DAY 1
BOB DYLAN
Even at Christmas, not everyone in my family is a believer. Sadly my wife can’t see what is all too plain to me and if I ever try to speak to her about the wonder of it all she is want to roll her eyes or try and change the topic of conversation. And when it comes to my wanting to listen to his music then I will generally have to wait till I’m all alone in the house or out by myself in the car.
As well as being the day we start opening Advent calendars and making use of Christmas mugs, December 1st is also the day that we in the Aird residence dig out our Christmas CDs and begin to listen to them as part of the run up to December 25th. But, because of the aforementioned aversion to all things Dylanesque, one CD that is rarely played within earshot of the lady of the household is Bob’s 2009 album ‘Christmas in the Heart’.
Admittedly my wife is not this modern day troupadour’s only critic. One reviewer of his aforementioned compilation of festive classics suggested that Latin had never sounded more dead than when that ancient language was employed by Dylan to sing ‘Adeste Fideles’ – that’s ’O Come All Ye Faithful’ for those of you who, like me, had a classical education that was somewhat lacking!
Even so the words of this classic Christmas Carol are worth considering:
‘God of God,
Light of Light
Lo, he abhors not the Virgin’s womb
Very God, begotten not created’
They are borrowed from the Nicene Creed of the fourth century which sought to make plain that the child who was born of Mary was, in very essence, God himself, something that John, an eyewitness of the life of Jesus, conveyed in the first chapter of his gospel when he wrote:
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ [John 1:1-3,14]
This is what is meant by the incarnation – that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. And this is what we celebrate at Christmas.
*****
So with that said I’ll leave you with a track from ‘Christmas in the Heart’ that I’m proud to say that even my children consider a Yuletide classic – well at least one of them does. There may be better songs about the man ‘who’s got a big red cherry nose’ and ‘laughs this way, ‘Ho, ho, ho’’ – but if there is, I’ve never heard it!
It’s not for nothing that Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016!*
*It should be noted that ‘Must be Santa’ is not originally by Bob Dylan – but then there are those who say that neither was his Nobel Prize acceptance speech!
DAY 2
A WALK IN THE SNOW
WARNING: THIS ENTRY MAY NEVER ALLOW YOU TO THINK THE SAME WAY ABOUT A MUCH LOVED POEM.
My favourite Advent hymn is ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’. For many years, it was hearing its first verse being beautifully sung as a solo at the start of the school carol service that marked for me the beginning of Christmas. ‘Emmanuel’ is a big Bible word. It is one of the names that we are told in scripture will be given to Jesus. [Isaiah 7:7]. It means ‘God with us’ and it confirms that we really are right to think of Jesus as, not only fully man, but also fully God.
The idea that God is with us is one that is repeated throughout the Bible. Back in the first book of the Old Testament we read in Genesis 5:22 how Enoch walked with God, the psalmist speaks of how the the Lord of hosts is with his people, [Psalm 46:7] and in the closing chapters of the last book of the New Testament we read how God will dwell with his people even as he himself will be with them as their God. [Revelation 21:3]
Little wonder then that this deeply comforting thought has inspired some to put pen to paper. Whilst there are a number of versions of the much loved poem ‘Footsteps’, this is the one that I find most affecting.
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.
This bothered the man and so he
questioned the LORD about it:
“LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you’d walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don’t understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me.”
The LORD replied:
“My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that we hopped!
OK, I admit that the original version seeks to be more uplifting and ends with Jesus explaining to the man that it was in the difficult times of his life that he was being carried, but I prefer the above version by comedian, and Christian, Tim Vine. Not only does it make me laugh but it also stops me from thinking that there is ever a time when I, prone to stumble as I am, don’t need to be carried. Personally I find it more comforting to read Deuteronomy 33:27 where I find the reassurance that ‘The eternal God is [my] dwelling place and underneath [me] are [his] everlasting arms’.
Because life can sometimes be hard and when it is, it can often be difficult to know which way to turn – it can be easy to feel lost.
Some years ago, whilst out on a walk, one of my children announced that they were lost. This was on account of said child not having a clue as to where they were. But the individual in question was wrong – they weren’t lost, because the one who held their hand, [me], knew exactly where they were.
I knew the way home.
Perhaps you’re struggling at the moment, perhaps you can’t see a way through all that’s going on this Christmas time. But be assured – you’re not lost if you’re being held by the one who knows exactly where you are and who, even in the most difficult of circumstances, knows the way home.
And that ‘one’ is Emmanuel, the God who is with us, the one who knows ‘the end from the beginning’ [Isaiah 46:10]. Why not take his hand and discover that he already holds you – tighter than you could ever possibly imagine?
*****
I’ll end today with a particularly fine rendition of a traditional version of ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ sung here by The St.Michael’s Singers, conducted by Paul Leddington Wright. As all good waiters/waitresses say, ‘Enjoy’!
DAY 3
PUNCTILIOUS PUNCTUATION
As any punctuation pedant will know, the presence, or otherwise, of a comma is every bit as important as where it’s placed.
Let me explain. When my children were younger we had a pet guinea pig called Chestnut, as a result of which I was liable to upset my offspring whenever I sang along to ‘The Christmas Song’. This was not, as you might have expected, because of my inability to carry a tune but rather because, by dint of them having added a non-existent apostrophe, they were left imagining that their much loved pet was now roasting on an open fire!
A similar issue arises with one of my favourite carols, but before I tell you which one, let’s be honest about Christmas. For some it is not a happy time and for many the forced jollity is unwelcome. Let’s face it, when life is characterised by sorrow and despair few of us are up for a party, regardless of how many amusing Christmas jumpers are on display.
And because not everyone is ‘simply having a wonderful Christmas time’, I have heard it suggested that we should no longer wish others a ‘Merry Christmas’ as to do so risks being insensitive to those who are experiencing difficult times. But to suggest as much is to misunderstand Christmas, to consider it nothing more than an excuse for overindulgence as we try to deny the vicissitudes of life
Which brings me to that much favoured carol of mine that I referred to earlier – namely ‘God rest ye merry, gentleman’. Note the position of the comma.
For many years I misunderstood this Christmas classic imagining that the words were expressing the hope that God would give a bunch of already merry gentlemen a well earned rest! But this is not the point at all – as the position of the comma makes clear. What is being hoped for is that God would cause these souls, of undisclosed happiness, to be rendered merry.
And the reason that they should be left in such a state of merriment, the reason that, as the carol goes on, nothing should cause them to dismay, is that ‘Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day’. But why was he born? Well, as the carol goes on to tell us, the answer to that one is ‘to save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray’.
This is news worth hearing for it is very good news indeed – tidings, no less, of comfort and joy,
This is not to suggest that those who suffer do not do so significantly – on the contrary, their suffering may be severe and, what’s more, continue for longer than they feel they can cope with. Even so this good news, this gospel, has the potential to comfort those who have to face even the darkest of days for it brings with it the certain hope that better days really are on the way. For ‘weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ [Psalm 30:5].
So then, irrespective of your current circumstances, may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
*****
Here then for your listening pleasure is one my favourite versions of ‘God rest ye merry, gentleman’, sung on this occasion by ‘Jars of Clay’.
DAY 4
CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS WAITING TO BE FILLED
A fanfare please, for the worlds greatest Christmas one liner…
‘For Christmas this year I’ve bought my wife a wooden leg. Don’t worry though, it’s not her main present, it’s just a stocking filler!’
I don’t know about you but there are only a few ‘main’ presents that I can still remember receiving as a child. There was the gerbil (obviously), the Wings LP, ‘Venus and Mars, (don’t ask) and a game called Logacta which was a football game played with dice designed for people who had no friends! But despite my desperately wanting each and every one of them at the time, none of them seem very important to me now. Curiously though, the gift that was very much a part of every childhood Christmas, but at the time did not interest me that much, grows ever more precious to me as I get older.
It’s great to get presents and I still hold out some hope that this year I might finally be the happy recipient of the Scalextrix Set or Scooby Doo Shaker Maker kit that I never had as a child, but none of these will be the main present that will be offered me again this December 25th. In fact, were I to receive either of the aforementioned items, they would, whilst welcome, be nothing more than Christmas Day fillers and quite possibly a distraction from the greatest gift of all. And so, if I am to be disappointed once more by the absence of these items from under the tree on Christmas Day morning, I will nonetheless be more than content with the good news of God’s inexpressible gift [2 Corinthians 9:15] – namely the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from God above. [James 1:17]. And most wonderfully of all, because of his great love for the world, God gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ [John 3:16] ‘For [though] the wages of sin is death…the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 6:23].
And to my mind, main presents don’t any get better than that.
*****
In recent years Michael Bublé has been a regular part of our Christmas – so much so that our old dog Barney was once inspired by him to sing his own version of ‘Santa Baby’. I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you search hard enough you may find a video of his performance in the darker recesses of the internet. If I were you though I’d content yourself with this photograph of him in his Christmas garb…
… and stick with Michael Bublé’s significantly superior version. In it he lists all the things he’s hoping Father Christmas will bring him this year. But, I ask you, should anyone really refer to Santa Claus as ‘Dude’?
No, I didn’t think so either!
DAY 5
A BONE OF CONTENTION
In recent years our family has played a game in the weeks running up to Christmas in which the winner is the last person to hear the song ‘The fairytale of New York’. Thanks to a poorly timed visit to the Exeter branch of ‘White Stuff’ on November 28th I’ve already been eliminated and can only hope to do better in a similar game, one which, since I play it by myself I always win. This version of the game is won when one hears something that is commonly heard at this time of year, :
‘Christmas – of course it’s really just a time for the children’
Every time I hear these words, like an enthusiastic member of a pantomime audience, I want to slap my thigh and scream, ‘Oh no it’s not!’ The reason why I am tempted be so vociferous is simply this – that though Christmas is, of course, for the children, those who say as such invariably are implying it’s not for older folk like me and, perhaps, you.
But it is!
Because the angel who announced the news of Jesus birth to the shepherds was very clear. ‘Fear not,’ he said ‘for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people.’
So whilst you may be looked at a little oddly if, in your late 50’s, you queue up at your local garden centre to visit Santa in his grotto (trust me on this one, you will), nobody is EVER too old for Christmas.
And that includes you!
*****
Today’s song is, inevitably, ‘A Fairytale of New York’ by The Pogues and featuring Shane MacGowan and Kirsty Kirsty MacColl, both sadly now dead. Anyone playing the game that our family does probably shouldn’t click to hear this Christmas classic!
DAY 6
BASIL BRUSH – wait for it, wait for it
Back when I did my O’Levels, exam questions often began with a request that the candidate compared and contrasted one thing with another. To the examiners, it seemed, to do so had some merit and I suppose they were probably right as by analysing, for example, differing responses to seemingly similar events we may be helped to see the important ways those two events differed.
