Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King; Let ev'ry heart prepare him room, And heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing. Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns; Let all their songs employ, While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sin and sorrow grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make his blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove The glories of his righteousness, And wonders of his love, And wonders of his love, And wonders, wonders of his love. ~ Isaac Watts When I was a kid my favorite memory of Christmas day was when the grandiose pipe organ would begin to belt out the notes to “Joy to the World.” I remember vividly the echo of the celebrative cadence that would bellow off the stone walls. The entire congregation would take in a collective breath before echoing out the melody. Hearing the congregation belt out the words to this tune left me with goosebumps and chills. The organist would bellow out those notes with all the force she could muster and each refrain would linger in the room even after she would finish the melody line. There was something about this song that held such a powerful reminder for me of the Christmas season and over the years it is one of the hymns that I look forward to most during the holidays. As I have grown up the reminder of how I felt with that song still resonates with me. It is an invitation to take a collective breath. We have a reason to celebrate this today! Jesus, the promised and longed for Messiah has come. Jesus enters into our humanity with the greatest gift of all and we cannot help but echo back the joy of this holiday season and carry the message forward. No matter how you are gathering with friends and loved ones today, whether zoom, phone, or with those closest to you, my hope is that you would take even the slightest of moments and “Repeat the Sounding Joy” of Christmas this year. May a message of hope, love, peace, and joy reverberate off the walls of your spirit in such a way that it leaves you with goosebumps. Loving God, stir in our hearts a collective voice that rejoices in the birth of your Son, Jesus that the world may know of the hope born to us this day. Invite us to encounter the world this year with the newness of your spirit that we may find a way to bring peace on earth. Amen. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” Luke 2:8-14
I didn’t grow up with any sort of Advent practices or traditions. Of course, we always had the day sometime after Thanksgiving where we lugged out the old toilet brush Christmas tree, that my dad so affectionately named. You know the kind, the old “fake” tree that looked ragged and had color-coded branches that you had to match to the tree to make it look at least a little like a tree. We would decorate with all my mom’s knickknacks and of course, set up the nativity. This week we started the process of decorating for Christmas at our home. A tradition that involves lugging up all the boxes, the Christmas tree, and making space in our house to set up things near and dear to us that we have gathered and collected over the years. One of the most cherished things for me is this nativity that my mom used to set up every year. Complete with all the characters from the story, and has been my tradition to set up every Christmas. Each year, as I place the pieces in the nativity, I am reminded of the care that my mom took to set the pieces in place, to tell the story, and how often we were told not to touch it. It seems healing this year to pull all of those items out of the boxes, and to set up our own toilet brush of a tree, though they have greatly improved since the ’80s. This year, Weston helped to set up my mom’s nativity. Watching an eight-year-old lovingly place all the pieces, making sure that they all had a birds-eye view of baby Jesus can sure tell the story again. It was an opportunity to talk about my memories of the season, and to start new memories with him. This season, as you explore what Advent means to you, I pray that you would be reminded of the Good News that surrounds you. May you find great joy and make new memories that keep you with a birds-eye view of the manger. Let us pray… Loving God, we pray for this community gathered here and their journey through this Advent season. Help us create memories with all around us, memories that focus us back to the manger and to you. In your name. Amen. |
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