Dear Santa, Thank You

 

Dear Santa, Thank You

I am currently serving on La Crescenta Presbyterian Church’s Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC). The church placed a Santa Claus mailbox out front. On a lark, I wrote a quick note to Santa that read as follows: “Dear Santa, Please send us a new pastor. Preferably a shepherd after God’s own heart” and signed it with my name with a little PNC under it.

It is a miracle, Santa replied. He wrote a most welcome letter, heartfelt and hopeful, full of gratitude and humility toward the Greatest Gift Giver.

I will let the letter speak for itself:

Rest assured, though our journey as a committee has been long and arduous and seasoned with a little heartbreak, we are hopeful. We know God has for us a pastor after His own heart and he will be here in God’s own timing. And, the Lord meets us on the way…

My dad crafted a piece of intarsia, a work of art made from various types and colors of wood and using little, if any, stains. The piece he made is of a Red-tailed Hawk, my favorite bird. He signed it “For ‘Stick’ Together in His grip”.

So I will sign off on this post in the same way…Together in His grip.

jj white

O Holy Night

O Holy Night

I was brought up short by a comment Jim made on a post I’d put up just over eight months ago, ‘Roll Back the Stone’. Brought up short is about the only way to get my attention during these days of celebration; Thanksgiving, Christmas, birth announcements, weddings, and all sorts of things I need to be doing. Somehow Jim took a post where I confess that I keep a stone across my heart mostly to keep Jesus out rather than in and followed it up with a question that stopped me in my tracks.

Jim askes when considering ‘no room at the inn’ during this Christmas season, “Do our daily lives shuffle Jesus to our barns?”

Oh my yes, regrettably so. I am the posterchild for this. I’ve been keeping an action item list over the last month or so and the category of household/family items far outweighs two important categories for me – Writing and LCPC/Spiritual Growth. I agonize over it every time I go to the list.

One of the beauties of Jim’s comment is that he provided a link to Kerrie Roberts’ performance video of her singing ‘O Holy Night’. If you don’t read any further, take a listen – I’ve included the complete lyrics below the main post. Here is the link:

'O Holy Night' by Kerrie Roberts

A wine merchant and poet named Placide Cappeau was persuaded to write a poem to commemorate the renovation of a church organ. Adolphe Adam composed the music for it and it was premiered by opera singer Emily Laurey in 1847. There are a number of variations and performances of the carol and it has long been a favorite of mine. Research on its origins and translations has done nothing to render my love for ‘O Holy Night’ any less and "Cantique de Noël" has taken rather more significance for me.

I love the hope it gives – ‘For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.’

I love and seek to obey the command – ‘Fall on your knees!’

I have loved reading the second verse and bridge, parts of the song I wasn’t aware of until now because they are not performed by Roberts nor any others I’ve listened to leading up to this post. And I now cling to the promise – ‘In all our trials born to be our friend. He knows our need, to our weaknesses no stranger’. And the command at the end of the second bridge – ‘Before Him lowly bend!’

The third verse gives us admonitions to ‘love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace,’ and ‘in His name all oppression shall cease.’

Finally –‘Let all within us praise His holy name.’

Sing people! Let Jesus out of our barns. Fall on our knees and before Him, let us lowly bend and praise his holy name.

As Jim signed off to me, so I sign off to you, ‘joy to the world. Let every heart prepare him room.’

jerry

O Holy Night

O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices

O night divine, O night, when Christ was born

O night divine, O night, O night divine

Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother

And in his name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name

Christ is the Lord

Then ever, ever praise we

Noel, Noel, O night, O night divine

Noel, Noel, O night, O night divine

O night divine, O night, when Christ was born

O night divine, O night, O night divine

Blog Post Notes: You can find much of this information in the Wikipedia and a list at the bottom of notable renditions of the songs. Some of the dates don’t match other sources I read and put the writing of the lyrics and music in 1847, the same year it was debuted. The list of performers is impressive and worth a scan. Maybe you can find a favorite version of your own.

Also note that as I was finishing up the first draft of this John Denver’s version started playing from his ‘Rocky Mountain Christmas’ CD. I hadn’t listened to before and had no idea he did ‘O Holy Night’.

God With Us

Emmanuel, in Hebrew: עִמָּנוּאֵל meaning, "God with us".

