'Born to raise the sons of Earth!' - Final Day of Advent

            Born to raise the sons of Earth!

            Born to give them second birth.

Christmas Eve marks the final day of Advent, and where could these reflections end but on that most iconic of carols, ‘Hark! the herald angels sing’? So revered is it within our canon that we are in danger of familiarity dulling us to the sensational text, penned by Charles Wesley. It is in richness of hope, theology and poetry unsurpassed by any other popular carol in the English tongue. And having a tune crafted by the great Felix Mendelssohn has undoubtedly consolidated its endurance and estimation!

‘Born to raise the sons of Earth!’ Jesus Christ was born, lived, died and rose again. He bids all people to die to themselves and follow Him, that he might raise them up in the same resurrection power with which He himself was raised. He came into the world to die that we would no longer be slaves to death, but be raised to new life. ‘Born to give them second birth’; not only did Jesus come to raise us from death, He came to make us new, to be born again, in a miracle of birth reflecting his own Christmas incarnation.

As the seasonal campaign proclaims, Christmas does indeed begin with Christ. But Christ does not end with Christmas; rather, His wonderful promises of new life and new birth to those who will receive Him reach down to us all even this day. So let us indeed give alert attention the heralding angels and worship Jesus Christ, our glorious King!

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing - words by Charles Wesley.

Sussex Carol and the Goal of Christmas - Advent Day 22

            “Glory to God and peace to men,      

            Now and for evermore, Amen!”

If the Christmas message is great news of hope, what exactly does that hope look like? What is its end or its goal? The final lines of ‘Sussex Carol’ summarise the three essential characteristics of the new relationship between God and Man made possible through the coming of Jesus Christ.

Firstly, ‘Glory to God’. All wrongdoing ultimately stems from pride, and all pride is an attempt to take the glory that belongs to God and place it on ourselves. It is not that we shouldn’t seek glory – for that is an essential stirring of the human heart – but that we should seek it in God, for that will ultimately satisfy us in a way that prideful striving never can. Jesus came to redress our woeful pride and liberate us again to give ‘glory to God’.

Secondly, ‘peace to men’. Not only had pride divided the human race from God, it had divided us from each other, and continues to do so when Christ is not honoured as the Lord. But Jesus came to reverse all the effects of the curse, including to restore right relationships between all people. And the creation-wrought dynamic of mankind was not to be at war but at peace with each other, that we could prosper without fear of evil.

Finally, ‘now and for evermore’. There is a forever, an evermore. Given the struggles we and the world still face it would be cruel to hold out all of these promises of restoration without their resolution. And while glimmers of their resolution shine today, these things will only be fully known in the New Heavens and New Earth that are still to come.

The invitation to a God-centred, glory-fulfilled, peaceful and eternal land has been issued in Jesus Christ – we must take hold of it! Or will we prefer to carry on in the comfort of self-centredness, conflict and instant gratification? That would be a tragic choice to make this Christmas time.

Sussex Carol (On Christmas Night) - traditional English.

The Age of Gold - Advent Day 21

            For lo! the days are hastening on,

            By prophet bards foretold,

            When through the ever circling years

            Comes round the age of gold.

There is a golden age coming. An age where peace shall reign over all the Earth. An age of prosperity, an age of fulfilment, an age of exploration. An age where humankind and God are united as in Eden; an age with no room for pride.

It is an age revealed to the prophets of the Old Testament, an age of which the apostle John saw glimpses of, an age hoped for by all the martyrs of Jesus. It is an age that all believers must long for. The age of the New Jerusalem come down to Earth.

It is the age that the angels proclaimed over Bethlehem that first Christmas, for it was in the birth of Christ that history’s corner was turned and the Earth could once again hope with the awe of a new morning. So let us cast away deafening noise and strife this Christmas time, that we may ‘hear the angels sing’.

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - words by E. Sears

'O Holy Child of Bethlehem...' - Advent Day 20

            O Holy Child of Bethlehem

            Descend to us, we pray;

            Cast out our sin and enter in,

            Be born in us today.

