The gospel accounts of the birth of Christ give us two different traveling moments, one before the big event, and one after. The most familiar to anyone who watches animated TV Christmas specials knows this one from Luke’s gospel, the most familiar Christmas story:
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
The second is in Matthew’s account of the angels telling Jospeh to take his wife and child away by night to Egypt to protect the child from the anger of King Herod, and to fulfill the prophesy of the prophets:
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
In the Advent and Christmas story, there aren’t many old carols of the traveling part. We hear more about mangers and angels, shepherds and magi. What this story needs is some traveling music!
In case you missed what that kind of music is, it’s a wonderful description I picked up from the organist-choirmaster at our church who provides an improvisation (a meditation) on the previously-ended hymn when things go longer at the front of the church than there have been verses in the hymn. It prevents an “awkward silence” while people are still moving about, which can be a mood-breaker depending at which point you are in the service.
The idea of his traveling music came to me in a literal sense in thinking about these times that the Holy Family were together, moving as quickly as they can from place to place. They are with the world and all their surroundings (I can imagine the communion of a bunch of people on the road all at once traveling back to their various home towns to pay a tax!) and yet they are very much their own closely-bound Family, dependent on each other for protection, love, and entertainment.
My musical mind didn’t hear the lament of the early plainsong, or see the Terpsichore of Victorian carols.
Instead, I imagine this man and his young betrothed talking and planning along the way – wondering what is in their future. Worried about the kids back home. Enjoying the sights and telling jokes. Holding hands when the pain comes, and holding together in the night when the baby cries.
To me, they look like a family.
The last verse in the Matthew section above set me to mind of an old Baptist hymn that itself travels across the song books in two different versions using the same tune. I thought of the most non-Advent song there probably is, Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy.
The song also appears in other hymnals with the title I Will Arise and Go To Jesus.
Moving beyond the traditional hymn-singing versions of the old Sacred Harp tune, I particularly like this very Vince Guaraldi jazzy take which spoke to me of the many adventures of this small family while on the road.
This Christmas time, I hear beyond the missionary zeal of these old lyrics. I narrow in on the lines speaking of how we often let too many excuses get in our way. The times when we let ourselves believe it when others say that we are not good enough. Not Holy enough. Not Jesus enough.
How do they know what to call good, to call holy, to call Jesus?
In our spiritual lives there is never a good enough, or a pure enough, or a clean enough. Spirituality is a journey and not a static position from which we never move. “If you tarry til you’re better, you will never come at all.” That line smacked me in the heart of spending so much time being not spiritually ready yet. “Let not conscience make you linger, not of fitness fondly dream.” Guilty again.
I am afraid that often in my spiritual time, I’m the praying equivalent of “cleaning the house before the maid gets there.” I spend too much time getting ready for, looking right for, and finding the right words, rather than just enjoying the trip, labor pains, crying babies and all.
Keep the faith!
I Will Arise and Go to Jesus
Come Ye Sinners Poor and Needy
Words by Joseph Hart (refrain is anonymous), 1759
Hymn tune: Restoration (1835) alternate tune: Beach Spring (The Sacred Harp, 1844)
1
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
Refrain
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.
2
Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.
Refrain
3
Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Refrain
4
View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?
Refrain
5
Lo! th’incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
Refrain
6
Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
Refrain
—
The painting above is Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Luc Olivier Merson (1879)
If you’re not familiar with the season of Advent as part of your spiritual practice, a short intro:
The Western Christian church has two great contemplative “seasons” in the liturgical year: the opening act before Easter, the 40 days of Lent (we’ll talk about that later in the year) and the First season of the liturgical year, the weeks preceding Christmas known as Advent. This season marks the beginning of the Christian year, and according to practices in some churches these early days in December before the 24th are not the Christmas season, but rather the days that lead up to it, or the Advent.
These weeks are a time of thought and prayer and getting our proverbial ducks in a row for the great celebration of Christmas, beginning “midnight” on the 24th of December. That is the beginning of the Christmas season and it continues for (wait for it) Twelve Days, and concludes with the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, the first week in January.
For those children who my Dad describes as being under great suffering of Christmas Fever, there are the Advent Calendars (see photo above) with little doors, windows etc to open each day from December 1 through 24 to help count down the days. Sometimes we adults with the same condition use them too: not just for the family holiday, but to count down the days before which the big party of the Christian year begins.
For many in a less festive mood, this is a time for great prayer and concentration, for consideration of what this New (Church) Year has to offer, and – more important - what we can offer it.
The mystical story of the birth of Christ is, like Easter, one of the most love-filled stories in the Christian tradition and more than Easter is a time we get to witness in story and song (and Gospel) the unconditional love of the Christian God.
It’s a great story of getting to see the Heavenly Host (the angels, some would say) dress up in their finest and sing all over God’s Creation (as it were.)