So let me give you an example. Not so long ago, when I was still a frontline healthcare worker, I had a Covid booster. But it wasn’t just me who was jabbed that morning. Hector, my recently acquired Black Labrador puppy, was due a vaccination too.
But whereas the vet plied her patient with tasty liver paste and various other canine treats, all I got from the person sticking a needle in me was her tacit acknowledgment that I didn’t yet look 65, something which, given that I’m still a good few years off that particular landmark, I considered was obvious and not something that required her to comment upon.
I wondered why a dog should be shown such favouritism but, sure enough, comparing and contrasting the way in which Hector and I were treated, highlighted differences between us which might not otherwise have been obvious. One of us you see, was handsome, cute and simply adorable…and the other was a Black Labrador puppy!
Boom, boom! (Thank you, Basil!)
But there is another, more interesting, comparison to be made between the two individuals who, in Luke Chapter 1, are told by God’s angel that they are going to have a child in unlikely circumstances.
The first is Zechariah. He is the man who is told by an angel that his elderly, and seemingly barren wife, will have a son, who will one day come to be known as John the Baptist. After receiving the news, Zechariah asks the angel how he can know that this will actually happen – and is rendered mute as a result of his lack of faith.
The second individual is Mary. She is a young woman who, despite being a virgin, is told she will have a son, Jesus. On hearing this she not unreasonably responds by asking how this will come about but, in sharp contrast to how Zechariah was treated, far from being reprimanded, she is commended for her faith.
So what is so different in the way they responded to the news of imminent parenthood? Well I think it’s this. Whilst Zechariah isn’t convinced that what he has been told will actually come about and seeks further confirmation that the word spoken by the angel is trustworthy, Mary, despite finding it difficult to comprehend how her pregnancy will come about, none the less believes what the angel tells her is true.
Whereas Zechariah doesn’t believe the authoritative word spoken to him by God’s messenger, Mary does believe what the self same angel tells her. Zechariah lacks what Mary doesn’t – faith. Sure she has questions but as has been suggested, Mary’s is a faith in search of understanding.
And I suppose there is a lesson in all this for us too. If God says something we can be sure that it is true, irrespective of how much we might not want it to be. We might be confused by it and appropriately seek help to understand it better, but we should never question what God declares to be the truth.
Because it is God, not us, who determines what is true and false – just as it is he determines who determines what is right and wrong. And so the truth is the truth irrespective of what we might think. Zechariah discovered that. He may have doubted what God said was true but reality didn’t change as a result and Elizabeth had her baby son whilst he looked on speechless.
Zechariah learnt the hard way but we, on hearing God speak will, if we are wise, humbly believe what we are told. And then say, as Mary said:
‘Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ [Luke 1:38]
We would do well to remember it…well
*****
Which is a particularly clumsy segue into today’s song which isn’t remotely Christmasy but is instead one from none other than Basil Brush himself – in his original 1970’s incarnation. Here he is duetting with Petula Clark.
DAY 7
AN OPEN SECRET
Nobody should imagine that I consider myself even remotely similar to God, but I do sometimes wonder if I share, just a a tiny bit in one minuscule aspect of his character. Let me explain.
Long ago, when we were first married, my wife and I lived in Bristol. In those days Kaye was working as a teacher and so it eventually came to pass that I had a week off during term time and I was therefore home alone. Being the deeply romantic individual that I am (stop sniggering at the back!), I thought I’d try and do something to surprise her and so, on the Wednesday of my week’s holiday, I decided to see if I could book tickets for us to go and see ‘Les Miserables’ in London the following Saturday night.
So I bought a newspaper – no internet back then – and found in the London Theatre Guide the phone number for the theatre where the show was being performed. I made the call and amazingly, despite it being the most popular show in the West End, and my asking for the most popular performance of the week, I managed to get tickets – for, if memory serves me right, the unbelievably cheap price of just £5.50 each! (Don’t worry, I may have treated her to an ice cream in the interval as well !)
Anyway, my plan was that I’d keep it a secret from Kaye, telling her only that we were going out on Saturday but not telling her where it was we were going. Well I couldn’t do it! Within minutes of her returning home I was dropping hints of what we would be doing and, so excited was I that, by the time we went to bed that night, I’d completely spilled the beans.
Do you know in some ways I think God is the same. For having planned his great salvation he too was unable to keep it a secret. Indeed, just moments after the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and thousands of years before Jesus was actually born, God promised that somebody would one day come, one who would be ‘the offspring of a woman’ and would ‘crush the head’ of Satan even as he himself had his heel bruised. [Genesis 3:15]
And then we read in the New Testament that ‘when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman’ [Galatians 4:4]
All through the Old Testament God keeps spilling the beans about the saviour who would one day come. He speaks of how he’d be a descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a member of the tribe of Judah and an heir to the throne of David. Then, still hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth he tells us, in the book of Micah, that the child would be born in Bethlehem [Micah 5:2] and, in the book of Isaiah, that he would be born of a virgin. [Isaiah 7:14]
These predictions, made hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth, were fulfilled. Each and every promise that God made was kept – which is no surprise at all because God always keep his promises.
And not only did he keep the promises he made relating to Jesus’ birth, he also kept the promises he made relating to Jesus’ death – amongst many others, that he would suffer and die for the sake of others [Isaiah 53:4-5], that he would be buried in a rich man’s tomb [Isaiah 53:9] and that he would subsequently be raised from the dead [Psalm 16:10].
And so it is little wonder that the apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth said:
‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’ [1 Corinthians 15:3-4]
But God’s promises don’t end there. He has made many more and he will keep the promises that he has made concerning the future as surely as he has kept the promises related to things already past. And these include promises that assure us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Romans 10:13] and that a day is coming when all our tears will be washed away and death will be no more. [Revelation 21:4]
Like my surprise trip to London, this is another ‘secret’ that I am just too excited about to keep myself – and that’s why I’m spilling the beans here!
Take my word for it – these are promises worth believing.
So what song should I choose to close with? Well the one I’ve opted for is not a Christmas song, but it is a cracker, so it will just have to do. And in a funny kind of a way it’s sort of appropriate too since it concerns somebody who is unable to keep quiet about the love they have for another. The only thing is that God doesn’t ask you to promise not tell others of his love for you, rather he asks that you spread the ‘secret’ of his love… to the very ends of the earth.
I told you he can’t keep a secret!
*****
Over then to The Beatles, singing here ‘Do you want to know a secret’.
DAY 8
A MAGNIFICENT DOG
I know what you’re thinking, ‘What has a magnificent dog got to do with Christmas?’. Well I’ll tell you. Not a lot. It’s true that a magnificent cat would have been a marginally more appropriate illustration to head up a few words on ‘The Magnificat’ but, as well as being something of a dog person, a picture of a regal looking canine is, for reasons that may be well known to you, a lot easier for me to lay my hands on. And yes I know that I’m pushing things a bit here but we are now on Day 8 of this advent calendar malarkey and if you think that by the time we’re done things won’t have taken a precipitous downturn then I’m afraid that you’re going to find that you are sorely mistaken.
But I digress. ‘The Magnificat’ is the name given to the song that Mary sang after being told that she would be the mother of the Son of God. It begins with the words ‘My soul does magnify the Lord’ and takes its name from the word for ‘magnifies’ with which the Latin translation begins.
But for those of you who haven’t been distracted by a little Latin and haven’t forgiven me yet for my crass inclusion of a picture of Hector, here is where I try to redeem myself, something which, ironically, a Christian should never attempt to do! But here’s the thing – just as a magnificent dog is not what you’d expect to see at the beginning of a discussion about ‘The Magnificat’, so too the words of Mary’s song are not the ones that we might expect to read, coming as we do from a culture that is so in love with itself.
As a result, therefore, Mary’s song is one that ought to reverse our expectations. We live in a world where the strong lord it over the weak, the rich oppress the pour and we, having been told to always think of ourselves as awesome, are encouraged then to spend our days going about the exhausting business of boasting about our own achievements.
And yet Mary sings of the one who has saved her, the one who scatters the proud, who brings down the mighty, and who sends the rich empty away, and the one who, as he does so, simultaneously raises up the humble and fills the hungry with good things [Luke 1:51-53].
Isn’t that the kind of world in which you would want to live – one in which the arrogant are brought low and the humble are lifted up? Well if it is, know this – it’s the kind of world that God wants too. For
‘God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble’ [James 4:6)
And so he is prepared to humble, not just the proud, but the only one who truly is awesome – that is, himself. And he does this, not only by becoming, in the person of Jesus Christ, a man and then living a life of poverty, but also by subsequently going to the cross, and dying there the most appalling of deaths. And he did all this to ensure that those who acknowledge their weakness, those who recognise their need of rescue, far from being dismissed as an irrelevance, can know the love of the eternal and almighty God who will not only one day raise them back to life but also adopt them into his own family and number them among his own dearly beloved children.
No wonder Mary want’s to magnify the Lord. But note this – she doesn’t magnify him the way a microscope magnifies something, making something very small look bigger than it really is. Not at all. Mary magnifies the Lord in a way a telescope magnifies something, making something that’s really very big look more like the size it really is.
God is big – but to some people he doesn’t appear to be all that important. But if we turn our eyes away from ourselves for a moment and fix them instead on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, the one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross – and then, not only will we not grow weary or fainthearted but we will find that God really is every bit as big as we need him to be. [Hebrews 12:2-3]
And perhaps we will find ourselves magnifying the Lord as well
*****
Finally then, a song. Or rather two. First it’s ’Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord. This hymn, one we had at our wedding, isn’t really a Christmas song – but perhaps it should be, given how it is based on ‘The Magnificat’.
And then as a special treat, a second bonus song. Why? Because it’s a song about a magnificent dog of course!. Not only that it’s one my grandson likes it too!
DAY 9
BREAD
Bread – not something you generally think of being associated with Christmas but, as I hope to prove (did you see what I did there?), there is a link – and quite an important one at that.
All of us have things which we would find hard to do without. Take me for example – I have something of a reputation for being partial to a custard cream, if called upon to gather together a small collection of discs prior to being castaway on a desert, I would almost certainly include a couple of Bob Dylan tracts, and I have been seen to twitch uncontrollably if Somerset are playing cricket and I’m not aware of the score.
My wife however, prefers her biscuits to have a fruity component, would undoubtedly sail on by any, and I mean any, marooned seafarer who was consoling himself by playing ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’ and, despite her predilection for such a twice baked comestible, she couldn’t give a flying fig roll whether or not Tom Kohler-Cadmore’s strike rate is higher or lower than that of Will Smeed or Tom Banton.
Clearly then, she still has a lot to learn.
But though we have differing preferences on non essentials, there are some things that we both have real need. Take bread for example…
‘Well you’ve finally got round to talking about bread – well done you. But it’s taken you long enough – and you’ve not yet made a case as to why this staple of the British diet has anything to do with Christmas’.