Nostalgia is, to its core, bittersweet. A longing for something that was, but is not any more. “Do you remember when…”; “What would it have been like to be there when …?” A present detachment from the event is a requisite for true nostalgia. Indeed, we need not have ever experienced that which we long for in order to know nostalgia for it.

The first Christmas seems a prime candidate for such emotions, separated as we are by two millennia from those glorious events. And yet, it cannot be! There are two reasons for this – firstly, the promises of Christ heralded by the first Christmas are still here to be taken today. Secondly, the hope of Bethlehem is still to be perfectly fulfilled in an age to come. Therefore, we are not detached from the first Christmas, nor is it ‘not any more’.

The final verse from ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ recognises our present connection to the first Christmas through earnestly pleading for Jesus to ‘be born is us today’. We need Jesus to cast out our sin, to be present with us and to be preparing us for His final advent. There could not be a better prayer to pray this Christmas time!

O Little Town of Bethlehem - words by Phillips Brooks

'Born to set us free' - Advent Day 19

Soon it will be Christmas morning,
Cards and gifts around the tree;
But will you treasure, will you worship
Jesus born to set us free?

I am a big fan of the giving and receiving of presents. It is an opportunity to give those you love something they like. It is a way of saying to someone ‘I appreciate you’. Our family Christmas day is a great and multi-dimensional day, but the centrepiece for me is undoubtedly the present giving ceremony (yes, even ahead of dinner!)

Yet in buying our gifts, we can easily get weighed down under a sense of burden and duty. And in receiving, more of our emotion can settle on what the gift is rather than the fact someone having given it to us. The corporeal outweighs the symbolic; the actualised trumps the theoretical.

This song reminds us that cherishing material things is not the right path to walk at Christmas. And good as it is to cherish the heart of the giving exchange, the writer exhorts to go further than this still, and adore the One whose birth we give these gifts in remembrance of. And when we remember that Jesus was indeed ‘born to set us free’, why would we not treasure Him above all things this Christmas time?

On a Dark Night (link to lyrics only, sorry no YouTube available) - by Paul Oakley.

'Fear not, he said...': Advent Day 18

"Fear not," he said, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds.

Who are they? And why would they fear? For those not familiar with the story of this carol, it is the account in the Bible of shepherds encountering an angel of God, announcing the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem to them. At this point in the carol, the angel had just appeared to them, ‘and glory shone around’. So what to be afraid of? Aren’t angels, sort of, nice?

No. ‘Nice’ is not the right word to describe angels. They are good. They are pure. They are helpers of men. But they are also powerful and mighty, agents and messengers of God Himself. They are supernatural beings involved in all of history, including today, and they make appearances as and when necessary. So the fear of the shepherds was not misplaced, yet the angel was quick to reassure them, and to herald the Christmas news.

I don’t know how comfortable you are considering the supernatural, but Christmas is all about, as my pastor put it, ‘God breaking in’ to our world. These things demand deep wrestling, but ultimately the choice is clear cut – we can embrace the supernatural, or we can dismiss it as a trifle. But if we do the latter, we throw away the wonderful hope that the angels, the incarnation and the virgin birth tell of; to trade in Christmas is far too higher price to pay.

While Shepherd's Watched Their Flocks

'Let Nothing You Dismay' - Advent Day 17

God rest you merry, gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,

For Jesus Christ our Saviour

Was born upon this day

Peace and joy. Two words ubiquitous at Christmas time, yet two words I suspect we do not feel as frequently as we hear them, even during a festive season. Yet that is exactly what the (somewhat archaic) first line of this carol bids us to feel – peace and joy from God. And it doesn’t stop there, with freedom from all fear being thrown in also. The reason? The Saviour has been born!

So why the variance in our emotions when this saving birth has most certainly taken place? The fundamental reason is that we are imperfect beings whose emotions are affected by curse just as the rest of our constitution is. Yet we can misuse this sober assessment as an excuse for apathy, fatalism, self-pity or whichever brand of gloom we are most comfortable with. The right course is to take hold of these wonderful truths – to meditate on them, to sing them, to embrace them in our hearts.

