'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.

Government EU defeat, Lance Armstrong and storm Sandy

In a shocking departure from recent form, high level British politics became interesting last night as the House of Commons supported an amendment to demand a reduction in the European Union’s budget. Not only was this a strong show of British political muscle against the excesses of the EU, it also marked a defeat of the government in a whipped vote, as Tory backbench rebels joined forces with Labour, the SNP and the DUP. It is a result warmly welcomed by all sceptical of the growing federal behemoth of Brussels, but as it is not binding on the Prime Minister it is but a small skirmish in the battle. Whether this will catalyse Parliament into ‘sorting out’ the European question (which, given the widespread and growing public disquiet on the issue must surely include a referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU) remains to be seen. But regardless, it’s good to see things getting exciting in the Commons once again.

I don’t wish to add too much ink to the Lance Armstrong case, so I offer only this -  putting aside the ethics, deception, methods and outcomes of the scandal, two great sadnesses emerge: firstly, we will never know how good Armstrong truly was. Many say that without EPO you drop from the front of the peloton to the middle; although I have no doubt he wouldn’t have achieved the success he did without EPO, I would be surprised if he hadn’t experienced some success and been competitive at the front end without it. But this is the point – these questions can never be answered, they will forever be speculative and will forever be worthless, for Armstrong the sportsman is now worthless. The second sadness is that there is no inspiration left for fans and riders of an era of cycling already largely discredited, for the success of Armstrong was one of the few lights – and certainly the brightest – that remained. I’m just thankful that my own interest in the sport was only birthed two seasons ago.

Returning to politics while hopping across the Atlantic, the American presidential elections have been thrown to the back stage in light of storm Sandy. This is quite proper in light of the tragedy that the storm has wreaked. Yet a scene from The West Wing comes to mind when Zoe Bartlett has been kidnapped and President Bartlett is unable to focus on the politics of the situation. Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman speaks up and says ‘that’s why I have to’. It is entirely right that political calculation doesn’t show a public face in these times, but no doubt in the background many campaigners on both sides of this election will be calculating the political ramifications of the storm. This is not hateful when their goal is to respond rightly and responsibly to the tragedy; it would be hateful if either side tried to use the storm to their political advantage. 

Words of joy, words of sorrow...

For those who best express things through the written word, triumph and tragedy are the greatest challenges. How can one capture either the heights of elation or the bitterness of mourning that are, literally, beyond words? Yet it is those time when the wordsmith is most needed, for it is those times when people desperately seek to bridge the gulf between what they are feeling and what they can express. This is almost the definition of art itself, for it is from the extremes of human experience that the majority of great art finds it richest resource. Now, I can assure you that I do not consider myself a literary great. But I do consider myself as someone who best expresses themselves through writing. I write in various forms – song lyrics, poems, analysis & opinion (i.e. blogging) and have a couple of nascent novel ideas. The past couple of weeks I have seen a flurry of writing that I’ve not experienced for a long while; not incidentally there have simultaneously been things of both great joy and sorrow going on. The point of these musings? I have come to appreciate afresh that writing is a powerful, valuable, God-given entity that has a life-affirming and healing power both for the author and those far beyond; the ability to connect in the midst of our brightest and darkest hours.

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Continuing on the theme of the power of writing, I recently came across this astonishing quote from Victor Hugo that I had to share: “I feel within me that future life. I am like a forest that has been razed; the new shoots are stronger and brighter. I shall most certainly rise toward the heavens the nearer my approach to the end, the plainer is the sound of immortal symphonies of worlds which invite me. For half a century I have been translating my thoughts into prose and verse: history, drama, philosophy, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song; all of these I have tried. But I feel I haven’t given utterance to the thousandth part of what lies within me. When I go to the grave I can say, as others have said, “my day’s work is done”. But what I cannot say, “my life is done”. My work will recommence the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes upon the twilight, but opens upon the dawn.”