You make a fair point
‘Thank you – you’re very kind’
You’re welcome – but here’s the thing.
Whereas most people will know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and many will be aware that his birthplace was predicted by the Old Testament prophet Micah 700 years before the event [Micah 5:2], far fewer will be aware that Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread’ – which is when you come to think of it, interesting given how Jesus once said that he was the ‘Bread of Life’. [John 6:35]
More interesting still though is the fact that Jesus made this claim the day after he fed 5000 men, plus a corresponding number of women and children, with two barley loves and a couple of fish, an episode which parallels what God the Father did in Old Testament times when, on route to the promised land, he provided his people in the wilderness with the curious food known as ‘manna’ [Exodus 16] By performing an act similar to that previously carried out by God, Jesus was, by association, making plain that he is, not only the Bread of Heaven, but God himself.
But that’s not the end of it. Jesus went on to say ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
Which sounds a little weird until you realise just what Jesus is saying – specifically that, by benefiting from his being consumed by death, we can receive eternal life.
No wonder then that the Welsh sing so heartily that fine old hymn ‘Guide me, O my great Redeemer’.
Guide me O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty; hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore,
Feed me now and evermore.
*****
Which brings us to today’s song. No surprises as to what it is. Why not click below and sing along?! It is allowed – even if you’re not Welsh!
DAY 10
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Can we talk about the elephant in the room? I only ask because my wife refuses to discuss the subject, seemingly perfectly at ease with the fact that one of the world’s largest land mammals has taken up residence in our lounge. I wouldn’t mind, but Nelly, (not, I’d have thought, the most imaginative name that she could have come up with), is someone she claims offers more stimulating conversation than I do, takes up less room on the sofa and, can you believe it, has kind eyes!
But leaving all that aside, the idea of the virgin birth is something that some people would rather wasn’t mentioned, so much so that there are those, even within the church, who claim that it never really happened. But it seems to me that the reason some people don’t believe some things is simply because they’ve never heard of those things happening before. But to say something can’t happen simply because they haven’t previously is intellectually dishonest and is no different from saying that God doesn’t exist merely because you don’t believe he does.
Furthermore some people seem to find the wrong things hard to believe. Take the resurrection for example. Whilst I understand why some people might find it hard to accept that Jesus was raised from the dead, it is the fact that he died in the first place that should really cause us to be astonished. The Bible tells us that, ‘the wages of sin is death’ [Romans 6:23] and so, since Jesus was sinless, his death is genuinely shocking.
And so we have to conclude that it was as a consequence of the sins of others that he suffered. Which it was – for it was for the sin of those he came to save that held him to the cross that day, dying as he did in their place, taking the punishment they deserved. But having died, being without sin himself, it was always going to be impossible for death to hold on to him. [Acts 2:24]
Far then from being unbelievable, Jesus being raised from the dead was nothing other than inevitable.
Now some of you might be thinking that I’m drifting away from the subject at hand. But really I’m not. And the reason I say this is because it was absolutely necessary for the virgin birth to have taken place if Jesus was to have been truly sinless – just as it was absolutely necessary for Jesus to have been truly sinless, if he was to come back from the dead.
Because, you see, if Jesus had been the biological son of Joseph, if he had been just another human being, all be it a particularly good one, he would have been tarnished with the same sin that we all are, the sin that we were all born with on account of Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden.
Make no mistake though, Jesus was, by virtue of his being born to Mary, fully man and so was a fitting representative to die in the place of those who trust him for salvation. But equally, conceived as he was by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was fully God and so was utterly sinless, making his death the perfect sacrifice that was necessary to pay the price for the sins he bore for others.
Jesus – 100% God, 100% man – a beautiful, mysterious, paradox.
Which is, of course, all very well but is it true. Because my believing something to have happened, no more means it did than somebody not believing something happened, means it didn’t. Even so, you have to admit that, though a virgin birth is not a common occurrence if, like someone coming back from the dead, it were to happen, even just the once, it would change absolutely everything.
And so the question remains, was Mary really a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus?
So let me be clear. Whilst my talk of oversized members of the order Proboscidea settling down to an evening of stimulating debate with my wife is not, for one moment, something I seriously consider to have ever taken place, I do wholeheartedly believe in the virgin birth. And if you were to ask me why I believe something that, not having been there at the time, I can’t possibly know for sure, I would tell you that it is by faith that I believe.
‘Ah’, you say, ‘that just a cop out’. But mine is not a faith that is blind like that of the White Queen in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ – a faith that enabled her to believe in ‘as many as six impossible things before breakfast’. On the contrary, my faith is, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, a belief based on evidence, testimony or authority. As is the case with many things that we all believe, my belief in the virgin birth, far from being wishful thinking, is in fact, an entirely rational belief, based, like the resurrection, on the compelling eye witness testimony of those who were there at the time.
That and the authoritative word of the one who spoke the universe into existence – the one for whom all things are possible [Matthew 19:26], and the one who, ‘knowing the end from the beginning’ actually predicted the virgin birth 700 year before the event.
‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’[Isaiah 7:14]
Luke, the author of the gospel in which we are told of the virgin birth was a doctor and is, therefore, not somebody you would expect to believe something without good reason. And yet, having looked closely into these matters, having gathered information from those who were there at the time, Luke was clearly persuaded by all that he had been told.
And so he wrote his gospel – so that we who read it may have certainly concerning these things. [Luke 1:4]
That’s why I’m convinced, the question is, are you?
*****
I appreciate it’s been a bit of a heavy one today – but not as heavy as the one who, kind eyes or not, has completely wrecked our living room furniture! Even so, I promise you all something much lighter tomorrow.
But now, today’s song – ‘Mary Did You Know?’, performed here by One Voice Children’s Choir.
DAY 11
THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS OF OXFORD STREET
At home, strategically positioned in front of our recently condemned gas fire, stands a candle – one that proves the lie that you can’t go wrong by buying your nearest and dearest such a gift as a Valentine’s present. Because nearly ten months on it has remained untouched and it is only in the last week, with the nights well and truly now drawing in, that have we finally bothered to light it.
But when we did, the darkness in our living room immediately shrank back from around it’s flickering flame and I was reminded once more of how differently light and darkness behave.
Because whilst darkness is dispelled by the switching on of a light, the opposite is not true – light isn’t dispelled by the switching on of the dark. The darkness may surround the light, but the light is never snuffed out.
Light then always triumphs over darkness. Which is nothing short of what we should expect for this is exactly what we are told in the opening verses of John’s gospel, verses that traditionally make up the final reading in a service of nine lessons and carols.
‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ [John 1:5]
This is comforting to know. And what is also comforting to know is that something very similar could be said for love and hate. No matter how intense the hatred, love always triumphs over it. Though it is true that hatred may not simply flee from love in the way that darkness flees from light, and though hate may actually intensify its efforts in the face of love’s persistence, it is none the less true that, come what may, love will always win.
Because love never dies.
Except perhaps that one time – when the light went out.
Jesus said that he was the light of the world, [John 8:12] and at Christmas that light, ‘the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world’ [John 1:9]
But despite ‘Jesus [coming] to his own…his own people did not receive him. [John 1:11]
And so, on Good Friday, mankind rejected the one who had come to save them. But Jesus continued to love those who hated him – even as they hammered the nails into his hands and feet. ‘Father, forgive them,’ he prayed ‘for they know not what they do.’ [Luke 23:34]
When Jesus died the light went out – and ‘there was darkness over all the land’. [Matthew 27:45]
But not for long. Because love didn’t stay dead. Three days later, the light came back on when Jesus rose from the grave.
And so, no matter how dark it might currently be for some, we can all be sure that there will be brighter days ahead. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning’ [Psalm 30:5]
Because the light will never go out again.
*****
Only one possible option for today’s song – Coldplay and ‘Christmas Lights’
‘Those Christmas lights
Light up the street
Down where the sea and city meet
May all your troubles soon be gone
Oh, Christmas lights keep shining on’
DAY 12
FATHER CHRISTMAS
Today is December 12th which by my reckoning means that we’ve now reached the halfway point of my Countdown to Christmas. I’m not sure who is most relieved – me or you – but I don’t doubt that in many households the excitement is beginning to build as Christmas draws ever nearer. But when all is said and done, Christmas is for many a huge anticlimax, a deeply unsatisfying time. I wonder why that might be.
For some of us, Christmas is just too busy – there is simply too much that has to be done. Perhaps we long for the Christmases of our childhood, fondly remembered as magical times when we believed in someone who was better and kinder than ourselves, one who insisted on bestowing upon us one kindness after another without, it seemed, us ever having to do anything to deserve it.
Now though, as adults, we have lost sight of any transcendence that Christmas once held and, rather than resting in the generosity of one greater than ourselves, find ourselves burdened with a list of a thousand things we must do if we are to be considered acceptable celebrants of what a consumerist society has now made Christmas.
Wouldn’t it be lovely then if we could experience Christmas, indeed experience life as a whole, as we did when we were little, with a childlike faith that someone other than ourselves would be kind to us in ways we don’t come close to meriting, one who would see to it that everything worked out just fine in the end.
If that sounds appealing to you, if that sounds like heaven, then be encouraged by the words of one wiser than me who once said
‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ [Matthew 18:3].
Because, you see, you can’t work your way into heaven – rather you are provided with a free pass. Why? Because Jesus, the one who said the words above, has paid the entry fee and, undeserving though we are, seen to it that everything will indeed work out just fine in the end.
We enter the kingdom of heaven by grace, not by works.
Which means to say that Father Christmas, with his insistence that we have to be good to benefit from his generosity, comes a poor second to the God who sent Jesus into the world to save sinners.
Contrary to what many people think, Christians don’t believe that they’ll go to heaven because of their good works – on the contrary, Christians know all too well how far short they fall of God’s perfect standard. Its not arrogance on their part to believe that they are assured a place in heaven, rather it is a humble confidence in the one who not only bore the punishment for their sins but also lived the perfect life that they themselves ought to have done. As such, it is Jesus’ perfect life, credited, as it were, to their account by the God who now treats them as if they’d lived that life themselves, that gives a Christian confidence of a place in heaven.
Put simply, Christians know that Jesus was good for them – and they give God all the glory. Furthermore, Christians know that this Christmas, Jesus could be good for you too.
*****
So to finish, have a listen to Michael Bublé give a particularly fine rendition of ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’. And as you do, take note of the rules laid down by ‘the big fat man with the long white beard’ and ask yourself whether this undoubted festive fun really is what Christmas is all about.
DAY 13
A SHEEP THAT’S BEING WATCHED – THOUGH NOT AT NIGHT
No one can deny that Christianity has a thing about sheep – and the Christmas story is no exception. And I’m not referring here to the all time classic ghost story by Charles Dickens in which Scrooge, the principal character and archetypal grumpy old man, goes about saying ‘Baa Humbug’ all the time.
