Songs of the Season
Perhaps my favorite part of the Christmas season, outside of
celebrating the birth of Jesus, is the music. Christmas music is it’s own thing altogether. It has a bright sound to it... an intrinsic
flavor of joy, whether the songs are of a sacred or secular variety.
Christmas music is uplifting. It speaks to the Spirit of the downtrodden, the run down, the people
heavy with the weight of the world. It
is energizing - and a blessing.
It goes to figure that between this Sunday and Christmas Eve on
Thursday, the very scripture readings from the Holy Word of God include
songs. Sunday, we read, exclaimed,
Mary’s song of God’s triumph over the world through the birth of Jesus:
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favor because the mighty one has done great things for me.Holy is his name.He shows mercy to everyone,from one generation to the next,who honors him as God…” (Luke 1:46-50, CEB)
She would go
on in her song, a sing of the great reversal that is occurring in the holy
birth - Jesus is coming to make things right, to turn the world around - as a
show of God’s mercy for all people.
Another song
will be sung, this time from on high as a response to the very birth in which
Mary is rejoicing, in worship on Christmas Eve:
“Glory to
God in heaven
and peace on
earth among those whom he favors!”
The angels
sing this one. The angels who couldn’t
wait to join in the momentous occasion of Jesus coming into the world as a
baby, a child born to lead the people world into a new and grace-filled life of
abundance, meaning, and love.
This Friday
is Christmas Day. This whole season of
Advent has been driving to this blessing, the revealing of God With Us, in
Jesus, to the world.
I pray that
you can realize the joy of this season, though it's different for each one of
us. For some of us Christmas is a time
of tension, of hard memories. Still, for
others, this might be the first Christmas after a loss, the first Christmas
that’s different from all of the others.
Even so, the
angels are singing about a God who loves the world, who loves each of us
through our hurts and what’s us to know of God’s unstoppable desire to know
each one of us, and for us to know that we are all God’s children. Brokenness and all. Jesus came into the world because God doesn’t
want to be out of arelationship with any one of us - God does not want to be
without us. So, don’t forget to sing.
Blessings to
you, and may this be the merriest of Christmases, in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit,
Pastor
Jarrod
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