Carol Two: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Listen to this version of our second Carol...pay attention to the final verse:

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.

I am so struck and taken by that second line ~ born a child and yet a King.  In the manager there is a puzzling paradox ~ God in the flesh.  Not among the princes or powerful...not in palaces or even religious temples...God in a barn.  This is not how the story is supposed to go (and don't even get me started on the ending of the story on God's Friday where God's love incarnate - in the flesh - is hung on a cross, really?)  The story is supposed to be about climbing the ladder of success.  More loaves and fishes miracles, less of that 'picking up your cross' stuff if you really want to lure people to your movement.  And this whole born in a barn beginnings, I guess we can talk about humble beginnings. But the point of Jesus is Christmas is not something to leave behind.  It is actually the key to the whole story.  If we don't want to linger in the scratchy straw, next to shepherds of questionable hygiene, we might be missing the point.  This is more than likely why we repeat Advent every year, because this big, bold, scandalously truth needs to keep working and wearing on us - day after day - year after year.

Let that Spirit make room in Your heart this day...and listen to this beautiful rendition again because it makes me smile and warms my soul better than a sugar cookie straight from the oven.

Prayer: Enter in my heart, O God, for You alone are the One who can strengthen and steer and sustain my whole life.  Amen.

Carol Two: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Listen to the above Carol, especially the first verse which goes like this:

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.

This Carol, for me, sets the word, "Come" into a different tune and texture than our first Carol.  I especially love that third line, "from our fears and sins release us."  What we are talking about in the near-ness and now-ness of God, Emmanuel, with us and for us is that life as we know it can be completely changed.  Too often we let our fears grip us.  Elizabeth Gilbert reminds us that fear is necessary, even helpful.  It was good so that our ancestors knew that the lion over there was not exactly a nice kitty cat to go befriend and be petted.  Fear is tangled and twisted with our creativity, which is why people who procrastinate can sometimes feel a surge of ideas...it is the fear of failing kicking in.  But fear isn't always great.  It can blur our vision and blind our thinking.  So often fear teaches and tells us that either the brokenness is always your fault OR it is always someone else to blame - those people.  So, Gilbert, says you need to take fear on your journey but it cannot ride in the front seat or pick the radio station!

To be released from fear is a prayerful plea for people in all times and places.  In Jesus' day the cross was a symbol of fear - a way to keep the masses in line.  In our day we have been taught to fear the other.  When we are constantly surrounded by bad news, good news always seems like a bit of a fairy tale.  

What fears do you need to leave behind this year?

What sin (that is to say brokenness - or anger you keep feeding/fueling - or pain) do you need to leave in this year have so next year (which is waiting for us at the back barn door when we exit the stable) can sing a new song to your heart?

Listen again to the Carol holding onto these thoughts/ideas/insights as you do.

Prayer: I long for joy of God, so help me set down the other shards of life to make room for You, O God.  Amen.

Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Before you listen to this version...consider the final two verses of the beautiful Carol that has ushered us into the season of Advent:

O come, O Bright and Morning Star,

and bring us comfort from afar!

Dispel the shadows of the night

and turn our darkness into light.

O come, O King of nations, bind

in one the hearts of all mankind.

Bid all our sad divisions cease

and be yourself our King of Peace.

These prayerful words sing, speak to my heart.  In these December days, I long for comfort and for the shadows of brokenness to be made whole and drenched in holy light.  I long for our sad divisions to cease.  Part of why I started and set out with this Carol to Bethlehem is that how you start a journey matters and makes a difference.  If you start off in a frame of mind that is stressed, it stays with you.  For example, ever left home wondering if you turned off the iron??  You know that it isn't until you get back and see that your home is still standing that you finally breathe easy.  Same is true for these December days.  Intentional prayerful-ness matters.  Thoughtfulness and carefulness matters.  It is easy to get swept into the hustle and bustle rather than the savory-ness of God's pace.  Which is why I think it is a good practice to start each day by listening to a Carol, and more to the point, listening to what God might be trying to sing to us through that Carol.  So, where do you need the shadows of night to be dispelled?  Where might you long for the hearts of all humankind to be bound up in grace/love/peace?   Those questions matter and can help us as we take another step toward Bethlehem this day.

