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Monday

Luke 2.14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all in whom God delights.”

Lord George McLeod, the minister who instigated the renovation of Iona Abbey mid-20^th Century, famously called the churches to become communities that brought “Glory to God in the High St.” Christmas only brings light to the world when those who worship the Christ-child, also worship the Crucified Christ and the Risen Lord. Bethlehem, Calvary and a Garden with a tomb, which was empty; these are the places where peace on earth is made. This Christmas Day we give glory to God, and promise to proclaim, embody and work for peace and goodwill amongst all peoples.

Tuesday

Matthew 2.1-2 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

Epiphany comes in the Church year 12 days after Christmas. In Matthew, the Magi appear as the first significant event after Jesus is born. So it became part of the Christmas story. These three travellers were not Jews, they were Gentiles, a sign that Matthew’s Gospel is about the spread of the good news far beyond the boundaries of Israel. The Great Commission to go preach to all nations had its origin here.

Wednesday

Matthew 2.10-11.  ^“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Every nativity play has the three Magi, usually with tin foil crowns and robed in curtains! How does the wide world respond to the birth of the Messiah? Shepherds wondered, Mary pondered, Joseph did as he was told, Herod trembled – only the Magi worshipped. Post-Christmas there can be a flatness, a sense of anti-climax. At which point maybe we keep on singing, “O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.”

Thursday

Luke 2.19 “But Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

These are two important words. To treasure experiences that change our lives, is to acknowledge God’s blessings and providence. To ponder them, is to take time to understand, to be grateful, to adjust in heart and mind to what God has done, and is doing, in our lives. Post-Christmas is a good time to treasure and ponder what our year has been like; a time to look for God’s fingerprints all over our story, and to “bless the hand that guided, and bless the heart that planned.”

Friday

Luke 2.20 “The shepherds returned, glorifying  and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they were told.”

Back to work as usual. Even though they had just witnessed the most unusual sight the world could ever see. A poet later described it all like this:

“Welcome, all wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span,
Summer in winter, day in night, heaven in earth, and God in man!
Great little One, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to earth.”

(Richard Crashaw, from ‘On the Nativity of Our Lord.”

Saturday

John 1.9 “The true light that gives light to every person, was coming into the world.”

John 1.1-14 is John’s Christmas story, or as near as he ever comes to it. He shares the astonishment of that other poet, and “welcomes all wonders in one sight.” In a world of darkness, like ours today, Jesus is the Light of the world. The darkness of hate and mistrust, of cruelty and violence, of greed and deceit, of sin and guilt; that darkness in its totality and diversity, is defeated by the Light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, cannot, overcome it. Post-Christmas, ponder that.

Sunday

John 1.14. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This is as good a description of the hidden meaning of Jesus birth as you will ever find. It took Jesus' ministry, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension for the church to begin to grasp what Paul called the mystery of the ages. “For in him all the fullness of God c hose to dwell…” Once we’ve told the Nativity story, beautiful in its humanity and ordinariness, we then tiptoe to the brink of mystery, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” Jesus, Immanuel – God with us, full of grace and truth. Aye, post-Christmas treasure that, and ponder these things in your heart.

A thought for each day of Week 3 in Advent.

Monday

“He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all.”

When I was minister of Coat’s Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley, the midnight service always began with the robed choir processing by candlelight into the church, singing ‘Once in Royal David’s City”. Whether the weather was cold, wet, windy, or all three, this was pure theatre, drawing us all into the mystery and wonder that what God does is who God is. And what God does, is come to us in the human form of Jesus, to show us exactly who God is, and what God does.

Tuesday

“O Come, bright Daybreak, come and cheer, our spirits by your advent here.”

I regularly pray this hymn throughout Advent, or play it, and Lord have mercy, occasionally even sing it! We’ve almost lost the art of longing, that long wait in anticipation for what we hope for. Either we look to have what we want as soon as we can get it, or we distract ourselves from the awfulness of the world we live in. Try praying these words to the Light of the World, the true light that lightens every human being ever born. “Lord give us a holy longing, and cheer us with new hope.”

Wednesday

“Born your people to deliver, born a child and yet a king; born to reign in us forever, now your gracious kingdom bring.”

