This Sunday, we are singing our Christmas Cantata, "celebrating the light and life of Christmas" with Lloyd Larson's A New & Glorious Morn! The joyful talent that our own Kim Tomlin has drawn together for this choral is awesome. I am so privileged to be a part of it. We will sing-raising our voices in the language of worship-into the deep magic of Christmas.
Peace on Earth and Holiday Mayhem, isn't that the typical contrast of the Season? On the one hand is the celebration of the birth of the Baby Jesus, and on the other, too much, spend a buck, spend a buck...review the overdraft policies of our banks and credit card providers...
I used to think that a service that focused upon Christmas Music, like the Cantata, or the Christmas Pageant, or the Lessons and Carols service (which we will share on Christmas Eve) were moments of refuge in the Holiday Mayhem. There is truth there, it is a refuge from the busyness of the Season, but it is so much more.
Jesus speaks of the coming of the Kingdom of God, which began with His coming and will be fulfilled at His return. I think we spend so much time focused on the inevitable conflict this will bring between a world of sin and God's inbreaking Kingdom, that we miss the point of the whole thing. The point that God made at Christmas.
I have spoken of Jesus the Homeless Kid, bed in a feeding trough, the olfactory vibe (stinky critters) of an animal barn, is this the power of the sinful world shaking up the birth of Jesus? But what if these details are intentional?
What if the Peace on Earth to which the angels attested was not simply in the choirs of angels but in the whole moment? That there was going to be the anarchy of Jesus' struggle with the forces of sin and evil coming during His Passion. But here, God casts the Final reality? What Peace on Earth is truly going to look like?
That the stable is a palace fit for the King! That the shepherds who came and bowed down before Him were ushered into the Peace that is the reality of the Kingdom of God! That Jesus born in a stable, surrounded by animals, not as the result of a homeless life but an intentional renewal of the Garden of Eden, before the Fall, of the New Adam in harmony with God's Creation?
All the elements that would seem to define Jesus' birth in impoverished terms are, in fact, defied by God to create the Tableau of Peace, to create the Kingdom of God, to create not so much a refuge as a foretaste of glory divine?
This ideal place is created for us in the stable in Bethlehem. In that place, a dome of wonder surrounded our Lord, carried up and around by the choirs of angels. This Sunday, we will follow the lead of the angels as we present our Cantata, "A New & Glorious Morn". Wrapped in the glory of the music, the language of worship, for a time we will be enveloped in the Peace of Jesus.
In "A Christmas Carol", Ebenezer Scrooge, when he was drawn into the light, declared that he would seek to keep the Spirit of Christmas the whole year long. So should we, so that when the troubles of the world press in, when things seem overwhelming, we have the dome of wonder to step back into, the Peace of Christ to wrap ourselves in like our favorite blanket, a reminder of what will come, no matter what else might come upon us, a reminder of the Peace that Jesus has won for us in our salvation.
Peace,
Pastor Peter
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