God would not have us wallow in despair, and nor will this carol. Its tone is thoroughly pro-active: Seek peace! Rejoice! Do not be afraid! There is indeed great emotional resource to be found in the Christmas message, and it is up to us take hold of it.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - English Traditional.

'A city with no room for its King...': Advent Day 16

Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping-
For God became a man and stepped into your world today.
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King;

While you were sleeping.

Missing out always hurts. How much it hurts depends on the severity of the lack. A missed bus will produce mild annoyance whereas a missed loved one causes great heart ache. But these two extremes share the once essence – grief caused by loss. This is the theme of this Casting Crown’s song, and the subject is the most terrible loss there can be – missing out on God’s amazing unfurling of redemption in Jesus Christ through human history.

The song begins with a consideration of Bethlehem’s obliviousness to the Saviour’s birth, banishing Jesus to a filthy stable. It moves to Jerusalem’s blindness to Jesus’ true identity as they crucify Him at Golgotha. The final verse is contemporary, decrying the western world’s stubborn apathy to His coming return (although be cautious of the anti-environmental and pre-millennial sentiments).

It is a song of deep mourning and grief, undergirded with a plea – wake up! Don’t miss out. Don’t make the mistake of Bethlehem or Jerusalem or secularism.  Don’t be asleep to Jesus this Christmas time.

While you were sleeping - by Casting Crowns.

'Sing through all Jerusalem...': Advent Day 15

                        Hail, thou ever blessed morn!

                        Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!

                        Sing through all Jerusalem:

                        ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’

Sometimes we get news so good we can’t keep it to ourselves. Nor should we – joyful things are meant to be heralded. Yet rarely do we get the same frantic stir to share the victories of history; much as we admire and are thankful for VE-day or the defeat of the Armada, we do not run downstairs and shout to our loved ones of their triumph.

The chorus to this carol demands that we make one exception to this rule – and that is the birth of Jesus Christ. The morn is ever blessed, for redemption has dawned! The birth of Christ must be proclaimed through all Jerusalem, and then to the ends of all the Earth. The news of Jesus’ birth is always as fresh as that first Bethlehem morning, for the hope and offer of redemption in Him has not ceased.

This is what Christmas is all about – proclaiming the great news of Jesus’ birth! Let us join the song.

See, amid the winter's snow - words by Edward Caswall

'We shall see Him; but in heaven' - Advent Day 14

Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in Heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;

We can be surprised, even shocked, to see someone out of context. The boss at a garden centre; an old teacher on a night out.  We often spend time in such encounters establishing just how the other had got to the unexpected place, or why they are there (if not obvious).

The classic carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ tells the story of Christ in three very different places – the stable of His birth, His wondrously patterned childhood and then His appearing at the end of this era of history. So let me ask you a question – are you more shocked that Jesus was once a baby in Bethlehem or that He will appear again in the future as the glorious Lord? I suspect that most of us, if we are being honest, are more comfortable with the former than the latter.

Yet if allow ourselves some sober meditation, is it not more incredible that Jesus (a person of the eternal God) would come to Earth as a baby to rescue us than that He would appear visibly as the Lord He rightfully is? Jesus’ first advent is the real shock; his second advent is entirely fitting. It would thus do us well to remain in wonder at Jesus’ birth and to prepare ourselves for His return.

Once in Royal David's City - words by Mrs. C.F. Alexander

'Light of Light' - Advent Day 13

God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten not created;

There are some things that cannot mix, oil and water for example. There are other things, such as love and hate, which are in such antipathy to each other that when they meet they invariably clash. Then there are things that we detest when they do meet, for example children and Class-A drugs.

Given the gulf that exists between God and humankind due to our turning from Him, we should not be surprised if the meeting of the two would be either impossible, result in a violent war or be an abhorrent spectacle to behold. The joyful news of Christmas is that this is, in fact, not the case and that God Himself in Jesus Christ took up residence in the womb of Mary. The Light of Light dwelt in the dark of a human! The uncreated One was incarnated into the creation!