Wesley wrote ‘Come, Thou long expected Jesus’, in response to the poverty and suffering of orphans in England in the 1740s. It was a hymn that looked for better days, and deliverance from the injustices, oppressions and brokenness of the human community. As an Advent hymn it asks exactly what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You may never have thought about it, but in its forward look, the Lord’s Prayer is pure Advent!

Thursday

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see! Hail the incarnate deity.”

Never let the wonder drain out of well-known carols. If we know them by heart, it’s also important to know them as truth that wins and holds the heart. Wesley is recalling the words of John’s Gospel, “The Word became flesh and made himself at home amongst us.” The creative Eternal Word is articulated in a human life, is announced and pronounced in a baby’s cry. The little Lord Jesus, contrary to what we sometimes sing, much crying he makes, because God in Christ fully and for love’s sake entered into that human struggle to breathe and live!

Friday

“Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.”

It’s Matthew who makes the lovely word Emmanuel the keynote of his Gospel. Not only God is with us, but God is for us. Throughout the four Gospels Jesus is on the side of the broken and the fearful, the children and the excluded, the sinners and anyone else who recognised life wasn’t working for them, and sensed that coming to Jesus would give them another chance. Emmanuel has come that we might have life, and life more abundant, purposeful, free and lived in the company of God with us.

Saturday

“Silent night! Holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light.”

 Christmas tree lights, Advent wreath candles, illuminated nativity scenes – light is Christmas made visible. Just as the glory shone around the angels and the shepherds, and the star led the Magi, so in Advent we are called to hear again the angel song of peace on earth and goodwill to all people. Because the light is the light of love. “Lord the light of your love is shining, in the midst of the darkness shining,. Make time for glad silence before the mystery of love’s pure light, Jesus the Light of the world.

Sunday – Christmas Eve

“How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!

How silently. Silence again, but this time broken by the cry of the Christ child, against the background chorus of angels, interrupted by the stumbling steps of shepherds, and, accompanied by the exhausted breathing of Mary. This Christmas Eve, we open our hearts, our minds, and the private spaces of our lives, to the coming of God in Jesus, who is “Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.” In Jesus “God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.” Fifty years later Paul would write, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” Amen to that.

……………..

Prayer for the Week

O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;

Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.

1. Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

2. Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.

This simple hymn reads and feels like an Advent Maranatha. It is sometimes sung as two 8 line stanzas, as printed above. The second stanza is possibly based on a prayer current at the time, around 1744 when the hymn was published. The whole hymn is a cry of the heart in the face of a world restless, joyless and afraid. The suggestion that it was written in response to the plight of the poor, and especially of orphans, is part of a broader argument about hymns and social issues – see especially Class and idol in the English Hymn, Lionel Adey.

The first line, "Come, Thou long-expected Jesus" is a prayer rooted in explanations of who Jesus is, culminating in the final line, 'Joy of every longing heart'. Long-expected and longing, two words linked by assonance, and a bracket holding prayer and promise together – one of Wesley's characteristic word-plays.

The three lines that begin with 'Born' are laden with divine intention behind that recurring paradox in Wesley's hymns, "Born a child, and yet a King." And they find their fulfilment and resolution in the first word of the line that follows them, Now! Immediacy of experience is one of the Wesleyan emphases in spirituality – truth is felt as well as telt!

The carol finishes with a prayer of transferred sovereignty as the true Ruler of human hearts brings to fulfilment human longings for freedom, joy and assurance of God's love under the rule of Christ in the Kingdom of God. Though having said that, the word 'love' doesn't occur in this carol – however, it is implicit as the energising motive behind the Incarnation.

A cover of this hymn appears in the album Midnight Clear by Christian metal band Wolves at the Gate. You can listen to it on the link below. But promise to listen to the end – how's that for click bait?? As music this is a solar system beyond my comfort zones, but I do sense the power of the words sung against a background of what sounds like rage at full volume. Advent words sung in defiance of background Thrash music, come through with powerful, forceful longing.

If I'm half-way right, then the words of the 18th Century Oxford Classics scholar Charles Wesley, are set in a musical context so incongruous as to revive their accessibility for 21st Century sensibilities which, in the end, have the same concerns of fear, despair and longing for a world more just, compassionate and free from the fears of human indifference to suffering.

