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 1st; rather it commences four Sundays
before Christmas day, and finished on Christmas Eve. This means it can start as
early as the 27th November (if Christmas day is a Sunday) and as
late as December 3rd (if Christmas day is a Monday). With Christmas day falling on a Tuesday this
year, it means that Advent commenced on December 2nd (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.
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