No I’m talking about the Christmas story in which, soon after Jesus is born, the angel of the Lord appears to a bunch of shepherds, not, as many a schoolboy has suggested, to act as a celestial TV remote to ensure that they watch Clive Myrie and not Tom Bradby read the evening news*, but rather so that he might deliver the day’s headline himself.
And oh what a startling headline it was! Not only was it ‘good news’, something that is itself all too rare these days, but also, unlike most of the numerous electronic notifications I receive each day, it was news that everybody needed to hear.
And it’s news that everybody still needs to hear.
So just imagine for a moment how you’d feel if, having heard an alarming ping from your trouser pocket, you pulled out your phone and saw this displayed across the screen:
‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord’ [Luke 2:10-11]
It is perhaps a little surprising that it was a bunch of shepherds who were the first people to be told the good news since, in those days, shepherds were considered amongst the least important members of society. Don’t forget, the announcement that was being made here was a royal announcement, one that regarded the birth of a King. Because, contrary to what some people think, ‘Christ’ is not Jesus’ surname – rather it is his title and translates as ‘God’s anointed one’. As such, the news that the shepherds were being told was that the long awaited Messiah had been born!
But perhaps it’s not so surprising after all that the shepherds were told first – for two reasons.
Firstly God has a habit of choosing the weak over the strong, the humble over the proud, and the supposedly unimportant over the seemingly significant. What’s more, as the shepherds were soon to find out, God chose a manger and swaddling cloths over a king sized crib and regal robes.
That’s the kind of God he is – one who comes to us, not with a show of power, but with a show of humility.
And the second possible reason why the announcement was first made to the shepherds is this – who better than shepherds to first hear the news of the birth of a lamb?
For that’s what Jesus was, ‘the Lamb of God’ who would one day take away the sins of the world. For this was the job for which he was born. And it’s a job that he would one day achieve by dying on a cross – yet another apparent act of weakness which was, in reality, quite the opposite, For it was the means by which God brought about a very great salvation.
A salvation that none of us should neglect.
*****
Jesus being the Lamb of God refers most specifically to the Jewish Passover and the last of the ten plagues that God used to force Pharaoh to let his enslaved people go. That plague saw the first born son of every Egyptian household die save for those in homes where a lamb had been killed, its blood being spread on the doorframes of the house as a sign to the Angel of Death that is should ‘pass over’ that particular dwelling place.
As such the lamb acted as a substitute for the one who would otherwise have died, a sacrifice prefiguring that which Jesus would later offer by dying on a cross.
But there is an even earlier example of a lamb acting as a substitute for one who would otherwise have died. That story can be found in Genesis 22 and, despite it having taken place thousands of years before Jesus’ birth, parallels remarkably with Jesus’ own death. If you’re interested you can read more about it by clicking here.
We’re going high brow for our music selection today – because you can’t go through Christmas without hearing at least a little bit of Handel’s Messiah.
* If you have no idea what I’m talking about here, and I accept that that is a distinct possibility, then just be thankful that you have a more refined sense of humour than I did because, growing up in a rural market town in the 1970s, I found the following couplet amusing!
‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night
all watching ITV,
The angel of the Lord came down and switched to BBC’
DAY 14
A SNOW ANGEL
How much do you know about angels? Not much? Me neither! But then I suspect that neither of us have ever had the pleasure of meeting one ourselves. Or maybe we have – since the Bible tells us that ‘some, by showing hospitality to strangers, have entertained angels unawares’. [Hebrews 13:2]
Be that as it may, somebody who says he does know a thing or two about angels is Robbie Williams. Because, it seems, he has been told that ‘salvation lets their wings unfold’. Now don’t get me wrong, ‘Angels’ is a jolly fine song, one that I have, on more than one occasion, sung along to vociferously whilst driving my car up the M5 on the way to my former place of work. But beautiful though his words may be, I’m not quite sure what Robbie means by them.
But leaving that aside for a moment, one thing that I am sure about angels is that they are big on offering reassurance. Just take a look at what they say on each of the four occasions that they appear to people in the Christmas story. If you do you’ll see that the first words that come out of their mouths are always an assurance to those that they are visiting that they need not be afraid.
Now you might think that angels must be truly terrifying creatures if their every conversation has to start with either a ‘Fear not’, or a ‘Do not be afraid’ – and well they may be. I for sure would be taken aback if a celestial being appeared unbidden in my kitchen and started to engage me in earnest conversation whilst I was trying to do washing up. But however accepting they might be of an alarming pile of dirty crockery, I think there is more going on here than simply angels calming the immediate fears of those with whom they are having a particularly close encounter.
Take, for example, the angel of the Lord who appeared to those shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. He doesn’t say to them, ‘Fear not – I’m not going to hurt you’ but instead he says, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘Fear not – God isn’t going to hurt you’.
Because here’s the thing – for you or I to come into the presence of a holy God, when we ourselves are sinful people, is a terrifying prospect. God is a righteous judge, something, incidentally, that we all want him to be, unless, that is, we are content to watch the many injustices within our world to go unchecked. And because God is a righteous judge, it means he must punish sin. And that includes ours.
That’s why the Bible describes God as ‘a consuming fire’ [Hebrews 12:29] and tells us that ‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ [Hebrews 10:31].
Which is, as I’m sure you’ll agree, something of a problem.
But imagine for a moment that you are out one night and you find yourself all alone on an expanse of open moorland whilst all around you is raging the most violent thunderstorm that you have ever encountered. To be in such a situation would be genuinely terrifying.
But suppose you were then able to find a cleft in a nearby rock and from that place of safety continue to watch the lightning as it lit up the sky. What a difference that would make. Instead of being terrifying, the storm would now be a genuinely awesome spectacle, one that you couldn’t help but delight to watch.
God, like such a storm, is genuinely awesome, only more so. But also like the storm, he is not safe. And so we should be terrified of him. And we should be equally terrified if one of his representatives was ever to appear before us. At least, that is, until we have been reassured by them that God has prepared a safe place from which to marvel at him.
And that’s exactly what the angel of the Lord did to the shepherds out in the fields on that first Christmas night. Let me remind you of what he said.
‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’ [Luke 2:10-11]
Because you see, this news of a saviour is news of one who would die in our place, one who would pay the penalty for our sin and thereby satisfy God’s need for justice. Thereafter, safe as it were in Jesus, we can now enjoy God for the awesome one that he truly is – thrilled by the beauty of his holiness rather than forever fearful of his judgment.
That is the gospel, the good news of great joy that is for all people. That is the promise of salvation for which, like the angels, we should give glory to God.
Finally, here’s one more thing that I know for sure about angels – ‘there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ [Luke 15:10].
Who knows, perhaps that’s what Robbie meant in his song.
*****
Given that the former Take That singer’s vocal range is a little greater than mine, it is perhaps fortuitous that there is no footage of my in-car performance of this epic ballad. So you’ll just have to settle for Robbie Williams himself. With words includes – so there’s no reason for you not to join in too!
‘When I’m feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
And I know I’ll always be blessed with love.’
DAY 15
SLADE FRONTMAN NODDY HOLDER – NOW AND THEN
It is now 50 years since Slade topped the charts with ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and a week today we will learn who will have the honour of being this year’s Christmas number one.
No doubt many of us will have at least one CD which has on it a collection of the classic tracks that have become such an important part of what for many is ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ and each of us will have our own personal favourite. But amongst all the genuinely great songs out there, there are one or two that contain lyrics that are, to say the very least, somewhat bizarre.
Take, for example, Chris de Burgh’s ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’ which suggests that an extraterrestrial came to earth 2000 years ago, travelling here in his intergalactic space craft to break the good news of peace and goodwill to all men. And then there’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ which, whilst being part of the genuinely admirable money raising efforts of Bob Geldof, seems to suggest that Christmas might go unnoticed by those who have the least rather than being longed for all the more.
But it’s not just the songs that make up our party playlists that contain some strange lyrics – so do some of the carols that are sung in church. Take that staple of a countless infant nativity plays, ‘Away in a Manger’. Given the fact that scripture informs us that Jesus was ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’ [Isaiah 53:3] and that ‘Jesus wept’ at the tomb of his good friend Lazarus [John 11.35], it seems unlikely to me that, when woken by a herd of lowing cattle, ‘the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes’.
And then there is the much loved ‘In the bleak midwinter’ which gives the impression that there were subzero temperatures and deep snow in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. Now I’m not saying that this is totally out of the question but given how a quick Google search reveals that the average snowfall in Bethlehem is no more than a couple of inches a year, and that the Bible makes no mention of wintry conditions at the time of Jesus’ birth, it would appear that Christina Rosetti’s words owe more to the romanticised notions of how those in the west like to imagine the first Christmas than to any meteorological reality.
That said, there are some carols that contain wonderful theological truth, including ‘In the bleak midwinter’ itself which, in its much more profound second verse, manages to convey something of the paradox of the one who holds the whole world in his hands taking up residence in a young girl’s womb. The verse begins with…
‘Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away, when He comes to reign’
…before going on to describe how the Lord of all creation humbled himself by becoming, not only a vulnerable baby boy, but one for whom ‘a stable-place sufficed’.
Another great Christmas carol containing wonderful biblical truth is Charles Wesley’s ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’. If there a finer sound to be heard on Christmas morning than that of this magnificent hymn being played by an organist who, quite literally, has pulled out all the stops, then I’ve not heard it. And what a joy it is to add to the noise by joining with others and singing words that announce, so much better than John Lennon ever did, that war is over:
‘Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled’
The hymn continues with an exhortation for everyone to see that the ‘offspring of a virgin’s womb’ is none other than God himself…
‘Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see!
Hail the incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emanuel’
… before finally reiterating just why it was that Jesus came:
‘Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth’
It’s all tremendous stuff , and surely the best Christmas song of all time – save perhaps for the one that was originally sung by a choir of angels in a live performance that took place over the fields not that far from little town of Bethlehem. The lyrics may be familiar to you, found as they are in Luke 2:14
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’
*****
Sadly there is no recording available of what took place on what was surely far from a silent night. So instead for today’s song we’ll go with the carol that their anthem inspired. I do hope that you’ll all enjoy singing this majestic carol at least once over the coming weeks.
DAY 16
A BRIGHT STAR SHINING
Can you remember a time when you were overjoyed, when it was as if you had too much joy? Can you remember a time when you were so happy that it almost hurt?
I can – It was 21st July 1981
Now I know what you’re thinking, or, at least, what those who know me are thinking. You’re thinking, ‘I bet that’s the date of some famous cricket match’ Well, I’m pleased to be able to inform you that you’re…absolutely right.
