Advent 2009 #3:Peace
There’s no money in peace.
We live in a world where the absence of peace means making a living for far too many. From a trillion-dollar world military complex, to drug companies, to health food stores, to ‘safe’ toy makers, to political activists, to culture-warring Christians, ‘seeking peace’ can mean a wonderfully full cash flow, a guaranteed profit margin, and a spot on the nightly news. And it only costs us something we don’t really know anyway.
People in a fallen world aren’t wired for peace. Sin has made peace impossible on all fronts: no peace with the world around us, no peace with each other, and no peace with God.
The only true peace people could look forward to were fleeting moments seeking and worshiping God and hoping for peace in the end: the end of life, the end of the world – neither of which were particularly good prospects and neither rarely came soon enough.
This changed however, for at least two people 2000 years ago. A teenage virgin found out she was pregnant in a culture ready to shun and even kill her for it. Her older fiancée faced social shame and mockery. These two people found peace on earth when they found out who this child would be. The child they helped bring into the world in a stable brought peace to isolated shepherds on the night of his birth. 2 years later, men from the East came and peace was upon them.
Later this child grew to become a man of peace for thousands, and upon his death, granted the opportunity for peace to all. We may now know the beginnings of reconciliation with the world around us, the people around us, and with God.
Peace can be yours now because of Christmas.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 9, 2009 at 4:11 am, filed under Christianity, Life and tagged Advent, gospel, peace. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Advent 2009 #2: Hope in hurt
I have some friends going through really hard times.
They are seeing relationships of all kinds falter, fade, and dissolve before their eyes. It hurts me to see them hurt so, and while I’m praying for them to see the light eventually, the only other thing to do is help bear their burdens. It’s a hard thing to do and sometimes, it’s hard to see the other side of the pain.
What of Advent?
As the Israelites waited for the Messiah, Romans ruled over them, the sick and lame lay in the street, and God still kept them in Exile. Their hope was only for the Messiah to come and bring them from the darkness of exile back to the light of God. There were many hopes for what this Messiah would do – militant action, religious purification – but what I love about the Messiah who came, was that he attended to the true needs of the people, bringing them from the exile of relationship with their God. In doing so, as he said, he bound up the broken hearted, preached freedom for the prisoners and set the captives free.
This is the hope I try to bring to my friends: that Jesus has come to bind up the broken-hearted people of the world. Hopefully, in this season of advent, we can look to the hope of healing that came with Jesus’ arrival in a little manger. In this week of reflection on hope, I think of the hope for now and the future time. I hope that my friends who are hurting can hope for healing in their lives by looking to the arrival of the binder of their hearts.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 3, 2009 at 5:26 am, filed under Christianity, Life and tagged Advent, hope, Relationships. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Advent Blog Day 1
Hello everyone!
Today is the first sunday in advent, which means that it is advent/christmas blogging for my blog. I’ve been doing this at various levels for 5 years now, and this year I’m going to theme each week by advent candle. This week will be ‘hope’, so expect musings, memories, songs, and videos relating to the Hope of Christmas coming.
To start us off, here is what I believe is the most hopeful song in the history of Christmas hymns. It says everything I would want to say about it, so here it is:
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 save
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.
This entry was written by , posted on November 29, 2009 at 11:53 pm, filed under Christianity, Uncategorized and tagged 2009, Advent, hope. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
The King has come.
The Good Shepherd, dated mid-3rd Century
The King has come.
The King, who came through a young, obedient girl. The King, who came under the care of a socially-scorned couple. The King, who came from the town of the old king, under the oppression of many evil kings. The King, who brought outcast shepherds and foreign powers to witness your birth and life. The King, for which the very angels sang out in celebration upon the Earth. The King, who in very nature God, in communion with God and by the power of God, became lowly man.
The King, who would take in all that is God’s nation on Earth, and make it what it was to be. The King, who would show love to the unloved, justice to the oppressed, freedom to the captive, and hope to the hopeless.
The King, who would take on the sin of all humanity, so that we may be saved. The King, who on the Third Day rose again and defeated Death. The King, whose kingdom is now, but not yet. The King, whose new creation will herald renewed, complete, and everlasting communion with God.
The King, who will return soon.
Merry Christmas,
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 25, 2008 at 11:28 am, filed under Christianity, Internet and tagged Advent, Christ, Christianity, Christmas, Jesus. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
O Come Emmanuel
Since coming to grips in my biblical studies with the implication of what a Jewish Messiah was to do and what they were to look like, and how Jesus both fulfilled and changed it, this has come to be one of my favourite Christmas carols.
In the 1st Century, The Jews had been in exile for nearly 600 years, and were wondering what God was up to, letting them toil under foreign oppressive evils for so long. They were constantly trying to remind themselves that God was still their god, and that his Messiah would come as promised. It was messy, since many ‘Messiahs’ came along and inspired many for awhile, only to fail miserably, like the Maccabees.
This song is a true advent song: It is all about the waiting and the hope for Israel and the World. Rejoice is reflective here, it’s a command: despite trial and oppression we need to rejoice in the coming of God’s Messiah. Once more, this song illustrates how Jesus is the Emmanuel, the Messiah, and the Saviour, not just in the freeing of Israel the people, but of all people from Death.
In this day before the joy of the Incarnation of God, Emmanuel (God is with us), let us remember our need to rejoice out of obedience and not feeling, as we wait for the Second Coming of our Emmanuel, to help usher in a new creation and the fullness of his Kingdom.
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 save
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.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 24, 2008 at 9:00 am, filed under Biblical Study, Christianity, Music and tagged Advent, Christmas, Emmanuel, Jesus. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
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