What more can be said or sung about such mind-blowing truths than ‘O Come, let us adore Him, Christ our Lord!’

O Come, all ye faithful - words by John Francis Wade. 

'The soul felt it's worth' - Advent Day 12

                        Long lay the world, in sin and error pining

                        ‘Till he appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

What is more joyful than watching something come alive? To hear the first cry of a newborn, to see the virgin rays of dawn or to watch the unfurling of a flower. But even more satisfying is seeing a person come alive, be this through pursuing a passion, reconciling with an old friend or discovering fresh purpose.

Stories are often a catalyst to this process, which is one reason why films are so popular – at their best they lead to self-reflection and offer a vision of a better, higher self. The Christmas story is one such story, and it brings us alive in the profoundest sense. This is captured in these lines from ‘O Holy Night’, that speak of a bleak landscape of woe being shattered by the appearance of Christ. But what does it mean for ‘the soul to feel its worth’?

It means recognising that in our deepest being we were made to know and enjoy God and His glory; it means recognising that through our choice of pride we have surrendered that magnificent soul call; and it means recognising that only in Jesus Christ can we truly come alive once again.

O, Holy Night - from the French hymn by Placide Cappeau

'If I were a shepherd...' - Advent Day 11

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Imagine you live in a town ruled by enemies. You live in constant fear of exploitation and cruelty; you know any hint of rebellion will be met with fierce vengeance; the fabric of your community is decaying by the second. After enduring this for what seems an age, your town is unexpectedly liberated by allied forces in a daring counterstrike. What is your reaction? Overwhelming thankfulness, of course. But how can you thank them enough? You can’t. What can you return to them in the measure they have given to you? Nothing.

This is dilemma of the protagonist of ‘In the bleak midwinter…’ Just how can I respond to this magnificent hope, this incredible grace, this new era? If I were there at the blessed birth, I would certainly give my lambs or my homage, but I wasn’t. So what can I do? The answer is that there is one thing that we can all give to God, and that is our hearts. And that is what God delights in – our love, our trust, our devotion, our affection.

This Christmas, let us not be cynical about hope and cheap with our affections; rather, let us truly take hold of what God has done for us in Jesus and be generous in returning our love to Him.

In the bleak midwinter - words by Christina Rossetti.

'Be near me, Lord Jesus...' - Advent Day 10

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray.

At their best, Christmas celebrations are a wonderful time for enjoying, cherishing and deepening family relationships. The very nature of a festival and a feast is in its communal dynamic, which is why people being alone on Christmas day is such a saddening spectacle. It is also why those with difficult relationships often feel the tensions more acutely during the festive season.

Yet there is a far deeper relationship at stake at Christmas time, namely our relationship with God – Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit – Himself. For all the hope and joy of Jesus’ Advent is purposed to an end– that we might know God himself. This prayer, taken from ‘Away in a Manger’, is an example of the childlike, humble and heartfelt prayer that God loves to hear from us.

So amidst the throng of our Christmas relational experience - present giving, TV watching, ‘heated debates’ over Monopoly, tussling over the stuffing – let us take time out to seek sanctuary and joy in that most precious relationship of all.

Away in a Manger

'Soon comes the cross...' - Advent Day 9

Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the infant King.
Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing,
then in the grave at last reposing;
Sing lullaby!

Could there be a more shocking contrast? The hopeful birth of the long awaited Saviour-King, and the brutal execution of a condemned man through crucifixion. They don’t cohere, and it feels almost offensive considering them together, for we do not ponder the birth of criminals nor the death of newborns. Yet this traditional Basque lullaby makes us confront this most sobering of fact: the baby Jesus of our Christmas carols died a horrendous death at Calvary just 33 years later.

But the most shocking thing about Jesus’ death wasn’t that the hope of Emmanuel appeared over (for we all know the reality of disappointment). Rather, it was that this death was the means of fulfilling that very hope. For God’s plan of redeeming humankind and reversing the tyranny of curse rested on Jesus receiving, in our place, the wrath of God that was justly set upon all humans. In Jesus’ death, God’s perfect love and perfect justice toward humankind were reconciled. Jesus’ death unlocked God’s good countenance and so fulfilled, rather than ruined, the promise of the Saviour-King.