Long story short. England v Australia – 3rd test of the summer – at Headingly. Australia had made 401 in their first innings and England, having made 174 all out in theirs, were made to follow on. But despite slumping to 135-7 in their second innings, a fantastic 149 from my schoolboy hero, Ian Botham, meant that Australia were still set a modest target of 129 in their second innings. It should have been easy and, having made 56-1, it looked like they were home and dry. But then Bob Willis tore through the Australian batting line up finishing with 8 for 43 and Australia were all out for 111. So England won by 18 runs.
And as every Australian wicket fell I can still remember experiencing the human equivalent of the zoomies – literally leaping round the back garden. So elated was I that I even did a head over heels under the washing line in celebration of each Australian dismissal! I was 14 at the time – who knows what my mother thought. But who cares, it was just a fantastic day.
My wedding day was quite good too!
The reason I mention all this now is that in Matthew 2:10 we read of the wise men being similarly overjoyed. You know how the story goes. They were travelling from the East to Jerusalem in order that they might worship ‘the one who [had] been born king of Jews’ [Matthew 2:2]. And when they saw the star come to rest over the place where the child was they:
‘rejoiced exceedingly with great joy’
As has been pointed out by others, the wise men didn’t just rejoice, they rejoiced exceedingly. More than that they rejoiced exceedingly with joy, but with a joy that Matthew has to stress is a great joy if he is going to adequately convey just how happy these wise men were. Put all together, the gospel writer’s words are, I think, just about as good a definition of ‘overjoyed’ as you’re ever likely to get.
But it wasn’t the star that made them so happy – rather it is what seeing the star signified. And what the star signified was that they would soon see Jesus. That’s why the wise men were so happy it almost hurt.
I wonder if we are as excited about the prospect of meeting Jesus now as the wise men were then. Or are we so caught up with the things that tell us its beginning to look a lot like Christmas without ever enjoying the fact that Jesus has been born?
Because it’s all too easy to get excited by the signs and neglect what it is that those signs are pointing to. Which is about as sensible as heading off for a day at the seaside and then opting instead to stop and spend time admiring the signpost that points to the beach. Such behaviour would be madness. Not only that, rather than leaving us overjoyed, it would leave us underwhelmed.
So how are you approaching Christmas this year? Are you cynically bemoaning the admittedly over commercialisation of Christmas, grumbling at all that you have to do in preparation for the big day and fretting at how much it’s all going to cost?
Or are you approaching Christmas like a wise man – overjoyed at the prospect of meeting Jesus?
*****
And so to today’s song? I did toy with choosing the jaunty theme music from the BBC’s cricket coverage, or 10cc’s ‘I don’t like cricket, I love it’ but in the end I went for ‘I’m a believer’ by the Monkees. Why? Well firstly I read on the internet (so it must be true!) that neuroscientists have rated it is one of the Top 10 happiest songs of all time – well I mean it’s not as though they have anything more important to do. And secondary, because I am one!
DAY 17
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
It’s August 1983 and a teenage lad is waiting anxiously for his O’level results. Eventually the postman arrives and with his hands all a tremble the youngster manages to peel open the tightly sealed envelope and unfold the single slip of paper that he finds contained within.
It turns out the ‘boy done good’ and his pleased as punch mother asks the young man if there is anything he’d like her to buy him to mark his achievement.
It turns out there is. As an already proud only of one moderately trendy T-shirt, the lad imagines himself to be quite the New Romantic and so, without a moment’s hesitation, he replies that he would very much appreciate the new album by Spandau Ballet.
I know this much is true. Because, dear reader, I was that boy.
One of the tracks on ‘True’ was called ‘Gold’. This is highly fortuitous for me since it brings us rather tortuously to the subject of today’s post – namely the gifts that the three wise men brought the Christ child.
Now it is sometimes jokingly suggested that those who had travelled so far to see Jesus must have been men as only men would have brought such impractical gifts. But in fact the gifts that they brought reveal that the wise men were…well, very wise indeed actually. And here’s why.
The first gift was gold which back then was, just as it is now, very valuable. Gold was a gift fit for a King and so it was wholly appropriate for the wise men to offer some to the one who had been born king of the Jews. More than that it fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah which describes how this king would be worshiped by all nations.
‘And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
they all gather together, they come to you…
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.,
[Isaiah 60:3-4a,6b]
Frankincense is also mentioned in Isaiah’s prophecy. As a fragrance that was used for the purposes of worship, it had a distinctly priestly connotation making it a highly appropriate gift for Jesus too.
‘But why?’ I hear you ask – well the answer is found in the Old Testament. Back then priests acted as mediators between God and man and offered animal sacrifices for the forgiveness of the sin. But whereas it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins [Hebrews 10:4], the blood of Jesus, the lamb of God, can. [John 1:29].
And so, when Jesus sacrificed himself he too was acting as a priest [Hebrews 14:4] and the only mediator between God and man [1Timothy 2:5]. And so frankincense is an entirely appropriate gift to bring the child who would one day be our great high priest [Hebrews 14:4]
And then there was the myrrh, a fragrance used in the preparation of the dead for burial. And since ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ [1 Timothy 1:15], a task he achieved through his death, burial and subsequent resurrection, myrrh too was an entirely appropriate gift for the wise men to bring.
So gold, frankincense and myrrh were in fact wisely chosen gifts that point us perfectly to a king who, acting as a priest, would die for his people.
But more than anything else, what marked out these travellers from the east as wise was the fact that, recognising Jesus to be somebody so much greater than they were themselves, ‘they fell down and worshipped him’. [Matthew 2:11].
And, to cut a long story short, we would be wise to do the same.
*****
So what shall we have as today’s song? Well I suppose the obvious choice would be ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet but sadly the young man of our story is no longer young, and neither is he now a New Romantic. Please don’t take this to mean that he is now old and somewhat disappointed in love, rather that over the years his musical tastes have changed. So by way of a nod to the second of the wise men’s gifts I’ve chosen a song from the film ‘Young Frankenstein’. I know, I’m pushing it, but it’s Christmas and this song always makes me laugh. Perhaps it will you too!
DAY 18
THE FIRST LIGHT OF DAWN
It is sometimes said that ‘Christmas is a time for giving’ and in many ways it is. But what is seldom said is that Christmas is a time for lament.
Even so, it very much is.
Which is why, before we give, we need to first receive the gift of the one who gives his only son. After all, it is God who gives most.
The apostle Paul spoke of how he was ‘sorrowful yet always rejoicing [2 Corinthians 6:10] and so, even at this time of joyful celebration, there is still a place for sadness. Because this Christmas, globally as well as nationally, locally and, for many, personally, there is much that is worthy of our tears.
Paradoxically then, we need to learn how to be happy and sad at the same time. Because, just as when we are sad there are things that can make us smile, so too, when we are happy, there are things that can make us cry.
The murder of the innocents is an aspect of the Christmas story that rarely makes it into the Nativity plays that we love to see our children take part in. Maybe that’s because, whilst the judicious positioning of a tea towel on an infant’s head instantly transforms them into the likeness of a first century Judean shepherd, the props required to convey the malevolence of a homicidal tyrant aren’t so readily available in the nation’s dressing up boxes.
Because that’s what King Herod was – a homicidal tyrant. Pathologically jealous he killed his own wife and, to ensure she didn’t give him a hard time over it, killed his mother-in-law too. He had two of his sons slaughtered lest they tried to seize his throne, and a third executed five days before his own death.
Furthermore, when he knew he was dying, he ordered the arrest of many of the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem and saw to it that they would be executed on the day of his death. Why? Because, knowing his demise would be welcomed, he wanted to be sure that there would at least be some who were mourning in Jerusalem on the day he died.
No wonder then that the Bible tells us that when he heard of a potential rival to his throne, the one the wise men spoke of as being the King of the Jews, it wasn’t just Herod who was troubled – it was ‘all Jerusalem with him’. [Matthew 2:3]
And so we read of how King Herod has a secret meeting with the wise men in which he tells them to search diligent for Jesus and, when they finally find him, make known to him his exact whereabouts. He tells them that he too wants to worship the boy, but in reality he just wants the child dead. The wise men however, having found Jesus and been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, wisely head home by another route, leaving a furious Herod ordering that all the male children under the age of two be killed.
It’s all very unpleasant – as real life sadly sometimes is.
Now there will be those who will try to shut their eyes to the reality of suffering this Christmas. Others will pay lip service to how dreadful things are for others before pushing it all to the back of their minds and continuing on their merry way – unchanged, unmoved, and unaffected. ‘After all,’ they’ll say ‘what’s suffering got to do with Christmas?’
And therein lies the problem with Christmas, or rather the problem with the Christmas that we have created. As with life, we struggle to conceive that the realities of hate, pain and suffering sit alongside those of love, joy and peace, that these things are, to a greater or lesser extent, present in all our lives. And so we have marginalised the horror of the Christmas story, preferring the sanitised version that fits better with our forever optimistic outlook on life and our overly positive view of who we really are.
But, though we might say ‘It’s all good’, the reality is, it’s not – we live in a world of both good and evil. And whilst life can be filled with overwhelming joy, for some the sadness is just too much.
Regardless then of whether or not you are somebody who believes the Christmas story, the biblical account does at least reflect the reality that life is a mix of the good and the bad. The joy of the birth of Jesus, and the hope that his arrival brought, is mixed with the abject poverty into which he was born, the rejection experienced by his parents and the murder of the innocents at the hands of Herod.
Furthermore, what began in ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ continued on to ‘a green hill far away’ where the baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas suffered as a grown man the horrors of crucifixion. The Roman orator Cicero described crucifixion as ‘a most cruel and disgusting punishment’ and suggested that ‘the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.’
That is the world we live in, joy and sadness, pleasure and pain – we cannot have one without the other. Indeed, for me at least, the two are inextricably linked with the existence of suffering being the reason why we need a redeemer, one who, through the suffering he himself endured, ensures that the suffering that we all still experience will one day come to an end.
This Christmas, therefore, is a time to lament – because suffering is still very much a part of the world in which we live. But even though we grieve, we need not do so as those who have no hope [1 Thessalonians 4:13]
Because though weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes with the morning’ [Psalm 30:5] Of this we can be certain – for the child whose birth we celebrate at Christmas is the one who will ensure that a day is coming when every tear really will be wiped away and death will be no more. [Revelation 21:4]
And I for one can’t wait.
*****
The song today is a melancholy version of Jingle Bells by Chilly Gonzales – just the thing for any for whom this year will be a ‘Blue Christmas’. But first a poem – by John Piper – about an imagined encounter between the grown up Jesus and the Innkeeper of Bethlehem. It’s quite long but, I believe, well worth nine minutes of your time. I find it intensely moving.
DAY 19
A PARTY POPPER
So the reason for my choosing a party popper as the item behind today’s ‘door’ is not, as you might imagine, because it is something that gives an air of the celebrations that are so appropriate at this time of the year, but rather because it’s the closest I could get to a picture of a party pooper!