"Come, Thou long expected Jesus…Hope of all the earth Thou art." Amen

The link to the Wolves at the Gate version is here 

Monday

Psalm 27.14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

This advice comes at the end of the Psalm. It starts with “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” And in the middle the Psalm talks about “in the day of trouble.” We all have such days, sometimes even longer spells, of trouble. Advent is about looking into the troubles that trouble us, and waiting for the Lord who is our Light. That doesn’t make troubles disappear; it is trust that right in the middle of the biggest mess, God is with us. Whom then shall I fear?

Tuesday

Isaiah 40.31: “But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

Both despair and hope can be exhausting. The longer we hope for something, without any sign it will happen, the harder it is to go on hoping. The word ‘wait’ can also mean hope, and the two go together when we pray. We wait in hope before God. Advent is a period of waiting hopefully, and of hoping patiently, and doing so in the strength of the Lord. Our troubled and tragic world waits for peace, justice, signs of mercy. Advent Christians wait with renewed strength before God, praying “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Wednesday

Isaiah 30.18: “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.”

Prayer is when we bring our longings and desires to God; it’s also when we come before a God who longs to be gracious to us. This God of compassion and justice, looks on a broken Creation, the greed and cruelty, the power games and the reckless waste of our God-given world, and does so with compassion and justice. Advent is a time to remember, to wait, reflect and ponder the truth of who God is. Immanuel, God with us. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Think about that!

Thursday

Psalm 130.6: “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

That kind of waiting that has us obsessively looking at our watch, willing time to pass. But also that kind of waiting that has the heart beating in anticipation, because what is promised will happen as surely as darkness flees at the coming of dawn. That repeated line is not a misprint – it’s a poetic emphasis on the faith and trust of the heart and mind that waits, stayed on God, whose promised presence is as sure as the dawn. Advent is all about such waiting in expectant anticipation of God’s coming.

Friday

Isaiah 64.4: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God like you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”

That’s an extravagant claim, and one that Isaiah repeatedly makes. The Lord God is unlike any other God, in this one thing that His people experience again and again from ancient times – God’s acts on behalf of those who wait on him in trustful hope and obedient faith. From the very beginning, from birth in nondescript Bethlehem, to Calvary and resurrection, there is no God like the God we meet in Jesus Christ. An Advent Church waits in wonder at the earth-shattering truth of the Word made flesh and living amongst us, full of grace and truth.

Saturday

Psalm 37.7: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”

It’s always been a troubling question: Why do good people so often struggle and get a hard time, while ruthless folk with no principles seem to prosper and grab all the good things in life. But goodness isn’t indexed to prosperity, and obedience to God is its own reward. Not everything in life turns out as we hope. We await justice for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, and God’s righteousness to enables our shared life to flourish without fear. Advent is the time we train ourselves in patient hope, and in persistent prayer against the wicked schemes that threaten our planet, devastate human lives, and undermine God’s purpose of Shalom. Thy Kingdom come!

Sunday

Psalm 33.20-22 “We wait in hope for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”

These verses are pure Advent! You can use them every day as an Advent prayer and you would be immersing yourself in the great Advent themes of hope, joy, trust and the waiting of those who ‘trust in his holy name.’ And that last sentence, as a final one liner prayer before surrendering to sleep, you could put it into the mouths of any of the key players in God’s Advent plan – Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah. To wait before God is to hope and to trust His holy name; to wait is to have our strength renewed, to soar like eagles, to run without ever being exhausted. “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”

(First image was taken by a fire fighter in Notre Dame Cathedral.)

Second image Findochty looking across the Moray Firth, and the third from Cullen beach on a late October afternoon just after it stopped raining.

You could choose any of the three verses as we now sing it, and given the first line, most of us would know it by heart.

Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born king,
Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled,
Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With the angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem.

The original by Charles Wesley was very different, and the carol as we now have it is a triumph of interference and coincidence. In the 1850's a young organist, formerly learning his trade under Felix Mendelssohn, brought together the tune we now instantly recognise (Mendelssohn's), and the words we now know by heart. Those words in every hymn book carry the abbreviation 'altd' after the name of Charles Wesley. Truth is, Wesley may well sue those later would be editors because as John noted in the preface to the first Wesley Hymn Book: "we do not wish to be held responsible either for the nonsense or doggerel of other men."

