My Soundtrack of 2013

Apologies to any remaining regular readers for the sparseness of the blog in recent times. But inspired by the ever-granular Ben Jiggins, below are the songs that have been particularly distinctive in my life this year (organised alphabetically by artist rather than order of impact): 

Machineries of joy – British Sea Power: A new British Sea Power album is always a major event in my musical calendar, and this opening track (from the album of the same name) sets the scene for the beauty that follows. I don’t feel I really know the album that well as yet, but this song has rarely been out of my head since hearing it. 

Monsters of Sunderland – British Sea Power: Another stand out track from the new album, this is unadulterated energy, melody and guitars mixed with tales of North Eastern folk heroism. Fantastic.

Stunde Null – British Sea Power: An older track from BSPs generally underwhelming 4^th album, this minor-key number rocks out at an urgent pace in a generally incomprehensible manner. Classic BSP and a song whose excellence I’ve only come to appreciate this year.

Give life back to music – Daft Punk: The first three notes of this song constitute the most powerful and distinctive opening to an album I’ve heard for a long while. The riff returns at regular intervals to make this a highly captivating song.

Giorgio by Moroder – Daft Punk: Undoubtedly my favourite new song of the year. And this from someone not massively inclined towards electro-pop. Epic epic epic. No other word. That ITV used this in their Tour de France coverage after Chris Froome’s early domination only increased the awesomeness.

November Rain – Guns n Roses: During my two-week placement on the manufacturing line one of my duties was to test the radios on each car. Blasting out all nine minutes of this was a definite highlight and led me to rediscover the song.

Read my Mind – The Killers: I’ve considered this to be a very high calibre song for a good five years, but it gets special recognition for hitting my ultimate ‘music-for-the-moment’ experience of the year – playing over the morning airwaves while driving to Heathrow to fly to the USA for holiday. Sublime.

Siberia – Lights: Having not heard of her before, I ended up listening to Lights on Spotify through a chain of related artist suggestions including Bastille and Imagine Dragons. I would highly recommend becoming familiar with her catalogue, and it was the acoustic version of this track that has particularly penetrated my songscape.

Some Kind of Nothingness – Manic Street Preachers: Another track of a few years past whose genius is now full-born in my mind. Soaring strings, choir in the third chorus and a drenching of classic Manics nostalgia combine to scintillating effect. Would wager this is the song I have listened to most while driving in 2013.

Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen: A long way from my favourite Springsteen song, but this has come up over and over again this year at opportune times to raise my mood. Also has interesting tie-ins to the theological debate surrounding the cultural mandate.

I Work Days and You Work Nights - To Kill a King: A band introduced to me by the aforementioned Ben, I have enjoyed their debut album and the simple piano/haunting vocal combination of this opening number have embedded into my deeper musical conscience. Another album I look forward to getting to know better. 

Lebanon in Syria's Shadow

The ongoing crisis in Syria has plunged neighbouring Lebanon to the brink of a full-scale sectarian war between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities. Given the political similarities between Syria and Lebanon this is not altogether unsurprising, but the process has been catalysed by the direct intervention of the Lebanese based Shi'ite militia group Hezbollah in the conflict. For a more in-depth look at what is going on, I suggested visiting this newspaper website or watching this BBC documentary.

But the situation is far more complicated than may appear, as Lebanon has 18 recognised religious identities, including 12 Christian communities that make up around a third of Lebanon's overall population. While the Christian communities were involved in Lebanon's Civil War (which ended in 1990), the war in Syria (and so likely any conflict within Lebanon) has become defined as a inter-Muslim sectarian crisis. And like many Christian communities in the Middle East in such situations, Lebanon's Christians risk become caught in the crisis, as Iraq's long-standing Christian communities have. Indeed, there has been a general mass exodus of Christians from the Middle East in the past 15 years, and strife in Lebanon would risk accelerating this further.

Lebanon desperately needs prayer to avoid these potential catastrophes. Please pray that:

* The escalating Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian violence would cease and civil war be avoided
* There would be peace and reconciliation between the communities of Lebanon
*Christian communities would not be forced to flee Lebanon
* There would be authentic witness of the love, peace, reconciliation  judgement and Sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ in Lebanon

Why I have joined the Labour Party

I’ve been hooked to politics ever since the 1997 general election campaign. But with the exception of a single year within the Liberal Democrats I’ve never been a member of a political party. There have been a number of reasons for this, but the two recurring ones have been having other priorities at various times and my political vision not fitting neatly within any of the three dominant ideologies of British politics (socialism, liberalism, conservatism). This latter point is further complicated by the fact that the three major parties of the UK that are supposedly the standard-bearers of such ideologies have wildly blurred their heritage in a pursuit of pragmatic vote grabbing, the PC-agenda and active secularism.