The season of Advent is upon us and Cindy and I along with my mom and sister Denise, hit the ground running at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Grants Pass, Oregon. It was a wonderful service and the Advent Hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” set the pace early and its refrains tinged the service throughout with a sense of yearning. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” set the tone and underpinned the message that we need to prepare, lest there be no real Christmas.

As I write this I have YouTube running through the hymn with vocal and instrumental artists’ seeming infinite variations; my personal yearning is sustained and the sense of preparation is being heightened.

I could simply pound out the words to the hymn, tell you to read it, ask you to pray it, hope you live it, and let it go at that but it would be the cheap and easy way out for a post, not that I’m above that sort of thing. However, I prefer to ruminate on the hymn and its central theme of advent for the coming of our Lord and have instead placed the words as a post script below.

During the season leading to Christmas Day we are busy with preparations for family gatherings and the exchange of gifts. We need to leave time for advent and the preparation for Emmanuel and give ourselves over to the yearning for Christ’s presence. Imagine if we were to combine our family celebration anticipation and preparation with our desire for Christ’s presence. Would His presence be with us? Yes - yes it would.

Let’s focus on the first verse of the hymn. It tells us that Israel, God’s people, are captive and in exile on earth. We don’t need to look very far to know that this is true. We should be mourning the fact that God’s Kingdom has not yet come on earth as it is in heaven. We mourn until the Son of God appears in His fullness. He will so appear and we see glimpses of Him in the actions of Heaven’s ambassadors, Christians out and about doing the King’s work. We are Him from time to time, even I am Him now and again.

O come Emmanuel, come again in me.

At the end of each verse we are told to rejoice because Emmanuel shall come to us. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (NIV) Indeed, we must rejoice at each hint and every manifestation of Christ on earth while at the same time letting the yearning for His fullness run deep. We never cease preparing the way.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Rejoice! His Kingdom is near at hand. Revel in advent, strike a match and light the candle.

In His grip, jerry

For our edification:

O come, O come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan’s tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people same

And give them victory o’er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come.

And open wide our heavenly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Come, O come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,

In ancient times did’st give the Law,

In cloud, and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel

Life as Advent

Luke 2: 6-15 (NIV) “⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Merriam-Webster describes the term “Advent” in three ways: ‘the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting’, ‘the coming of Christ at the incarnation’, and ‘second coming’. Prayer and fasting are a strong way to get into the coming of Christ.

photo courtesy of
GraphicStock

Churches all over the globe and of a wide range of denominations celebrate Advent with the lighting of five candles, one for each of the four Sundays before Christmas and the fifth for Christmas Eve as the Christ Candle. As I watched the Love candle being lit this past Sunday, the third of Advent, I considered the meaning of Advent, considered it to the point that it framed my write up of the El Rio Toy Ride in which I’d ridden in the day before.

If we are practitioners of Advent, to what purpose is our practice? To improve at lighting the Advent candles of Hope, Peace, Love, Joy, and finally the Christ Candle? No, I don’t think that is the case. Rather, I believe that our liturgical approach to Advent is to serve as inspiration to improve at hoping, loving, being joyful, and in finding and advocating peace. Finally, we are to improve at being Christians. That is, we must improve at being Christ’s expression on earth of the four elements of Advent; hope, peace, love, and joy.

My friends Merriam and Webster go on to say that the non-capitalized version of advent is ‘a coming into being or use’ as in the advent of winter for the start of our flu season. I feel like this is a more action oriented version, the verb sense, than the noun ‘Advent’ as a thing or season. I like this because it can spur us into the action of living our lives as the advent of Christ’s coming, His presence now on earth.

I’m going to risk getting a little deeper with what I found during my research than I usually do and if my friends Lee and Darren read this and find my interpretation off, they are welcome to weigh in. Advent comes from the Latin adventus which is the common translation of the Greek parousia. Parousia is referenced to the Second Coming of Christ. This allows us to share in the longing for the Messiah as well as encouraging us to be vigilant to His Second Coming, to advent it now and to all whom we meet and in how we live. Life as Advent.

I’ll wrap it up by providing a YouTube link to Charles Shultz’s Linus reading the scripture I led off with, the advent descending upon the shepherds. This is my all-time favorite Christmas video clip:

Enjoy, go out and advent Christ in all you do to everyone you meet. Turn the tide. Merry Christmas.

In His grip, jerry