Will You Come and See the Light? - January 4, 2022

 

Will You Come and See the Light? - January 4, 2022

 

John 1:1-5, NIV - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  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.

 

Today, I bring to you a song that I had not heard before today (the day I am writing this).  I was searching for an Epiphany song and came across this one.   I was moved by the lyrics and touched by the beautiful voices that sang the version linked below.  I cannot find the story behind the song, so my encouragement today is to meditate on the words.  Each verse ends with the piercing question, “will you hide, or decide to meet the light?”  The brilliance of the lyricist is that question takes on a different angle based on the verse.  Spend some time with this question today, reflecting on the ways that we often decide to hide from spiritual insight/light because deciding to “meet” the light would force us to confront something unpleasant about ourselves or the world in which we live.  The focus of Epiphany is to engage in this difficult struggle. It is to move from the sentimentality of the “sweet little Jesus boy” to consider how we will live because He was born.  Jesus is God with us in the flesh! So what now?  How will we respond to this incredible event?  Engage with this struggle this week of Epiphany.

 

Will you come and see the light from the stable door?

    It is shining newly bright, though it shone before.

    It will be your guiding star, it will show you who you are.

Will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

 

Will you step into the light that can free the slave?

    It will stand for what is right, it will heal and save.

    By the pyramids of greed there's a longing to be freed.

Will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

 

Will you tell about the light in the prison cell?

    Though it's shackled out of sight, it is shining well.

    When the truth is cut and bruised, and the innocent abused,

will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

 

Will you join the hope, alight in a young girl's eyes,

    of the mighty put to flight by a baby's cries?

    When the lowest and the least are the foremost at the feast,

will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

 

Will you travel by the light of the babe new born?

    In the cradle lit at night there's a gleam of dawn,

    and the darkness all about is too dim to put it out:

will you hide, or decide to meet the light?

 

Question: What specifically would deciding to “meet the light” mean for you right now?

 

Prayer:  God, we confess that sometimes, we have “loved darkness instead of light” (John 3:19).  Pierce the darkness of our hearts and give us the courage to meet that light instead of hiding from it.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the biggest challenges of our

country today. 

 

Song:  Will You Come and See the Light? - David Haas, Michael Joncas, Marty Haugen and Paul A. Tate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPLTf_vDr6s

Jesous Ahathonhia (Huron Carol) - December 10, 2021

Jesous Ahathonhia (Huron Carol) - December 10, 2021

 

John 1:16-18 (NLT) From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

 

Today’s hymn is dedicated to our Canadian brothers and sisters. The "Huron Carol" (or "Twas in the Moon of Wintertime" in our UM Hymnal) is Canada’s oldest Christmas song. It was written in 1642 by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Canada.  Brébeuf wrote the lyrics in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people; the song's original Huron title is translated "Jesus, He is Born".  The song's now popular melody is derived from a traditional French folk song, "Une Jeune Pucelle" ("A Young Maid"). The well-known English lyrics were written in 1926 by Jesse Edgar Middleton. 

 

One of the things very noticeable about the lyrics of the modern English version is they contain biblically inaccurate details.  Jesus is born in a “lodge of broken bark,” wrapped in a “ragged robe of rabbit skin,” and it is hunters, not shepherds who come to see him.  The “Chiefs,” not wise men, bring him gifts of fox and beaver pelts.  And perhaps most controversial is the mighty “Gitchi Manitou” (translation “Great God”) is who sends the angels to tell of Jesus birth.  For all of these details, I have never liked the song.

 

However, it wasn’t until this year that I was made aware that the 1926 Middleton lyrics are not at all faithful to the original song written by the devoted missionary nearly 400 years ago.  Upon reading them, I was moved by a missionary’s heart to convey his faith in Christ in a completely foreign culture.  He learned their Wendat language and composed the song to help the people he loved and served understand his reverence for Jesus.  Here is an actual English translation of his lyrics:

 

“Have courage, you who are humans. Jesus, He is born.

Behold, it has fled, the spirit who had us as prisoner.

Do not listen to it, as it corrupts our minds, the spirit of our thoughts.

They are spirits, coming with a message for us, the sky people.

They are coming to say, 'Come on, be on top of life, rejoice!'

'Mary has just given birth, come on, rejoice.'

'Three have left for such a place; they are men of great matter.'

 

'A star that has just appeared over the horizon leads them there.'

'He will seize the path, a star that leads them there.'

As they arrived there, where He was born, Jesus.

The star was at the point of stopping, He was not far past it.

Having found someone for them, He says, 'Come here.'

Behold, they have arrived there and have seen Jesus.

They praised a name many times saying,

'Hurray, He is good in nature.'

They greeted Him with respect,

Oiling His scalp many times, saying, 'Hurray!'

'We will give to Him honour to His name.'

'Let us oil His scalp many times, show reverence for Him,

As He comes to be compassionate with us.'

It is providential that you love us, and think

'I should make them part of My family.”

 

I find the French missionary’s lyrics pretty faithful to the biblical story.  In fact, it is more faithful to the Bible than many other popular Christmas carols we sing every year.  The link I included for the song today is an attempt to recapture the spirit of Brébeuf’s original lyrics.  The singer is Crystal Shawanda, a popular Canadian artist with roots to Canada’s First Nation peoples, the people the song was originally written for.  I love this version and I hope you do too.

 

Question:  Who helped understand the significance of Jesus’s birth for the first time?

 

Prayer:  Great God of all people, thank you for people who help us understand and deepen our faith.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for missionaries all over the world looking for creative ways to communicate the faith in foreign cultures

 

Song:  Jesous Ahathonhia (Huron Carol) - Sultans of String feat. Crystal Shawanda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOs6ZH7Yoyk