Because, whilst I assure you that that is not what I intend to be today, it is, I fear, what some might consider me.
But this is not because I’m going to come over all Grinch like and,
‘with all of my grinch fingers nervously drumming,
look for some way to stop Christmas from coming!’
Not at all. But having said a little yesterday about some of what often gets left out of those hugely enjoyable nativity plays that make up such a large part of our Christmas celebrations, today I thought I’d say something about the things that are included but might not be strictly correct. Please do feel free to ‘boo’ and ‘hiss’ me as you see fit – it is pantomime season after all! [Oh yes it is!
Take then the idea that Jesus was born in a stable – this is something which is not actually mentioned in the biblical account. We know that Mary and Joseph were unable to find suitable accommodation in Bethlehem, but we don’t know, with any degree of certainty at least, why that was. It may have been due to it being a particular busy time for those offering hospitality in Bethlehem, what with the census that was taking place requiring everyone to return to the town of their birth, or perhaps it was the result of the scandal that would have surrounded Mary at the time, with folk being unwilling to offer accommodation to a pregnant woman who was unmarried and whose child was not fathered by the man with whom she was travelling.
The idea that Mary gave birth somewhere that was surrounded by animals comes only from the fact that Jesus had no crib to lay his head and so had to make do with a manger instead. [Luke 2:7]. That Jesus was born in a stable is therefore, an assumption, perhaps not an unreasonable assumption, but an assumption it is all the same.
But it is when the three wise men join the shepherds in that stable that we begin to deviate more sharply from what we know took place from scripture.
Firstly, we don’t know how many wise men there were. The idea that there were three comes only from the fact that they brought three gifts. Who knows, perhaps there was a fourth wise man and two of them went halves on the cost of the frankincense – after all, as anyone who has recently looked into the cost of Chanel No. 5 will know, perfume ain’t cheap!
Secondly the Bible doesn’t actually say that the wise men followed a star all the way from wherever it was that they began their journey. What it does say is that they saw a ‘star in the East’ and, as a result, came to worship the one to whom that star belonged. [Matthew 2:2]
‘But if they didn’t follow a star’, I hear you ask, ‘how did the wise men know where to go?’
In the Bible the wise men are more properly called Magi, the name from which we get the word magicians. The Magi hailed from the East where they had come to hold great political power.
This was back in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar – the same King Nebuchadnezzar who had taken the Israelites into Babylonian captivity back in Old Testament times. It was the job of the Magi to not only recognise and crown kings, but also, when called upon to do so, to offer advice on certain matters which, on occasions at least, seemed to include the interpretation of dreams.
Now one of the Israelites who had been taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar was a man called Daniel and, partly due to his God given ability to interpret the dreams that King Nebuchadnezzar had that the Magi could not, this Daniel eventually rose to became chief of the magicians. [Daniel 5:11].
And so it is entirely possible that the wise men of Matthew Chapter 1 knew where to travel to because they would have been well versed in the prophecies regarding the birth of a king that had been handed down from the time of Daniel. Which in effect is what it says in Matthew 2:5-6. For there we read that, when King Herod asks the wise men where the Christ was to be born. they answer him with these words:
‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel.”’
This then would explain why, seemingly at a time when they were not being guided by a star, the wise men went first to King Herod in Jerusalem – for surely they would have expected a king to have taken up residency there.
And it would explain too why the wise men went about asking everyone they met where they would find the one who had been born King of the Jews [Matthew 2:2] – for surely they would have expected everyone to have been so excited by the event that they would have kept abreast of exactly where he was residing.
But sadly, what the wise men had expected was not actually the case, for, as John reminds us at the beginning of his gospel, Jesus ‘came to his own but his own people did not receive him’ [John 1:11].
And so it is no surprise that the wise men were overjoyed when the ‘star’ seemingly reappeared and was able to lead the wise men the final few miles to the HOUSE where Jesus, now a CHILD, was living. [Matthew 2:11]. Which suggests that all this took place some time after the birth of Jesus. Unlike in the nativity plays, therefore, the shepherds and kings would never have met.
But all this rather begs the question about how a star can a) reappear and b) accurately pinpoint a specific location whilst way up in the sky.
Well to answer that one we need to ask ourselves what exactly the star was. Because whilst some have suggested that it was a planetary conjunction and others that it was a supernova or comet, there are still others who have suggested something rather different. The word translated ‘star’ is ‘aster’ which can mean ‘a shining or blazing forth’ and so, what the wise men saw in the East may have been, not so much a star, but a supernatural blazing forth of the glory of God, something not dissimilar, perhaps, to that experienced by the shepherds that we read of in Luke 2:9.
‘And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them.’
Well there have been a lot of ‘what if’s and ‘maybe’s today, so let’s finish with something definite.
Firstly the wise men came to worship the one who was born to be King of the Jews. And by bowing down to worship Jesus, these Gentile kingmakers acknowledged him to be, not just the King of the Jews, but the King of non-Jews too. As such Jesus is declared by them to be the King of the whole earth.
And secondly, regardless of the exact nature of the star, what is absolutely certain is who that star belongs to. For it was, without doubt, Jesus’ star [Matthew 2:2]. If it was a star in the conventional sense of the word, then it was Jesus’s star, because all creation belongs to him. And if it was a star in the sense of a manifestation of the glory of God, then it still belongs to Jesus, because, since Jesus is God, God’s glory is Christ’s glory too.
But whilst our much loved nativity plays don’t, perhaps, get everything quite, maybe it doesn’t matter all that much, provided, of course, that we grasp the most important parts of the story – that at Christmas God became a baby boy and, as every self respecting Nativity angel will tell you, he was given the name Jesus because he would save his people from their sins.
Which, you’ve got to admit is, is something still well worth partying over.
*****
Today’s song is ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay. I’ll leave you to look at the lyrics and judge just how appropriate a choice it is but, trust me on this one, it’s a whole lot more appropriate than the one sung for Day 17 by a tuxedo wearing monster! I promise that normal service will resume tomorrow!
DAY 20
FRODO BAGGINS
Hands up anybody who would like some tips on how to endear yourself to someone with whom you’d like to start a relationship? Quite a few of you by the look of it! Well, for those of you still straining to touch the ceiling whilst shouting ‘Me sir, me sir’ (thank you, you can put your hands down now), I’m delighted to tell you that today is your lucky day because I am about to reveal to you my tried and tested method, the one by which I managed to snare the woman I now call my wife!
First though you will need to master the runic alphabet as employed by J.R.R. Tolkien in ‘The Lord of the Rings’. And before anyone suggests that the reason I may once have done this has anything to do with me being a hobbit, I’d like to point out that, though diminutive in stature, I have far from furry feet! That said, I appreciate that this first step is not straightforward – but then who ever said that the path of true love ran smooth?
The second step is more straightforward. Simply transcribe the lyrics of the Eagles’ track ‘I wish you peace’ into the aforementioned language and, in your very best handwriting, write them on a piece of paper. Then slip it under the door of the one for whom you exclusively have eyes.
And that’s it. All you then have to do is sit back and wait for my guaranteed method to work it’s magic. Which, if my experience is anything to go by, should take about five years!
But some things, of course, are worth waiting for.
Take Simeon for example, the man, probably of advanced years, who we read of in Luke 2. Simeon was in the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was taken there by his parents at around six weeks of age. He had been waiting for ‘the consolation of Israel’, that is, the long awaited Messiah who would one day come to rescue and comfort God’s people. Who knows how long Simeon had been waiting but he had been assured by the Holy Spirit that ‘he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ’ [Luke 2:26].
And so, when Simeon saw Jesus, he recognised him for who he was and, taking him in his arms, said the words found in Luke 2:29-32 that have become known as the Nunc dimitis:
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
So here’s the thing. Whilst my hobbit inspired wish for peace for my nearest and dearest was just that, a wish, the peace Simeon experiences here as he draws ever nearer to his own death, is absolute – for he has seen with his own eyes, and held in his own arms, the fulfilment of the promise that God had made to send a saviour, one who would be as such for both Jews and non-Jews alike.
As we are all too well aware, war is very much part of life, with numerous conflicts currently taking place right across the world. Jesus himself said that in these days there would be ‘wars and rumours of wars’ [Matthew 24:6]. But the Bible also speaks of a time when all conflicts will end, when nations will ‘beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks’, when‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore’, [Isaiah 2:4].
One day there really will be peace on earth.
But this isn’t the only peace that the Bible speaks of. More significantly we are all offered individual peace terms with God, terms by which all hostilities between ourselves and God come to an end. And amazingly, despite it being our rebellion which has soured the relationship between ourselves and our creator, rather than something being asked of us to put things right, it is God who fulfils all the conditions of the peace treaty.
For on the cross, our sins were paid for when Jesus took there the punishment we deserved. As the prophet Isaiah makes plain
‘…he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.’ [Isaiah 53:5]
Because of the cross, all the causes of enmity between God and man have been dealt with.
Because of the cross, the war that raged between God and man is over.
Because of the cross, we really can know peace with God.
What Jesus suffered for us was truly awful. Even before being nailed to a piece of wood and left to die, he suffered horrendously at the hands of those whose true nature was being given free reign. As Matthew records
‘…the governors soldiers took Jesus…They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, King of the Jews!” they said. They spat on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him’ [Matthew 27:27-31]
Paradoxical though it undoubtedly is, that such violence should be the path to peace is nothing short of astonishing. Even so, that is what it took. Furthermore, it was for those who inflicted such suffering on Jesus that that peace was also secured. For even as he hung on the cross and yielded up his life, Jesus prayed for those who were treating him with such disdain. ‘Father, forgive them’, he said, ‘for they do not know what they are doing’. [Luke 23:32-34].
And we too can be included in his prayer. Hear God’s words spoken to you through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah:
‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned’. [Isaiah 40:1-2a]
These are indeed comforting words, spoken by ‘the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort’ [2 Corinthians 1:3]. And they are words that were later reinforced by the apostle Paul when he wrote that
‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. [Romans 8:1].
No matter then the depth of our wrongdoing, we who accept God’s terms of peace, surrender to the one who overwhelms us with his love and are gladly conquered by one so much greater than we are ourselves, we are the ones who, because of the cross, are completely forgiven and can genuinely know ‘the peace of God that passes all understanding’. [Philippians 4:7].
And like Simeon, we too will be able to depart in peace.
And so, as Christmas draws ever nearer, ‘all I am saying is’, like John Lennon before me, ‘give [this] peace a chance’. Because ‘war is over – if you want it – war is over now’
And wouldn’t that be precioussss!
