Scriptures for the Week, December 19 - 24, 2011
The meditations for this week center around the Christmas Carols we sing during this season of the year.
MONDAY
Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and Nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.
Isaac Watts, author of “Joy to the World,” refused an offer to be educated at Oxford because he would have had to become an Anglican. He was something of a nonconformist. Following graduation from another institution, he accepted a call to become pastor at Mark Lane Independent Chapel in London. Shortly after arrival, he became quite ill and remained a semi-invalid for the rest of his life. He introduced modern hymnody and created a revolution in church music. Though an invalid, his heart could soar with song. It is not our circumstances, but our attitude, that allow us to use the gifts of God. Watts used them to help us all sing. And he could sing of Joy to the World – for indeed the Lord has come.
TUESDAY
It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to all, from heaven’s all-gracious king”:
The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.
This song, composed by Edmund Sears, moves the heavenly message into an earthly setting, and it speaks of the social dimension of the gospel. For a people who hungered for peace, knew “life’s crushing load,” and needed to “rest beside the weary road,” the birth of Jesus Christ was good news indeed. We sing of the world into which God has entered and the love which Jesus Christ has called us to live.
WEDNESDAY
Good Christian friends rejoice with heart, and soul, and voice;
Give ye heed to what we say: Jesus Christ is born today;
Ox and ass before Him bow, and He is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!
Christmas carols have been around and a part of the season for a long time. This one stretches back to the very early years of the 15th century. It is a rich tradition, this celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Only a few generations after St. Francis created the first living nativity, Christians began to sing that “ox and as before Him bow, and He is in the manger now.” Therefore we can rejoice.
THURSDAY
Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plains,
And the mountains in reply, echoing their joyous strains.
Gloria in excelsis Deo; Gloria in excelsis Deo.
How many Christmas songs have some kind of association with California? We can only think of the secular ones. However, here is one that has some connection with us. The arrangement of “Angels We Have Heard on High” was by Edward Barnes, at one time director of music at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, CA. The carols of our season reach around the globe and into our hearts as we echo the joyous strains of praise.
FRIDAY
O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the Everlasting light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Now we jump to Philadelphia. Phillips Brooks, pastor of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, wrote these words after traveling one Christmas season from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on horseback through a field of shepherds to worship at the Church of the Nativity. It was originally written for a Christmas Sunday School service. We have for most of our years as a congregation welcomed our children to lead us in worship with their Pageant. And they inspire us with traditional and new carols alike. It is part of an unfolding tradition in this season of the year. This hymn is a continuing reminder of the faith we share with our children and the faith our children share with us.
SATURDAY
Gentle Mary laid her child lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the undefiled, to the world a stranger.
Such a babe in such a place, Can He be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race who have found His favor.
This carol is a blending of two distant centuries, the 16th and the 20th. The words are from our time, but the music is a preservation of Swedish medieval songs. As we sing this carol, it is a reminder that one person bears witness to another, just as one century bears witness to the next. We have received a great witness, and let us be sure that we pass on our own sharing of the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ.
|