American Election Prediction Special

Yes, as promised last week, American Election FaceOFF is here! I go head to head with American Politics Geek Extraordinaire Mark Summers and attempt to call, state-by-state, the 2012 US Presidential Election. The rules are simple – we make our prediction, and whoever gets the most states correct wins. We thought a month before the election was about right – far enough away that it requires some political acumen beyond simply plagiarising the latest polls, but not so far as to make it all a wild stab in the dark. So, without further ado, here are my state by state predictions:

Alabama – Republican (R)

Alaska – (R)

Arizona – (R)

Arkansas – (R)

California – Democrat (D)

Colorado – (D)

Connecticut – (D)

Delaware – (D)

Florida - (R)

Georgia - (R)

Hawaii – (D)

Idaho - (R)

Illinois – (D)

Indiana – (R)

Iowa - (R)

Kansas - (R)

Kentucky - (R)

Louisiana - (R)

Maine – (D, all districts)

Maryland - (D)

Massachusetts – (D)

Michigan - (D)

Minnesota – (D)

Mississippi – (R)

Missouri - (R)

Montana - (R)

Nebraska - (R, all districts)

Nevada – (D)

New Hampshire – (D)

New Jersey – (D)

New Mexico – (D)

New York - (D)

North Carolina – (D)

North Dakota – (R)

Ohio - (R)

Oklahoma - (R)

Oregon – (D)

Pennsylvania – (D)

Rhode Island – (D)

South Carolina - (R)

South Dakota - (R)

Tennessee - (R)

Texas - (R)

Utah - (R)

Vermont – (D)

Virginia – (D)

Washington – (D)

Washington DC – (D)

West Virginia - (R)

Wisconsin - (R)

Wyoming - (R)

If this voting pattern were to happen, it would yield an Obama victory with 284 electoral college votes vs Romney’s 254. Now, I realise a few things:

1)      This is a lot closer than most people are currently calling the election.

2)      Awarding Romney Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin while still giving Obama the overall victory is an aberration from conventional psephological wisdom.

3)      This is accounted for by calling Virginia and North Carolina for Obama.

4)      The above two decisions could well be utter foolishness that hand victory to Mark Summers. However, if they are correct I would expect every polling organisation in America to be offering me a job with immediate effect. A worthwhile risk.

Roll on election night, politics does not get any better than this…

Mumford vs Babel vs Europe vs USA

The wait for a second album is a nerve wracking one. The stakes are high – will it be a drift into obscurity? Or a glistening triumph? This week saw the ending of such a wait as Mumford and Sons finally released ‘Babel’, the follow up to 2009’s ‘Sigh No More’. My biggest fear was not for the overall quality of the album (the verdict is still out), but that following the phenomenal success of the past three years Mumford & Sons would lose their lyrical ambition and musical passion and become a watered down cliché of themselves. Happily that fear is smashed to smithereens within seconds as a pounding bass drum, urgent banjos and Marcus Mumford’s yearning vocals let you know that they mean business. The lyrical gems are plentiful too: ‘Like the city that nursed my greed and my pride, I stretch my arms into the sky, I cry “Babel, Babel, look at me now”, the walls of my town they come tumbling down”. However high or low the album ends up in their portfolio, there’s no doubt that Mumford still ‘have it’. Happy listening!

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I love the Ryder Cup. It is by far my favourite golfing tournament, and the only time when golf approaches the upper echelons of my passion scale. The intense rivalry and matchplay format suggest that this isn’t so surprising. But what is surprising is the Europe factor. Europe, if you haven’t noticed, isn’t doing so well - regions in Spain have run out of essential medical supplies, Christianity is being squeezed out of every corner of public life and Germany is wielding the kind of power that a Union was meant to prevent ever happening again. In the UK, the EU flag has probably never been held in lower regard. And yet, for three wonderful days every two years, Les Douze Etoiles flies with pride and the old world lion roars down the fairways with glory. There are, of course, historic golfing reasons why Europe as a continent competes in this event, but that its popularity continues to grow in these troubled times is noteworthy. For the Ryder Cup has succeeded where a political union, legal integration, a single currency and even the presidency of George Bush failed – to create an emotionally united Europe. Not that it will stop me voting to get the hell out of the EU as soon as possible– that is, if we’re ever given the chance express such sentiments in the ballot box…

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I’m about to do something dangerous and endorse a book which I’ve barely read a quarter of so far. The book in question is John Maxwell’s life@work. John Maxwell makes the unusual junction of being both a sought after business guru and a evangelical megachurch pastor. The contention of the book is, essentially, that such a portfolio shouldn’t be unusual – that to separate God and faith from work and success is a huge mistake. But this far more than a ‘let’s be nice to everyone at work and try hard’ but a tight theological argument that work itself is central to who God made us to be (Genesis 1:26-31). Maxwell then proceeds to examine various elements of work and identify their spiritual integration. I eagerly await reaching his conclusions – let me know if you get there first.

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EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW Make sure you check into Words of 50 next week, where an American Election FACEoff ™ between myself and good friend, fellow blogger and published journalist Mark Summers will take place. Need I say more…