While we focus on the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas time, we should never forget that His birth was only the beginning of Jesus’ mission. It was not the end of the story of God’s grace, but the start. Easter follows Christmas, and their hope cannot be separated.

Sing Lullaby (The Infant King) - Basque traditional, arr. David Wilcocks

'The gift of God, come down to man...' - Advent Day 8

But the skies were filled, with the praise of heav'n,
Shepherds listen as the angels tell
Of the Gift of God, come down to man
At the dawning of Immanuel

A popular and tragic theme of many romances is that of the lover who will never yield themselves.  They will treat their other half with respect and shower them with a myriad of presents, but there is always something held back. Over time, this absence becomes a crushing sorrow upon the other, until they finally let out that cry – ‘I don’t want your gifts…I want you!'

What if God was to treat us like that? What if He gave all the things we can often think He should give to us – a comfortable life, a stable society, an end to suffering – but withheld Himself? We’d be spiritually empty, and ultimately no better off than in our struggles, for God Himself is our greatest need. The great news of Christmas is that God has given Himself in Jesus Christ! His name is Immanuel – God with us. The tragedy of separation from God is over, and the angels cannot but proclaim it to those wandering shepherds.

We give presents at Christmas time in replication of the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh bought as homage to Jesus by the wise men. But they speak of a deeper gift – ‘the Gift of God, come down to man’. So there is no place for living like the wilted lover before God, for He has offered Himself to us all. The question is, will we accept Him?  

From the squalor of a borrowed stable - Stuart Townend

'Heaven was filled with His praises' - Advent Day 7 reflection

                                    One day when heaven was filled with His praises,

                                    One day when sin was as black as could be –

                                    Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin.

What was life like for Jesus before his virgin birth? Scripture tells us that Jesus had always been with the Father, that all things were created through Him and that all heaven indeed was filled with his praises. Any serious meditation on this point leads swiftly to the heart of Trinitarian thought – that Jesus was forever the second person of the Godhead, and thus truly God Himself. This brings into sharp focus the colossal gap between Jesus’ station in Heaven and His remote, lowly birth on Earth.

The one who was worshipped by angels humbled himself to dwell in a human womb, to walk for 33 years on the Earth and to submit himself to crucifixion, all for the sake of bringing humans back to God. Today’s song – an epic contemporary reworking of a classic American hymn – dwells on the wonder of these truths, and also what followed, namely Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and His future advent as our glorious king.

It can be easy at Christmas time to think of Jesus only as a baby, but in doing this we rob ourselves of much of the wonder of the advent message. For it was God himself who came to Earth over 2000 years ago, a truth that demands to be reckoned with by us all.

One Day When Heaven (Glorious Day) - words by J Wilbur Chapman, additional words and music by Casting Crowns

'He, whom angels worship...': Advent day 6 reflection

I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men.

Consider again that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was incarnated as a human in the womb of Mary that first Christmas time. What do we make of such a thing? We could be amazed that such a thing ever happened. We could overflow with hope that the Messiah has come. We could be filled with confidence that God came to be with us. Or we could simply be without words at the wonder of it all – ‘I cannot tell…’

Yet the writer of these lines tells us two very important things to hold onto when considering the Christmas story: not to forget the great glory of Jesus before he came to Earth (‘whom angels worship’), and that his incarnation was an incredible act of love towards humans. And not merely sentimental love, but a love that said ‘I will give up all of this glory, dwell in the womb of a virgin and be born in a filthy stable for the sake of those who rejected God, to bring them back again’.

In our festivities, let us not miss out on the richness of Jesus’ love for us that the Christmas story displays.

I Cannot Tell Why He, Whom Angels Worship - words by William Young Fullerton

'Emmanuel shall come to ye...' - Advent Day 5 reflection

                        Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

                        Shall come to ye, O Israel.

Enduring an unwanted separation from a person – be it a child, a partner or a friend – is hard load to bear. And when we ourselves are partially or wholly responsible for that separation, this intensifies to often oppressive levels of sorrow. This was the prevailing spiritual climate in Israel in the years leading up to the birth of Jesus.

