Thoughts on Christmas Carols II

“Angels we have heard on high”

The lyrics of “Angels we have heard on high” present a fairly straightforward retelling of the passage in the gospel of Luke which tells of the angel announcing the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. In the gospel of Luke, the shepherds are the only visitors to the newborn Jesus. Matthew tells us about the wise men from another land, and his emphasis is on the gospel’s inclusion of gentile lands. Luke’s telling emphasizes gospel’s inclusion of the lowly, symbolized by the shepherds who worked in the fields. And of course, it will not have escaped his hearers that this is also a reference to young David, the humble shepherd who became king. Now there is a new king from the family of David, and the first to visit him are shepherds.

In the gospel, after one angel has given the news, suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.” Ever since the year 130, just a century after the earthly life of Christ, that phrase “glory to God in the highest,” or in Latin, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” has been a part of worship services celebrating the birth of Christ. I remember learning how to pronounce those Latin words in the youth choir at my church. For centuries, the congregation would sing this phrase following prayers and scripture readings. When we sing it today, we are joining centuries and generations of the faithful. The tune even sounds like an ancient chant. There are only six notes in the verse, and the refrain stays within one octave, making this carol much easier to sing than, say, “O Holy Night.” It is called a traditional French carol, but in truth, no one knows who wrote it or when or where.

The carol recounts the visit of the angels to the shepherds by imagining a conversation with the excited shepherds who are on their way to see the baby and are spreading the good news. In the first verse, the shepherds share their joy and wonder about the angelic visit, but don’t actually tell the news. In the second verse, the imagined people who are listening to the shepherds break in to ask what all the excitement is about. What is the news? In the third verse, the shepherds answer, but more than that, they invite: “come to Bethlehem and see.” That has always been the Christian model for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. We are not supposed to be preachy, so to speak. We are called to invite. Come and see. I’d like you to see what worship feels like, what serving others feels like, what fellowship feels like. Invitation: that’s always been the best way.

Thoughts on Christmas Carols I

“Joy To The World”

One of the great hymn writers in the English language is the British minister Isaac Watts. Born in 1674, Isaac grew up in Southhampton’s Above Bar Congregational Church, but he had a problem with the music. It was uninspired and archaic. They kept singing the psalms of the Bible in outdated language, without any feeling. His father challenged him to offer something better, and Isaac responded with over six hundred hymns in his lifetime. “Joy to the World” was one of his efforts to bring the language of the psalms up to date, and to mesh those Hebrew prayers with the message of the New Testament.

Joy to the World is based on Psalm 98, especially verse 4: “make a joyful noise unto the Lord; all the earth.” The psalm imagines the entire creation joining in praise to God: let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. "Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy" (verses 7-8). And so the hymn also includes the whole world “heaven and nature sing,” “fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains.” The joy of God is a celebration for all the world, we’re all included. It reminds me of when Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and the Pharisees tell him to rebuke his disciples for shouting their praise for God. Jesus says “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

So, all of creation is rejoicing in God, but then we reach the third verse, and we’re not sure what to make of it.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make his blessings flow,

far as the curse is found.

Sometimes we sing this, and you can see people get more perplexed each time they have to repeat it: “far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as….”

You have to go back to Genesis, chapter 3, the story of Adam and Eve who live in Eden until they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is a more complex story than we usually give it credit for being. We don’t have time for it now, except to say that eating the fruit is not all a bad thing. It introduces the knowledge of evil, but it also allows them to understand good, and this kind of moral discernment is what maturity is all about. I think God meant all along for this to happen. But with maturity comes the reality of life’s hardship. In the story, when they leave Eden, God puts a curse on the ground. Listen to the curse, because this will explain that mysterious third verse:

“Cursed is the ground…through painful toil you will eat of it…it will produce thorns and thistles, and you will eat the plants of the field” (Genesis 3:17-18).

But when God comes again, the curse will be removed, and world is made new. That’s the promise of Christ, to make all things new, and so we sing that God’s blessings will flow far as the curse is found.

One last point: did you ever notice that this is not a Christmas hymn? It’s an adaptation of a psalm, and other than one meaning of the phrase “the Lord is come” it has nothing to do with Christmas. But sometime in the last century we decided that Christmas was the perfect time to rejoice, to share our joy with all of the world, and to receive God in our hearts.

Sermon - Journey to Bethlehem

Preached on December 24, 2007 at The First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC

Dedicated to my family: Betsy, James, and Saml; and always to the glory of God.

I want to tell you the story Mary and Joseph and their boy Jesus. I want to tell this story because this is the night to tell it, and also because I think that we may find ourselves in this story; I want to invite you to see if maybe you are on a journey to Bethlehem.

Mary
Our story begins with Mary, on an ordinary day during the time when she was betrothed to Joseph, before they were married. Suddenly, an angel named Gabriel stood appeared, and greeted her with strange words. He said “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary was perplexed. She wondered what this could mean. Then the angel told her something amazing!

Gabriel said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
This was even more perplexing! Mary asked the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel Gabriel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Even now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."
Elizabeth was pregnant? Mary thought. How could that be?

Mary was astonished, and still perplexed, but something deep inside of her trusted these words, and trusted God. When she spoke next, the words came out of her mouth like a prayer: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” And then the angel left, and then Mary waited. She waited, with fear of what would happen when she told her family, when people found out. Would they believe her? What would they say? She waited with no idea what to expect next. She waited as the nights grew longer for this child to be born. She waited, a child yet herself.