*****
So there are a number of songs that could have provided today’s musical interlude including, of course, ‘I wish you peace’ by the Eagles. But that particular song has done enough damage already so instead it’s a return to these pages for Handel with another section from the Messiah. Today’s lyrics come from the prophet Isaiah and includes a list of some of the names by which Jesus would be called – a list that includes ‘the Prince of Peace’. Here are the words in full so you can sing along Karaoke style! They can also be found at Isaiah 9:6
‘For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’
DAY 21
A WOODEN TOY FIRE ENGINE
As any self respecting Sunday School student will tell you, if anyone churchy ever asks you a question as part of an all age address, the answer is always ‘Jesus’.
And so it was that, some years ago, when I found myself asked to speak to ‘the young people’ one Sunday in late December, I decided that, in order to throw them off the scent, I would frame my enquiry in the form of a multiple choice question. That way, I thought, no child experienced in ecclesiastical etiquette would be able to blurt out the usual stock answer and expect to have a chocolate sweet thrown at them by way of reward!
The question I posed was this:
Which of the following options has the most to do with Christmas:
a) a Christmas tree,
b) a mince pie, or
c) a fire engine.
Now whether the youngster who answered my question did so on the basis of his deep theological understanding, or whether it was simply that he realised that, if one of the possible answers is vastly less likely than all the rest, then that answer is almost certainly the correct one, I do not know. But either way, he was spot on when he hollered ‘Fire engine’ and duly came close to losing an eye as a fun sized Mars bar flew in his direction with both the speed and precision of an Exocet missile.
Because, you see, the point of my short dialogue was simply to point out that Christmas is all about rescue. Or, at least, the arrival of a rescuer. Miss this and Christmas loses all of its significance.
But here’s a thought. Even if we are minded to remember what Christmas is really all about, could it be that even religious types sometimes get too excited about Christmas?
Imagine this. It’s night time and you wake up to discover your house is on fire. You’re trapped upstairs in your bedroom as the flames burn higher and higher. The heat is intense, the smoke impenetrable and the exit unreachable. All hope seems lost.
And then you hear the distant sound of sirens telling you that help is on its way. You run to the window and the glow of a flashing blue light confirms that the fire brigade is close by.
What a relief!
Sure enough, a bright red engine soon careers around the corner and stops outside your house whereupon the neighbours all gather around the crew celebrating their arrival. Everyone seems very happy. But then you realise that the firemen aren’t doing anything to rescue you and, to your horror, none of your neighbours seem all that concerned by the fact. They’re just delighted that the rescuers have actually arrived.
What a tragedy that would be.
Christmas is about the birth of Jesus but his arrival is only the start, because he came with a job description – he came with work to do. The angel who announced Jesus’s birth to the shepherds had it right that night when he said:
‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour, who is Christ the Lord’ [Luke 2:10-11]
The good news is that a saviour has been born. At Christmas, God became man and was given the name of Jesus because he would ‘save his people from their sins’ [Matthew 1:21].
But remarkable though his arrival was, Jesus’ birth did not, in and of itself, effect a rescue. Because, essential though his birth was, it was his subsequent life, death and resurrection that went on to secure the salvation he had come to secure. By living a perfect life, a life which God graciously credits us as having lived, and dying a perfect death, one that, by bearing the punishment that we deserved, was sufficient to satisfy God’s justice, Jesus saves us from the wrath of God and clears the way for our adoption into God’s family as dearly loved children.
At Christmas, forgetting the rescue that Jesus was sent by God to bring about is as tragic, and foolish, as our delighting in the arrival of the fire brigade at our burning home but having no interest in them putting out the fire!
Which explains perhaps why, despite nowhere in the Bible being commanded to remember his birth, Christian’s are frequently exhorted to remember a certain person’s death.
And the name of that certain person was…?
Well you tell me – only please be sure to duck as you shout out his name!
*****
And so to a song. With all the airborne confectionary that’s flying about today, my first thought was to go with that song by Phil Collins that contains the line “I can feel it, coming in the air tonight’. But in the end I didn’t feel it quite cut the Yuletide muster and went instead for something similarly aerial but rather more Christmassy. So here’s Peter Auty singing the original version of ‘Walking in the Air’ from the 1982 animated film, ‘The Snowman’.
DAY 22
THE GRAND CANYON
Some years ago, for her 50th birthday, I took my long suffering wife away for the weekend. Now, given how perilously close I have just come to revealing my wife’s age, I should, for the sake of my own frail longevity, make absolutely clear that, by ‘some years ago’, I actually mean, ‘18 years into the future’!
The centrepiece of the weekend was a day in London but, being the romantic old bratwurst that I am, I didn’t actually tell my nearest and dearest all that I had planned for us to do, choosing instead to adopt an air of mystery and reveal only the next scheduled activity on what was going to be a pretty busy day. That is to say, there was always a little more for me to tell her up until the point we reached the highlight of our excursion, namely the taking in of a West End show.
Well it’s a bit like that with this blog since, what I told you yesterday wasn’t the whole story. Because, whilst it remains absolutely true that the rescue achieved on Good Friday and Easter Day is greater than the Christmas Day arrival of the rescuer, there still remains something even more marvellous to mention.
Because what we are rescued for is even greater than the rescue itself.
‘Well OK’, you’re probably thinking, ‘what is it that could possibly be more important than our rescue? And will you insist on rambling on about something that is supposedly even more amazing tomorrow?’
Well to answer that I’d like to take you to the first question of the Westminster Catechism which was written way back in the 1640’s. The truth it contains hasn’t changed one iota in the last 320 or so years and, since it deals with the fundamentals of our very existence, it will remain every bit as true for all of eternity to come.
So then, the first question asked by the aforementioned summary of the Christian faith is this: ‘What is the chief end of man?’. And it gives as its answer: ‘The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever’.
It’s sometimes said that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And here it’s being suggested that the main thing is the glory of God and that the purpose of our existence is to both add to and enjoy that glory. Or, better put perhaps, our purpose is to glorify God BY our enjoyment of his glory.
So here’s the thing – we don’t glorify God by dutifully acknowledging his existence, on the contrary, we magnify his worth by joyfully expressing our love for him by our heartfelt and exuberant praise for all that he is and all that he has done.
Now I appreciate that to some the glory of God might not sound particularly exciting or indeed something to take pleasure in – but that will surely be the case only for those who struggle to see just how wonderful God really is and prefer to find their satisfaction in other things instead.
But, as the enigmatic author of the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, without God,
‘all the things that are done under the sun…are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.’ [Ecclesiastes 1:14]
And he that wrote these words should know, for having tried everything that this world had to offer, he found it all somehow lacking. And so he concludes that, in and of itself, this life cannot satisfy – not in any ultimate sense.
This is not to suggest that this life doesn’t offer us a wealth of good things that we can take pleasure in, far from it, for many are the good and perfect gifts that God gives us to enjoy. [James 1:17]. But whilst they sometimes might seemingly be able to satisfy us, without God, even the best things in life will not fulfil us. For even the very best of times will eventually come to an end.
Take for example the day out in London that I mentioned earlier that my wife and I enjoyed – you remember, the one that took place in 2041! First up we went on the London Eye and then we took a boat trip down the River Thames complete with, and this will show you just how much I love her, a pre-booked coffee and a mid-morning snackette! [I know – impressive eh – but it meant I could skimp on buying her lunch!] Next we visited the Houses of Parliament where we later indulged in a little tea on the terrace. And lastly, we went to the theatre and saw ‘The Lion King’ – you know the one, ‘Hakuna Matata’ and all that.
We had a genuinely lovely day…
…but eventually, of course, it came to an end.
And similarly, no matter how pleasant Christmas turns out to be this year, in a week’s time it will all be over. Because all good things do inevitably come to an end – that is the nature of our human condition.
So what are we to do?
C.S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, wrote :
‘If I find in myself a desire which no earthly experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world’.
But where might that other world be – where might our longing for infinite joy be eternally satisfied?
To answer that question it may help to consider this. Have you ever enjoyed a wonderful view from the top of a high mountain, or the waves as they crashed spectacularly against a rocky coastline? Have you ever marvelled at the night sky or been spellbound by a beautiful sunset as you headed home one evening? If you have, have you ever wanted that feeling of being caught up in something bigger and better than yourself to go on forever?
I have – and it felt good.
To enjoy such an experience is to acknowledge that true happiness comes, not from within ourselves, but from outside, not from being admired, but rather from admiring that which is truly admirable.
Because as John Piper says, ‘No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self esteem’. On the contrary, we go to the Grand Canyon to go ‘Wow’ and, what’s more, enjoy doing so!
And so it seems to me that to be infinitely and eternally happy we need something infinitely and eternally glorious to admire or, to put it another way, something infinitely and eternally glorious to worship.
And that something is, I believe, a someone – namely God himself.
King David says as much in Psalm 16 where in v11 he writes:
‘[O God,] You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.’
You want infinite joy? David says it’s found in the presence of God
You want everlasting pleasure? David says it’s found at God’s right hand.
The rescue that was heralded by the prophets of the Old Testament, that began with the arrival of Jesus at the first Christmas and was secured by his subsequent death and resurrection at the first Easter, will one day find its fulfilment when Jesus comes back. Advent is that season of the year when, as well as looking forward to Christmas, we anticipate Jesus return. Because whilst it’s good to remember Jesus’ first coming at Christmas, it’s better still to remember that one day he’s coming back.
For then we’ll see Jesus as he really is – and praise him as we really ought.
So then, if we’re looking for infinite and everlasting joy, let’s not put our hope in a few fun-filled days at the end of each December, pleasant though those days may be. Let’s not put our hope in our seventy or perhaps eighty years of life, for those years are soon gone and one day we will ‘bring our years to an end with a sigh’ [Psalm 90]. Instead let’s hope in God and the new heavens and new earth that he will establish when Jesus returns. Because this is a sure and certain hope, – one that will one day undoubtedly be realised!
Finally then, don’t misunderstand what I am saying here and imagine that I am encouraging a selfish pursuit of one’s own pleasure. Not at all. Nor am I suggesting that life for Christians should be trouble free – on the contrary, – life for Christians, just as it is for non Christians, is often hard – sometimes incredibly so. But Christians are, nonetheless, right to long for the infinite and everlasting joy that will one day be theirs when they finally know God in all his glorious splendour.
It’ll be like enjoying that wonderful view we thought of earlier – only more so. And it will be our delighting in God, marvelling at who he is and what’s he’s done, that will honour him so much more than our dutiful religious observance ever could.
So then, like the angels on that Bethlehem hillside, let us delight to give glory to God, like the shepherds tending their sheep, let us excitedly tell others of what we have seen, and like the wise men with their gifts, let us humbly bow down and worship Jesus Christ as the King of kings and Lord of lords that he truly is.
For with our past misdeeds forgiven and a bright hope for the future, we have every reason to do so.