Prayer: Journeying God of wisdom, light, and love...help me slow down enough to Your pace today rather than demanded You keep up with me.  Let that truth compel and care for my whole life.  Amen. 

Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

First, listen to this version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, listening particularly the second verse of this rendition which goes like this:

O come, O come, great Lord of might,

who to your tribes on Sinai's height

in ancient times did give the law

in cloud and majesty and awe

I love that this verse draws from the past ~ a reminder of how God was with God's people in the time of Exodus.  Remember the second book of the Bible details how a people were captive to the Egyptian insatiable demand for more and more bricks.  Just as we today can be captive to our demands for the latest, greatest iphone or vacation or car.  And the God of liberation entered in, led that out of that place, through a Red Sea ~ which initially blocked there way - they feared there was no way out - but suddenly the sea parted.  Suddenly we sea after the phone is in our hand or we are back home from vacation or the car gets a scratch/dent...that the promises those things made were not as true or trusted as we first thought.  

God journeys with the People of Israel through the wilderness.  God tents with them ~ with is an echo of the Gospel of John saying that, "The Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhoods."  God journeys with us through the wilderness of our life.  Then, when the time was right, God and Moses chit chatting on Mount Sinai through a cloud.  But it wasn't only majesty and awe, but also fear.  Fear because having God that close and personal isn't exactly what the church has taught us.  We have kept God up and out rather than down and in.  We preach God as the stern judge, rather than the compassionate, caring One right next to us.  We do this so God stays distant and we can still feel in control/charge.  

Are there ways you keep God at arm's length?  I don't ask that to awaken any guilt.  So, just go ahead and set that aside.  I'll wait.  I keep God at arm's length when I race through my day rather than starting in prayer.  When I want to race to my conclusions rather than pausing to ask, wait, for what God is up to?  I keep God at arm's length when I think it is all up to me, rather than leaning into the ever lasting arms of God.  

Listen for the coming of Emmanuel right into the messy middle of your life today.  Let God rummage and roam around...not like a drill sergeant pointing out the flaws but as a co-creator who can help us envision another way of living.  One of my favorite quotes for Richard Rohr is that, "We cannot think our way into a new way of living (see post from yesterday), we have to live our way into a new way of thinking."  That is a what Advent is all about if we let, trust in the slow work of the Spirit.

Prayer:  Enter in, O God, with a tenacious love and tender grace I need for this day.  Amen. 

Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Listen to this instrumental version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and as you do let the words of the second verse of this Carol sit, simmer, and sing to your heart, especially as the violin draws you in:

O come, O Wisdom from on high,

who ordered all things mightily;

to us the path of knowledge show

and teach us in its ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

I find these words incredibly profound and poignant, especially if you dig deep beneath the words.  First, Emmanuel means God with us and for us.  God ~ not distant ~ but here and now in your very life.  Second, the call for wisdom speaks deeply to my soul in these December days.  I need, crave, long for, and am restless for wisdom.  This wisdom is about more than simply knowing something.  I crave, need, long for and am restless for wisdom that impact and influence how I live my life.  I can know something mentally and yet it doesn't make a big difference.  I know that diet soda is not great for me, water is better, but I still enjoy one every now and then.  We know that certain behavior (smoking or excessive drinking or shopping on credit we cannot pay off) has negative ramifications on our lives.  Yet, those problems still exist...not because of a lack of information, but a lack of ability for transformation.

You see, the wisdom I long for transforms my life.  A kind of truth that not only nudges me, a truth that takes me by the hand and says emphatically, "You will go here."  And yet, God's wisdom doesn't insist, it exists...it doesn't demand but invites us into a holy mystery. 

How do we listen for the knowledge of God to teach us?  I think it means slowing down and truly listening.  I find words of hymns and poems to be some of the most helpful ways of hearing, really hearing, what God is up to in my life.  Listening for the words that wrap around my soul with bands of love.  I invite you to write down the places you long for wisdom.  Perhaps in a relationship with a family member or a situation or an event or way to be.  What are those places and people for whom you would like wisdom/knowledge/God's guidance?  Then wait.  Not passively as though God will text you, but wait actively and attentively.  Read some poems, keep listening to music, slow down so your own shy soul can get a word in edge wise.  It may not come immediately, but over the course of days and weeks leading up to Christmas, I believe the work of the Spirit works in our lives.