Today, it is arguable that the UK political scene has never been more uninspiring. This despite the fact that the nation is facing some of the greatest strategic challenges in its history, almost all of which are global in their scope. These include the challenge of stewarding an economy that is both flourishing and sustainable without running up colossal debt, seeking territorial security in a world of unregulated nuclear development and volatile terrorism, and the urgent need for continual global resolve over food, water and environmental security for all. The question that sits over all this is - with the economic eclipsing of Europe by new markets, what global role does Britain now have? What role should we look to have? Westminster barely scratches the surface of such issues, and without being dogmatically alarmist, we really do have our head in the political sand right now. Party politics appears as sterile as ever, voter engagement largely cynical.

So why plunge in now? Surely this is the time to walk away and get on living a full, joyful, Christ-centred life outside of the murky machinations of politics? While a greatly attractive prospect in many ways, I have found myself unable to walk away. It is a call on my life I can’t lay down. And I feel that now is the time to get involved. I have had many helpful years of political formation and reflection, and do not regret waiting until now. But I would regret waiting any longer. So in I have plunged.

But why the Labour party? In purely ideological terms, I have made convincing cases to myself for joining any one of the three main parties. I believe in the socialist ethic of caring for the less-well-off, marginalised and vulnerable within society; I believe in the liberal view of civic society and democratic governance; I believe in the one-nation conservative social vision of a politics that embraces cultural-moral concerns as well as material matters. Yet, as has already been noted, these visions seem at best confused and diluted within their respective contemporary parties, so I have had to take some other questions into account:

o       What values are at the core of each party?

o       Which parties reflect the interest of all and not just a select group?

o       Which parties have the political courage to take on the strategic Goliaths of our age?

o       Which parties move beyond materialism to consider the fullness of ‘the good life’?

There was not a uniform answer to these questions. But after great reflection, I have decided that the Labour Party is the party closest to my political home, despite falling short on some of the above points. I have many views that will not be shared with the majority of other Labour members (such as on EU membership, schooling and gay marriage) which may prove challenging, although this would equally be the case (perhaps on different issues) within the other parties. But faced with the alternatives of frustration in a minority party or the tirelessness of starting a new movement, I am happy to have made this choice.

So, I’ve joined the party, what next? There are two very clear next steps for me – to agitate the Labour policy agenda to deal with these huge national challenges and to campaign for a Labour majority in the 2015 general election, to deliver a government that will truly govern as a ‘one-nation’ party.  After that, who knows…

Shelf Stacking and Humanity

Of the yards of comment produced by the recent high profile Work Scheme case of graduate Cait Reilly (who was 'forced' to stack shelves for no pay to continue receiving benefits), by far the most interesting was that of Independent writer Terence Blacker. Particularly striking was the assertion that:

"For many conservatives, [big society ideas] must have been dangerously liberal thoughts. If people like Cait Reilly began to discover that there was more to life than being an economic unit, then the whole market-based system of values would start to crumble."

This is one more presentation of the battle between liberal and conservative views on the ordering of life that have raged since the 18th century. Yet what is interesting is that both socialist and social democratic movements also fall prey to exactly the same material critique- that in their systems the first measure of humanity is their economic wealth (or lack of). The counter critique is that liberal notions of humanity that are 'light' on economic urgency will soon lead us down the path of excess, laze and ultimately disorder. 

As in most dialectic impasses, Christianity urges us to choose the truth of both ideas and learn how to keep a healthy tension in our public (and private) life. According to scripture Human is made in the image of God, and the character of God encompasses creativity, community, love and labour. Therefore we are intrinsically economic beings but we are intrinsically much more than that also. Unemployment does indeed offend our core humanity, but so does workaholism or an expression-free life.

Manual work is a dignified activity that should not be snobbishly shunned, for indeed the Lord Jesus himself partook of it. Yet this isn't the debatable point in this case, for the vast majority of reasonable people will agree with such a view. The real issue is as Terence Blacker described it - does the Work Scheme embody a dangerous view of humanity that we are only materialist and therefore can only fulfil the Human Call through being 'economic cogs'? Let us hope this is not so and that this case merely highlights a gross lack of sense and flexibility in the Work Scheme administration. 

'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