I wonder what experiences in your life have made you feel perplexed or confused?
I wonder how God might do something unexpected that will completely change your life?
I wonder where in your life you might agree to help God? When you might also say “here am I, a servant of the Lord.”

Joseph
Our story continues with Joseph. When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he was crushed. All his visions of a future with Mary and the life they would have had were shattered in this single moment. Of course, Joseph assumed that another man was involved, and that his betrothal to Mary was broken. Joseph decided to call off the wedding very quietly, because he did not want to humiliate Mary by exposing her to public disgrace.

But after he had made up his mind, it all changed on a dark night, when clouds covered the moon and stars, and Joseph lay in a deep sleep. He dreamed, and in his dream an angel of the Lord appeared and explained how Mary was pregnant, and that the child would be very important. The angel said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The dream changed everything. Joseph was in awe as he wrapped his mind around the idea that this child could be from God and that he, Joseph, was the one chosen to name him. In that era, it was the father’s role to name the child, and naming was the official claim of fatherhood. By naming Jesus, Joseph would indeed become his father, and Jesus would indeed become a descendent of the house of David. It was incredible! But still, there were worries. What would others think? Could he handle all that was to come? What blessings and dangers would await a child born of God?

In the midst of these questions he waited. He waited with a trust in his wife Mary, a trust in what the angel had told him in his dream. He waited as the nights grew longer for our child to be born.

I wonder when you have felt surprised, even blindsided by something unexpected?
I wonder how God might be communicating with you in dreams, in experiences, or in the words and face of a friend or stranger?
I wonder what plan for your life you might have to give up for something more important?

Journey to Bethlehem
While they were waiting, the emperor Augustus decreed that everyone in the Roman Empire should be registered in a census. Everyone had to go to the town of their ancestors. Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, a town in Galilee in the north of Israel, but Joseph was descended from the family of King David, and so they had to travel to the city of David, called Bethlehem. Bethlehem is in the south of Israel. They had to travel past Samaria, past Ephraim and Jericho, even past Jerusalem. It was a long journey, and Mary was soon to give birth. They left their home and all the preparations they had been making for their new family. It was hard to put everything on hold at such a busy time, just because a ruler who lived far away had ordered it.

As they traveled, they saw things they had never seen before. They traversed a land that was sometimes beautiful, other times treacherous, and often both at the same time.

When they finally arrived in Bethlehem, the city was full with people who had come to be registered. Every room in the inn was taken, and there was no one who would take them in to pass the night. The only shelter to be found was in a stable, where they crowded in with the animals who were eating from a manger filled with hay.

I wonder how events in the wider world affect your life?
I wonder what things have pulled you away from your home?
I wonder how you faced hardship along the way?
I wonder how God might be at work in your life, even in the midst of the things you have to do?

Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem was not something they chose or planned. It seems that life often goes that way for us. Sometimes I feel like I would be able to do more good in the world if things didn’t keep coming up. I could help more with the kingdom of God if my life wasn’t always caught up in unexpected work, demands, and journeys. But on this night, when I remember Joseph and Mary, it occurs to me that the things that keep coming up and getting in the way may be the very place where God is. It might be that when we find ourselves in a wholly unexpected place, it will be like Mary and Joseph finding themselves in a stable in another city. In that place, we meet God. Or, to say it another way: in that place, we help to bring God into the world.

The Golden Compass and its critics

You may have heard about a recent movie called The Golden Compass, which tells the story of a young girl’s adventure in a fantasy world filled with talking animals. The movie has been in the news because of the criticism coming from some religious quarters. The problem, say the critics, is that this movie and the novel by Phillip Pullman on which it is based (the first of a trilogy), are anti-religion and anti-God. I disagree. I thought the books were wonderful and the movie is a pretty good adaptation, and I think that these criticisms are misguided. Now, stay with me for a bit, even if you’re not interested in the movie, because there is a larger point to be made.
While it is true that Pullman is an atheist, let me tell you about how God and the church are portrayed in his fantasy world. The church is rigidly controlling, manipulative, and even violent in its pursuit of power. The church is against the free pursuit of knowledge and independent thought for fear that their claim to truth will be threatened. Pullman’s God is ineffectual, distant, and uncaring. It turns out that Pullman and I are in perfect agreement: that kind of church should be resisted and discarded. And I don’t believe in that kind of God either.

Pullman isn’t the only bestselling author recently to critique religion. The past years have seen a spate of new books with reasoned arguments that religion is unnecessary, destructive, and untrue. But we don’t have to be defensive. The existence of a loving and gracious God will not depend on the skill or volume of my defense.

Instead of being defensive, here’s what we should try: we can thank our critics for engaging important points and then we can continue the conversation. First, we need to recognize the truth from our critics. The Christian church has often acted very un-Christian. Being honest about it will build our credibility, and guard against it happening again. Second, we need to tell our good news. Religion also has a rich history of standing up for the poor, giving generously, and being the driving force behind social change that grants freedom and dignity to all people. Finally, we need to keep showing a different kind of God by our actions. We need to build relationships with people who disagree. I don’t think that any argument or any book will ever convince anyone of the reality of God’s love if they have never experienced it in the flesh.