On December 11th our choir presented its annual cantata, which is a selection of Advent and Christmas anthems.  These are the introductions to each anthem that I wrote.  The title of each anthem is BOLD AND UNDERLINED. 

 THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS
It was the prophet Isaiah centuries before Christ who said, “The people who walked darkness have seen a great light.”   Light and darkness make up our days.  Every morning the sun rises; every night the sun sets.  In any 24 hour period, the light yields to darkness and the darkness yields to light.  It seems to be a rhythmic, repeating cycle.  With the arrival of Christ the cycle was broken.  Christ is the light that shines in the darkness and does not yield to it.  John says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. “

            With the advent of Jesus Christ comes a divine light comes into our darkness that cannot be extinguish. No hatred is so great to put out the light of divine love; no despair so deep to snuff out the light of divine hope; no sin and guilt grievous to smother the light of divine forgiveness.  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.  What is your darkness?  “Lift up your eyes, see the glory of the Lord.”  “Arise and shine your light has come.”  The light shines for you!

 WAIT!  WATCH!
“Ready or not, here I come,”  she shouts, warning the other children she is setting out, with resolve, to seek and find them in a good old fashioned game of hide-and-seek.  The object of the game hide-and-seek is not to be found.  Like the child’s game we often play hide-and-seek with God.  We hide out in our sins, excuses, excesses and misguided, often out of control desires. 

            If we are hiding out, not wanting to be found, “Ready or not, here I come” is heard as a threat that raises our fear and anxiety.

            But, if we want to found; if we are tired of the old ways of living and all of our fractured loving, “Ready or not here I come!” is the answer to all our longings and loneliness. 

            Advent is a time when God, through His prophets and messengers, shouts out, “Ready or not, here I come.”  So get ready!  Wait! Watch!  Most importantly, prepare your heart.  Open your heart and your soul to receive Him.  He desires nothing more than to love you; forgive you; renew you; transform you.  Wait!  Watch!

 SHEPHERD’S JOY
The shepherds were the most ordinary of people.  They were poor.  They were noted for being a rather rough and crude lot.   They lived outdoors with sheep, and most likely smelled like sheep.  They wandered the hills and plains.  They were fierce protectors of their flocks.   

            It was to these poor, mangy, rough and tough shepherds that the announcement of the birth of the messiah was first given; not to kings and princes; not to the royalty or the rich; to shepherds mind you!  Perhaps it is because the rich and powerful had too much to lose; had their hearts protected by too many layers of self-indulgence to be receivers and bearers of the good news.  So, it was to shepherds that the announcement came.  Perhaps they were not so proud, or so powerful, or so threatened that they could not bow in genuine humility before his manger.  It takes true humility to receive the child messiah of love and grace. 

            Perhaps this is why God chose the shepherds.  There is one more thing.  Maybe it was also a kind of sign that this messiah, this king, this child in the end was going to look a lot more like a shepherd than any earthly king anyway.

 GESU BAMBINO
According to Luke, the two distinct characteristic of that glorious night of his birth were song and adoration.  The multitude of the heavenly host broke out in rapturous harmony that made the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sound like a children’s choir.  Mary adored the infant held chose to her breast.  The shepherds came and adored the child, and with excitement shared the news of what the angels told them.  They departed glorifying and praising God for all they had seen.  Song and adoration, they go together like bread and butter.  There are miraculous things that do happen that can only be best expressed by song and adoration – no other expression or articulation can quite capture the depth meaning and intensity of the experience.    The birth of a child is just such a miraculous event.  Let your life become a living expression of song and adoration of the savior wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in the manger – “Gesu Bambino.”

 A CHRISTMAS LULLABY
The idea of singing a lullaby to the Lord of Lords and Kings of Kings, at first glance, is a rather presumptuous and preposterous thought.  But that is just how personal our God is and how personal our God gets.  God comes to us in total and complete vulnerability.   He allows us to carry him in our arms and in our hearts.  He looks us in the eye and speaks our names.  He shares our joys and our sorrows.  A lullaby is a soothing and melodious song that brings comfort and peace.  Perhaps the best lullaby we can ever sing is with our very lives as we open ourselves up to him in a such a total way that he lives His life through us, and when that happens our lives becomes a lullaby to the world – the world for which he died to save.

 NO GOLDEN CARRIAGE
Whenever we acquire a little bit of power, or rank, or status or wealth we clutch at it, protect it, covet it, defend it and increase it if we can.  But Jesus’ life, from beginning to end, was a story of a person empting himself and giving himself away for the sake of others.  He willingly gave up power, status, rank, and wealth because that is the nature of divine love – agape love, as the Bible names it. 

 And he said some of the strangest things.  To his disciples he said,   “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.”  (Mark 8:35)

 To a rich ruler who came to him seeking the secret to eternal life Jesus said, “Sell all that you own and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and then, come follow me.”  (Luke 18:22)

 Of Him the apostle Paul said, “…who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.”   (Philippians 2:6-7)

 His life, from beginning to end was a testimony to this truth.  From his birth to his death there was never a golden carriage, or crimson roses, or marble chairs for him.  He had and desired nothing of those things that we covet.  He lived to give himself away.

 The greatest paradox in the universe is found right here in His life and in His teachings; that it is only in giving ourselves away that we ever find ourselves; that it is only in emptying ourselves for the sake of others that we are ever filled.

 LORD OF THE DANCE
I’ll never forget an interpretive dance I once saw performed in a congregation some years ago.  The dancer truly captured in her creative expression the parable of the Good Samaritan.    From manger to the cross Jesus’ life was a dance of love; the dance of divine love and grace expressed in a human life.  It was dance that not even the worst that humanity could muster against him could stop or discourage – and just about the time when it appeared the dance had been stopped – it began again and now you and I are invited to join in.   If you don’t think you can dance you need not fret.  In this dance, he promises to lead.  So dance!  “Dance then wherever you may be.”  His dance makes yours and mine possible – and when we dance we dance in his name and for his sake; “The Lord of the Dance.”

 SING WE NOEL
“Noel” is an exclamation of joy.  Joy!  Joy is not something we can achieve on our own.  Happiness yes!  Happiness is what we feel when we achieve, or gain, or accomplish, or are rewarded in some way for our own efforts.  But joy is something else altogether.  Joy is what we experience when something glorious, and undeserved and bigger than us breaks unexpectedly into life.   Joy can be experienced anywhere, even in the darkest and most despairing places of life.  Joy is that which comes only with God’s empowering presence. 

 ECHO CHRISTMAS JOY
An echo is a resending of that which was originally sent.  How fun it is to shout a word or phase in a great canyon only to hear it bounce around and fill the canyon with the variations of the original.  As disciples of our Lord and Savior it is our God given purpose to send and resend the original sound of God’s love, and fill the world with the original sound of divine love, letting it take the shape and expression of the gifts that God has given to each of us. 

 I pray that our community and world will be filled with “Echoes of Christmas Joy.”