Prayer:  God of wisdom slowly entering our lives, help us patiently and persistently be open to You in these December days.  Amen.  

Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

First...listen to this beautiful instrumental version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  As you let the notes sink down deep, what images come into your mind?  If you had to color this song, would you reach for bright/bold colors or muted/soft colors or some combination?  Why?  If you had to write a story based on the emotions this melody awakens what kind of scene/plot do you hear unfold?

Listen...breathing in these notes.  Listen and be in the midst/middle of this hauntingly holy hymn.

Second...pray the first verse with me.

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 you, O Israel.

Consider the word, "come".  That is a word that can be spoken in a variety of ways.  It can be said with a passionate, insistence as in when I call out to my dog.  This word can be a demand, but it can also be a pray-filled plea softly whispered. "Come" said so you can barely hear the sound of your own voice as you toss that word gently out into the universe.  In this way, we are longing deeply for the arrival of something/someone.  Like medical test results, a relative to walk through the door, or a relationship to be healed/made whole.  In this case, the word, "Come" doesn't fall from our lips as though we are in control/charge, but spoken in such a way that we realize our own limitations and that this single syllable word might be our own chance.  Do you sense the difference?  Do you have moments when you have shouted out, "Come" and times when it has been your hail mary prayer toward God?  

What we are longing for, preparing for, wanting to come in the season of Advent is the arrival of God's presence in our life.  The paradox is that: God is already here right now.  Maybe what we are longing for is actually our own awareness of that truth.  Maybe it is less about preparing a space for God, but rather making more room for God in our crowded lives.  The deeper paradox is that we try to do this amid the hustle, bustle crowded calendar, overflowing, racing, running around time known as December.  When the world seems collectively in a frenzy and frazzled, we slow down.  We do this not because God cannot keep up with us, but because the truth is that the blur of life can cause our soul to wheeze and our minds to whirl and our hearts to feel wiped out.  We slow down lest we miss the traces of God's grace.  

So, go ahead, listen to music and watch the video again letting that one word, "Come" sit on the tip of your tongue.  What is that longing, restlessness, waiting prayer you pray will be answered with some arrival in these December days?

Prayer:

Come, O God, not as a demand or decree, but as our most heartfelt prayer to awake and be aware of the nearness of thee.  Amen.

Introduction take two

Okay...I find it so annoying when an author gets you all set up and ready to go in the introduction and than has another forward or prologue or another series of introductory remarks.

So, please accept my apologies on this.

Really...I mean it.

But before I launched head long into what I want to say...
Before I take you on this ride through a few Christmas Carols like looking at Christmas lights...

I want you to pause...ponder what is your favorite Carol?  I even want you to go play your favorite Carol right now.

Really....I mean it.

I will wait.

Did you go play the Carol?

It is okay....I really want you to.

I will wait (after all I published this a few days ago and I am not really here typing anyway!)

Okay...thanks for that.  Because I want you to ask yourself, "Why do you love that Carol?"  Is it the words?  The melody?  Some memory that it awakens when your grandmother would sing that Carol in the kitchen while making cookies?

You see, I needed a second introduction both for space so you could first name your favorite Carol (after all that is what is most important)...and secondly because I want you to get into the groove of listening.  Really listening.  I want us to hear these words....let goosebumps race, run up and down our arms.  I want these words to be breathed into your being.  John 1 says that, "The Word becomes flesh"...that is what I want with these Carols.  Let them get caught up in your DNA so that you are singing them all day.  Let them guide you prayerfully to the manager, the container for God that bursts into a barn (which we will talk about as the most ludicrous moment ever...because it worked and still works).  God entering in not when everything was perfect, but an absolute mess.  God not in a place of power, but poverty.  God not among even good church people like you and me, but among shepherds.  Really?  This kind of truth has be to told with a slant (thanks to Emily Dickenson for that image).  So, this will take time.  To listen.  To listen again.  To listen a third time and prayerfully reflect each day on these carols.

Alright now we can begin.

Really, I mean it.

Grace and peace everyone....