Israel, a nation chosen out of obscurity to bear the light of God to the world, had strayed far from their purpose. The knowledge of God’s presence with them had almost vanished. Those looking for something better were deeply troubled by this, and needed to hear the promise of Emmanuel – a name that means ‘God with us’. In the coming of Jesus, this promise was fulfilled.

Jesus, our Emmanuel, came to the Earth so that all people could know God with them. Jesus is with those people who seek him now. Jesus shall come again, and dwell forever with His people.  Emmanuel has come to us and healed that greatest and most devastating separation, the separation of God and man. Rejoice indeed!

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

'A day of freedom...' : Advent day 4 reflection

There is a day that all creation's waiting for;
A day of freedom and liberation for the Earth.

Longing. Perhaps there is no more commonly shared feeling amongst humans than longing. And perhaps there is no emotion harder to get a handle on – our longings are often indescribable, irrational and untraceable…yet undeniably real. What are we to do with this powerful force within, that so often seems unfulfilled? To keep us from turmoil, the sensible thing would be to subject such longings to a stoic realism, to lower our sights and board a carefully balanced craft of scepticism and light entertainment to pilot us through life. 

Yet Christmas refuses to allow such thoughts; the scrooge and the Grinch are lionised, decorations erupt with colour and light, and the festive spirit flows in abundance. The authentic root of this joy?  The stunning news of the Advent message that there is something better coming and our longings can be met. Indeed the Bible tells that not just human longings, but the longings of the whole universe will be met on the day of Jesus’ Second Advent. It will truly be ‘a day of freedom and liberation for the Earth’.

This song, by contemporary band Phatfish, extols us not to sacrifice our longings on the altar of ‘getting by’, but rather to ‘lift our eyes to the things yet unseen’. May it be so with us this Christmas time.

There is a day - words by Nathan Fellingham.

'God appears on Earth to reign': Advent day 3 reflection

‘God appears on earth to reign’

We’ve considered a little already the remarkable facts of Jesus’ first advent, his mission to overturn ‘curse’ and that his birth on Earth was announced as a great blessing to humans. But how? Through what means was God going to achieve these things? The answer is quite simple – God was going to re-establish His reign on Earth through Jesus.

Did it work? That we still see so much suffering, distress, faction and discord over 2,000 years after Jesus’ advent can tempt us to dismiss God out of hand, and certainly any notion of ‘success’ in overturning the curse of this world. But that is to have too small a vision, for ‘God’s appearing on Earth to reign’ is not yet fully complete, which is why today’s carol – Charles Wesley’s masterful ‘Lo! He comes with clouds descending’ – focuses unashamedly on Jesus’ return to Earth in the future. This will complete the work of restoration began in Bethlehem all those years ago.

But where does that leave us today? The good news is that the project is not ‘on hold’. Jesus is the Lord today, and God calls all humans to believe on Jesus as Lord and our lives to be a genuine response to this. Amidst the sorrows and evils of today, there is still much blessing being countenanced to us through Jesus. So are we prepared this Christmas season– like Mary – to humble our hearts to receive our Lord and his blessings?

Lo! He comes with clouds descending - words by Charles Wesley. The lyrics can be found if you click on the 'show more' button under the video description.

'To children's children...' : advent day 2 reflection

                        Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord

                        to children’s children and forever more!

These are the closing lines to Timothy Dudley-Smith’s working of the Magnificat. The Magnificat is the adopted name of a song recorded in the Bible (Luke 1:46-56), sung by Mary as she learned she would, as a virgin, bear the one who would be called Jesus, the Son of God. The contrast between the proclamations about Jesus – “He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” – and the lowly station of Mary is astonishing. For Mary was a young girl without children in a social, cultural and spiritual backwater, about as far from fame as one could get. Yet God, in his wisdom, chose her to be the bearer of the Lord Jesus. Incredible as it seems, the hope of all humans took up home in a virgin’s womb. It tells of the wider wonder of the incarnation – that the Son of God would take on flesh and live upon the Earth. Great is the Lord indeed that such things are so!

