the Episcopal Pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Boston when he wrote the now famous Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  A few years before he actually composed the tune, he had visited the Holy Land and had taken a side trip by camel to Bethlehem.  He actually found himself in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and was inspired.  He wrote a poem that would eventually become the lyrics to the beloved hymn.  He writes:

“I remember especially on Christmas Eve, when I was standing in the old church in Bethlehem, close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with the splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I knew well, telling each other of the ‘wonderful night’ of the Savior’s birth.”

He was not a music composer, so he had asked others to help him set his poem to music so that he would have a song to teach the children about the nativity.  The night before Christmas Eve, he still did not have a tune.  While laying in his bed, a tune kept going through his head and that tune became the tune for “O Little Town…” He called it a “gift from heaven.”

What strikes me about Brooks life is that we now know him as simply the author of a popular Christmas Carol.  However, in his day, Brooks was known as one of the most widely respected intellectuals alive.  He delivered one of the most eloquent eulogies of President Abraham Lincoln ever given. Her’s an excerpt from that speech that seems as timely now as it did in the days following Lincoln’s assassination:

“While one man counts another man his born inferior for the color of his skin, while both in North and South prejudices and practices, which the law cannot touch, but which God hates, keep alive in our people’s hearts the spirit of the old iniquity, [slavery] is not dead. The new American nature must supplant the old. We must grow like our President, in his truth, his independence, his religion, and his wide humanity. Then the character by which he died shall be in us, and by it we shall live. Then peace shall come that knows no war, and law that knows no treason; and full of his spirit a grateful land shall gather round his grave, and in the daily psalm of prosperous and righteous living, thank God forever for his life and death.”

Brooks was a prolific author. He was not only an eloquent preacher, but a teacher of other preachers.  He was a Harvard graduate with honorary degrees from Columbia and Oxford.  He oversaw the construction of Holy Trinity Church in Boston, which upon opening, was considered one of the most stunning sanctuaries in America.  He eventually became the Bishop of Massachusetts and is still remembered in Episcopal Churches every year on December 23^rd. 

Late in life, he mentored a young Helen Keller. They visited each other often and wrote back and forth until he died. Keller would write the following about his death:

“I have lost my loving friend, Bishop Brooks. Oh, it is very hard to bear this great sorrow; hard to believe that I shall never more hold his gentle hand while he tells me about love and God and goodness! Oh, his beautiful words! they come back to me with sweet, new meanings. He once said to me, ‘Helen, dear child,’ that is what he always called me, ‘we must trust our Heavenly Father always and look beyond our present pain and disappointment with a hopeful smile.’ And in the midst of my sorrow I seem to hear his glad voice say, ‘Helen, you shall see me again in that beautiful world we used to talk about in my study. Let not your heart be troubled.’ Then Heaven seems very near since a tender, loving friend awaits us there.”

It is significant to me that early in life, Brooks thought that, “my life should never amount to much.”  His enduring claim to fame would be a song about Bethlehem, but the ripples of his life and work are still being felt today.  It seems that his humility mirrored that of the “small village among all the people of Judah,” but like Bethlehem, his impact cannot be overlooked.  May the same be said of us all.

 

Question:  What is the work before you that no one else can do? 

 

Prayer:  God, you chose to enter the world in the most humble of ways and ask us to be like you.  Help us humbly do the work you called us to do in this moment.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who do jobs every day for which no one will ever thank them.

 

Song:  Frank Sinatra - O Little Town of Bethlehem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byLdVhWQi2w