In fairness, this is one of those hymns that has improved and evolved to make a hymn of mixed quality into a carol which includes Wesley's best lines and amends or excludes the less successful ones.

So what we now have is a carol of concentrated theology and biblical allusion. Almost every line has an echo in the biblical text. Of the first 6 lines quoted above, lines 2-5 are as Wesley wrote them. I read them, sing them, hum them, and they become a prayer for a world where peace on earth, mercy mild, and reconciliation seem further away than ever. But that's what Advent is – the triumph of faith over resignation, hope over despair, love over hate, and mercy over vengeance. 

Monday

Isaiah 2.4-5 “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

“The Spirit lives to set us free, walk, walk in the light.” That celebration song is about despair eclipsed by hope, light displacing darkness, peace overcoming war. Advent is about such hope, light and peace, and each of them embedded in the promises of God. “Lighten our darkness Lord, restore our hope, and let there be peace on earth.”

Tuesday

Isaiah 9.2 “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”

 In every life, there are times when we walk through valleys of deep darkness, shadows of anxiety, grey depths of depression, leaden skies of grief and loss. None of these are final. The birth of Jesus was under a star, and a choir of luminous angels. The noonday darkness of Calvary gave way to the pulsating light of the resurrection. Christians are people who look into darkness knowing, “a light has dawned. “Lord when we walk in darkness, lift up our eyes to see the Advent of Christ the Light. Shine, Jesus, shine!”

Wednesday

Isaiah 42.6 “I, the Lord have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you…a light for the Gentiles.”

 Isaiah is the prophet who tells of the coming Servant of the Lord. When Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world”, God’s promise through Isaiah was in his mind. God doesn’t hide his light under a bushel; it blazed in glory on Calvary, and the good news of the risen Jesus spread out of the tomb, and floodlit the world, a light to the peoples, all peoples, even us. “Lord, kindle a flame of sacred love in our hearts, making us irradiated servants of the Servant King.”

Thursday

Isaiah 49.6 “I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

From Bethlehem, to Calvary, to the Garden tomb and to Pentecost. That long line of promises is fulfilled only when the Good News illuminates a dark world with the light of the love of God in Christ. Advent is the time that takes us back to the greatest truth the world has ever received, “That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” Christians are filaments through which the power of Christ the Saviour shines on a darkened world. “Lord, energise and illuminate your church, a city on a hill that no one can miss. Make your Church a landmark of love, unmistakably there, for all to see.”

Friday

Isaiah 53.11 “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”

 Isaiah 53 is the Holy of Holies of Isaiah’s visions. Easter is implied in Advent. The road from Bethlehem leads to Calvary, and beyond. You will call his name Jesus, Joseph is told, for he will save his people from their sins. Light is essential for life, and endless darkness would be fatal. So God comes in Christ as the light of life, and through the darkness of suffering comes the light of new resurrection life. “Lord, this Advent, we confess our own sins all over again; may the Light of Life renew our hearts in love.”

Saturday

Isaiah 60.1-3 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.  See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”

 If ever there was a time for people of hope, it’s now! A whole News Bulletin could be summarised in Isaiah’s words: “Thick darkness is over the peoples.” Advent is when we defy despair, insistently hope, persistently pray for peace and justice, and look for light wherever it struggles to shine. The Advent heart-cry echoes the summons of the prophet, “Arise, shine, your light has come.” “Lord, fuel our hearts with hope, ignite us with the fires of compassion, and make us radiant radiators of your grace and glory.”

Sunday

Isaiah 60.19 “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

Christ is all the light we will ever need. “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” (John 1.4) Advent is the celebration of God’s coming to us in Christ, as the Light of Life. In the Christ child, the ministry of compassion, the sacrifice on the cross, the triumph of resurrection, God has spoken his final, defining Word. This is what God is like. “This is our God, the Servant King, He calls us now to follow him.”

“Lord, we live our lives in the contrasts of light and darkness, hope and despair, comfort and anxiety, joy and sorrow. May the light of Christ come into our hearts this Advent, instilling hope from the God of Hope, communicating the comfort of the Comforter, stirring joy in hearts becoming too used to sorrow. You, O God, are the Everlasting Light; shine on us now, and guide our way forward, Amen.