And it’s a story of a bunch of guys – my favorite of the Biblical characters – the ones most human and emotional, like you and I. In this case, a bunch of Shepherds who quake in their boots (sandals?) at all that Hostly singing and going on. Some Wise Men (kings of the orient) who are wise-enough to take off and see what all this shining star stuff is about, and along the way, they learn something (even in their own Wisdom: there’s a sermon just in that!) and have to do a little dancing around to make the story end up well.
And of course the story of St. Jospeph, the Dad of Christ. What. A. Guy! There’s a whole story about him and how he got over it with the paternity of his boy in an old European song called “The Cherry Tree Carol,” that later became an Appalachian folk tune. It may be worth mentioning later in this series.
Today, I am sharing a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter called “Come Darkness, Come Light” from her album of the same name.
The first time I heard this song I cried. And the next few times I heard it, same. The lyrics hit about the universality of the Christmas story and how it’s not just a “Christian” thing or a “Religious” thing, even though it take place in a Biblical story.
Her song speaks to all of us, and directs us toward an event of love, and peace, of a child born to humble beginnings, and surrounded by love. And the song invites us all, no matter our circumstances or our own beliefs, to come toward that love. No preaching, no zealotry, just love.
So that explains why I loved the song. It’s a beautiful, almost lullaby piece that doesn’t preach salvation or damnation, yet pulls me so into the story of the Nativity, that I can only join her in singing -
Alleluia!
- Keep the faith!
Come Darkness Come Light
- Lyrics
by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Come darkness, come light
come new star shining bright
come love to this world tonight
alleluia.
Come broken, come whole
come wounded in your soul
come any way that you know
alleluia.
There’s a humble stable
and a light within
there’s an angel hovering
and three wise men
today the baby’s born in Bethlehem
alleluia.
Come doubting, come sure
come fearful to this door
come see what love is for
alleluia.
Instr. (bridge)
Come running, come walking slow
come weary on your broken road
come see him,
shed your heavy load
alleluia.
There’s a humble stable
and a light within
there’s an angel hovering
and three wise men
today the baby’s born in Bethlehem
alleluia.
Come darkness, come light
come new star shining bright
come love to this world tonight
alleluia.
Come darkness, come light
come new star shining bright
come love to this world tonight
alleluia.
There’s a humble stable
alleluia.
And a light within
alleluia.
Today a baby’s born
alleluia.
Tags: advent, Christians, Christmas, Jesus, Liturgial Calendar, Love, Music, Nativity, Video
Especially remembering today those who fight for healing and justice, and those caregivers who show us the pathway to redemption through and within our love for our fellows.
Especially:
Mother Teressa of Calcutta, Missionaries of Charity. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.“
HRH Diana, Princess of Wales, one of the first high-profile people shown hugging people with AIDS. “The worst illness of our time is that so many people have to suffer from being unloved.”
O God of heavenly powers, by the might of your command you drive away from our bodies all sickness and all infirmity: Be present in your goodness with all your people who are living with AIDS, that their weakness may be banished and their strength restored; and that, their health being renewed, they may bless your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Keep the faith!
When we offer up prayers and meditations for our military personnel and their leaders, the best place to turn our thoughts is not to their work, not to the campaigns they have underway, and not to the success of our troops of the failure of “theirs.”
Such things are best left to others above and around us to decide.
Better to offer our thoughts and energies instead to the individual, to the job that they individually have to do, and that even in the least calm of times, calmer heads will prevail.
Almighty God,
we commend to your gracious care and keeping
all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad.Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace;
strengthen them in their trials and temptations;
give them courage to face the perils which beset them;
and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be;through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Amen.
(from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)
Keep the faith!
Tags: grace, Military, Protection
It’s been a while since something came along worth adding to The Prayers of Our People, and this morning in the midst of texting a friend, one popped up that hasn’t been covered yet. I’m glad it was in the “love” section!
Something in that conversation made me think of people who are in a loving relationship situation with another person that (insert any random reason here) is not understood or “appreciated” by others. This wasn’t the case for my friend but we talk about many things across many topics. Sometimes my pastoral voice includes words you wouldn’t ordinarily hear in a church.
It could be that the parents hate the kid-in-law, the friends can understand how you fell in love with THAT, or a more basic one that the “community” doesn’t accept that kind of a loving relationship between two people.
Two people of the same gender. Protestant and Catholic. Muslim and Jew. Montague and Capulet. It doesn’t matter – some people some where always have a reason to put some hate on our relationships.
I wonder if it’s because they have lost the love in their own.
After the conversation, I added this line to The Prayers of Our People, to remember those for whom this situation fits.
Keep the faith!
(…)
For those whose love is best understood within their own hearts and reflected in yours. We pray to you, O God.
- Lord, hear our prayer.
Tags: Closet, Love, Prayers, Relationship