Christmas is a great season for story telling. Family stories, funny stories, heart warming stories. The films and the sitcoms go to town, and the tap of festive entertainment never runs dry. This reflects that there is an old, deep and true Christmas story to be told ‘to children’s children and forever more’. Let us make it our goal this Advent season to tell of that first Noel, the hope that it brings still today and the greatness of the Lord in effecting such wonders.

"Tell out, my soul" - words by Timothy Dudley-Smith, after Luke 1:46-56.

Advent Day 1 Reflection - Joy to the world!

This advent season I’m going to write a short, daily reflection on a line or verse from an Advent or Christmas carol. I hope you find them helpful and inspirational. A few notes before I commence:

1.      Despite what the chocolate calendar says, in the western Christian cycle Advent does not necessarily begin on December 1^st; rather it commences four Sundays before Christmas day, and finished on Christmas Eve. This means it can start as early as the 27^th November (if Christmas day is a Sunday) and as late as December 3^rd (if Christmas day is a Monday).  With Christmas day falling on a Tuesday this year, it means that Advent commenced on December 2^nd (yesterday).

2.      I won’t say too much about the meaning of Advent at this point, for that is what I will explore in the reflections.  However, as a summary, one need look no further than verse one of this popular Advent carol:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let Earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And Heaven and nature sing.

Advent is about the joyful news that the Lord Jesus was incarnated upon Earth over 2,000 years ago. It is about Jesus being our Lord now – the Lord is come.  And it is about anticipating that the Lord Jesus will come again to the Earth. It is about a challenge to all peoples to receive Jesus as their king and to let him enter their hearts. It is a call throughout heaven and Earth to celebrate the Lord of all.

3.      It was not at all difficult to find enough carols that I cherish to fill up the days, perhaps telling of the richness of the theme of advent that so much poetry and music has been devoted to it.

4.      I use the term ‘carol’ broadly to mean a song that is used primarily for corporate Christian singing, and do not exclude contemporary works from the list. Thus I include a song by Casting Crowns, but I do not include ‘Let it Snow’ or ‘She came home for Christmas’, for example.

5.      Accommodating the multi-natured reflection of Advent, the traditional focus of celebration tends to move from the second coming of Jesus at the start of the season to the first coming of Jesus towards the end. I present the carols in an order that broadly reflects this.

6.      Wherever possible, I provide a YouTube link to the carol of the day. If you want to find out more about the carols – for example, their origin or the full text – I encourage you to research that yourself, as I don’t want to clog up the posts with history or preamble (apart from this one, of course).

7.      I’m aware I have started a day late – I will cheat by posting two posts today!

So, here we go! My excerpt for today sticks with ‘Joy to the world’:

                        He comes to make His blessings flow

                        Far as the curse is found.

‘Curse’. An uncomfortable word, and an abrupt interruption of the growing festive spirit, yet a word we would be wise to deal with. Before the joys of advent were the woes of a world that had turned away from God. A once perfect world, without evil, was subjected to curse because of this rejection of God. A harsh act on God’s part? I would suggest not. For in rejecting God, we humans rejected the fullness of life and love that God had in mind for us. If this came with no consequence, we would never feel our need to turn back to God to experience the true joy of community with Him and our fellow humans that we were made for. And while this curse has bought a previously unknown burden of distress, God left in us longings for something better. He did not take away His image from us, nor were our consciences or capacity for love fully paralysed.

But what hope for freedom from this curse? The hope indeed is the Lord Jesus. He came to Earth to reverse the effects of this curse; his life showed His passion and purpose in realising this aim. His death was the decisive act in winning this epic battle. And His resurrection and ascension confirm that the work of restoration continues to this very day, and will continue until He comes again.

That we live in a deeply burdened world is undeniably; and if we are truly honest it is undeniable that we ourselves are not as we ought or long to be. Praise be to God that he sent the Lord Jesus to ‘make his blessings known wherever curse is found’!

"Joy to the World" - words by Isaac Watts.