*****
And so to a song. I did consider ‘When I’m 64’ by the Beatles, but decided that would be asking for trouble so I’ve opted instead for ‘Hakuna Matata’ that well known song from ‘The Lion King’ that I mentioned earlier. As you are probably aware, ‘Hakuna Matata’ means ‘No worries’ which, whilst making for a great little song, is a rather facile philosophy for this life if it’s not grounded in anything that can genuinely relieve us of our fears.
Even so, I’ve chosen it as today’s song because those who are ‘in Christ’ know that, since a day is coming when they will have ‘no worries’, there is a sense in which, despite genuine ongoing anxieties, they have nothing to worry about now.
I appreciate that sounds like a contradiction but it really isn’t and though a little complicated is all tied up in the very helpful theological framework known as “‘The Already’ and the ‘Not Yet’”. If you’re interested you can read about it here in something I wrote back in the days of the pandemic. Alternatively you can just enjoy the song!
DAY 23
HIGHLY FLAVOURED GRAVY
Let’s face it, giving birth to a baby is not easy – things don’t always go as one expects and even the most conscientiously prepared birth plan may serve only to provide some amusement for the medical team that has recently wheeled you down to theatre for a Caesarian section after you’d had the great misfortune of suffering a failed forceps delivery. And trust me on this one, yes that was a snigger you heard as the midwife left your room having just popped in to check whether your screams for an epidural mean that you’re no longer wanting to rely on the natural breathing techniques with which you had hoped to cope with your labour pain!
That said, some things on labour ward do have a funny side to them – I well remember the time my wife and I were left alone in our delivery room and we took it upon ourselves to try the gas and air. Oh how we laughed…
…and laughed…and laughed…and laughed!
But leaving all that aside for a moment, given how difficult it is to deliver a baby in the U.K. in 21st century, consider how much harder it must have been in first century Judea. Because, boy did Mary have it tough.
First there was the small matter of her finding herself pregnant never having had sex before. I was going to say ‘unexpectedly pregnant’ but, of course, it wasn’t unexpected at all, given that the angel Gabriel had told her how she would miraculously conceive the child. And even though she had a fiancée who, after an angelic visit himself, was as faith-filled as she was, she no doubt had to suffer the jibes of those who were, perhaps understandably, less believing than they ought to have been that neither Joseph, nor some other fellow, had been responsible for Mary’s ever expanding girth.
And then there was the journey she had to take from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Some suggest that this would have taken her and Joseph at least four days but, irrespective of exactly how long it took, travelling whilst heavily pregnant couldn’t have been much fun for a women in her third trimester, nor indeed, for the donkey on which she would almost certainly have sat!
Consider then the lack of pain relief and the far from ideal conditions in which Mary would actually have given birth. We don’t know for sure where she laboured but, given that there was no room for her in the inn and that her newborn child had to make do with a manger in which to lie down and sleep, I think we can safely say that, had it happened at Nonnatus House, Sister Julienne would not have been happy.
And that wasn’t the end of Mary’s problems either as, a few months later, together with Joseph and the infant, she had to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s clumsy attempt to have her child killed by murdering all the children in the area who were less than two.
So given how difficult it all was for Mary, it is somewhat surprising that she is described the way she was by Gabriel. Let me remind you of his first words to her:
‘Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!’, [Luke 1:28]
and, just in case Mary, or indeed we missed it, Gabriel reiterates the point with these words:
‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.’ [Luke 1:30]
What then are we to make of the fact that the one who is supposedly so favoured by God is the one who has such an unmistakably torrid time? Well many things I’m sure, but I’d like to suggest just two.
Firstly, those who become Christians should not expect a comfortable life. On the contrary, those who experience new life as a result of the Holy Spirit working in their lives, those who are born again into a new and living hope, should, like Mary, expect what Jesus himself said we should expect – namely, ‘tribulation’[John 16:33], which is a fancy Bible word meaning great trouble or suffering.
Because, as is all to plain to Christians who do suffer, the health, wealth and prosperity gospel, so beloved by TV evangelists, is an abomination. Don’t be misled – anyone who promises you that if you become a Christian you will experience your ‘best life now’ is selling you a false gospel. We should not listen to such lies but rather to Jesus himself, who promises us quite the opposite when he says:
‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ [Matthew 16:24].
Jesus is telling it as it is. Being a Christian, he says, is tough, it may even cost us our lives, as all but one of the disciples would one day discover. But having called us to die, Jesus, with his very next words, assures us that it will all be worth it in the end. He says:
‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ [Matthew 16:25].
And so, whilst in this life Christians will be grieved by various trials, they can nonetheless be comforted by the fact that in losing their life they will find it and one day discover the imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance that is waiting for them in heaven [1 Peter 1:4-6]. As such they know that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will one day be revealed to them. [Romans 8:18]
And secondly, the fact that Mary suffered despite her being greatly favoured by God, may help us to answer that age old question so often raised as an objection by those who cannot conceive of a God of love in a world characterised by so much pain and suffering. That question goes like this: ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’
The answer I believe is this: ‘So that good things can happen to bad people’. Because isn’t that the answer to why the worst possible thing happened to best possible person? Isn’t that why Jesus suffered and died on a cross?
Mary wasn’t perfect but she was a faithful believer in God. She suffered so that God could marvellously take on flesh and become a baby boy. And then, having grown up, the God-man went to the cross and there he suffered too. Why? So that the sins of the whole world could be forgiven.
And so the worst possible thing happened to the best possible person, so the best possible thing could happen to the worst possible people. People like the apostle Paul, who described himself as the chief of sinners, people like me who know themselves to be no better, and people like you, perhaps, who, no more deserving than the rest of us, can also experience the joy of being adopted into God’s family and know the warm embrace of a loving Heavenly Father.
Suffering then is real – but it’s not without meaning. Nor is it without purpose. As John Piper powerfully points out, if, as you’re walking through a hospital, you pass a room wherein comes the sound of someone screaming in pain, how you feel about what you’re hearing depends on whether that room is on an oncology ward or on a labour ward.
And so, just as the pain of childbirth ultimately gives way to the joy of new life, so too the pain and suffering of our day to day lives will one day give way to the inexpressible joy that befits a child of God.
Because Jesus’ death, to which Mary was herself an eyewitness and which was surely more painful for her than anything else she’d previously experienced, changes everything. For what she saw as she wept at the foot of the cross was the very thing that would one day ensure that her every tear would be wiped away. [Revelation 21:4]
And not only hers.
Mary was indeed highly favoured – and we who know and trust the child she bore, well we are highly favoured too.
*****
Easy choice for today’s song. Gabriel’s message, sung here by the Genesis 16.
DAY 24
THE CROSS
Some years ago at our daily get together over coffee, I announced to my former work colleagues how I was really rather enjoying Justin Bieber’s Christmas album. There followed an embarrassed silence, one that I did not fully understand until that evening when I got home and realised my mistake. I had confused my Justin Bieber’s with my Michael Bublé’s!
That was an embarrassing Christmas mistake, one that I was quick to put right the very next morning!
But it is not as big a mistake as the one that some might think I’ve been making this month by writing so much about my Christian faith. But in a world in which we are all too often encouraged to be strong, the reality is that in and of myself, strong is exactly what I’m not. From time to time life feels beyond me but my faith brings with it the realisation that, when I’m feeling overwhelmed it’s not all down to me. It gives me the encouragement I need to keep on in the face of ongoing difficulty and reminds me that hardships aren’t some kind of anomaly.
On the contrary they are to be expected. And when life itself is just too sad, it is my faith that gives me the assurance that even as we suffer and are sorrowful we can still hope and rejoice in the better future that I believe is surely coming, one in which every tear will be wiped away.
And so this Christmas, that time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I have been anxious to share good news. Not only because I find it helpful but because I believe it to be true. And so I am not ashamed of the gospel, believing it to be the power of God for salvation for those who believe. In other words I believe it has the power to make a real difference, not only in the lives of those who don’t yet believe it, but those who, like me, do but need to be constantly reminded of just how good the good news is.
So I’m going to embarrass myself one last time by saying that I really do believe the message that those angels brought to the shepherds that first Christmas night. I believe that the birth of a Saviour is good news ‘for all the people’, even for those of us who are worn out and exhausted. Indeed it is, perhaps, when life is at its hardest, when sadness and suffering are all around, that our need for Christmas and the hope it brings is most obvious.
So what exactly is meant by the ‘gospel’, a word that simply means ‘good news’? It is an important question to ask because the gospel is so often misunderstood, even by those who regularly attend church. Too many confuse the law with the gospel and end up believing that, to be right with God, they need to keep all of his commandments and only by being sufficiently successful in that endeavour will they earn their way into heaven.
Now don’t misunderstand what I am saying here – God’s law is good and, as well as repenting of the times we have wilfully ignored what it says and gone our own way, we should absolutely strive to keep its commands. But the gospel is the good news that God has done something to rectify the situation when we inevitably fail to do so.
Even so, many of us do seem intent on living a life of continuous struggle. And so, not content with trying to satisfy the just requirements of God’s law, we burden ourselves further by attempting to present ourselves as better than we really are to those whose love we crave. We live in a world that constantly demands that we are awesome. And what a burden this is for those of us who know how far short we fall, who recognise our weakness and our need for help.
With this in mind I have noticed lately a tendency for some to encourage friends who are facing great difficulties with the words ‘You’ve got this’. I don’t doubt that such expressions are well intentioned but I wonder how they are received by those who feel lost, confused and powerless, those who feel out of control and are all too well aware that they haven’t ‘got it’ at all. At such times, rather than being told that we can do what we know we can’t, how much better it would be to hear that what we need to do has already been done for us by somebody who really can?
And that, in short, is the gospel. The good news is that God has done what we can not.
But what exactly has God done? To some the answer may sound like foolishness, at least it did to those who, back in the first century when Paul was writing, considered themselves wise. But as the apostle wrote back then, ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men’ [1 Corinthians 1:25].
What Paul was referring to was the cross on which Jesus was crucified. For this was an act that, despite its apparent foolishness and weakness was the means by which God wisely chose to show his strength. For violent and bloody though it was, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the means by which the penalty that was rightly ours was paid. It was on the cross that a righteous God’s need for justice was satisfied, and our peace with God was secured.
The law then reveals to us what God demands – demands that we cannot keep however hard we try. In contrast, the gospel tells us that dispute our sinfulness, God loves us, and sent his son into the world to save us.
The gospel is the news that by living a perfect life, Jesus kept the law that we could not, it is the news that a great exchange has taken place such that we are robed in Christ’s righteousness even as our sinfulness is laid on Jesus, it is the news that, because Jesus allowed himself to be crucified in our place, bearing the punishment we deserved, we are counted right with God.
Some will indeed say this is foolishness, but it is through such apparent foolishness that we have been redeemed and a great salvation has been a secured, one that, as well as guaranteeing the forgiveness of our sins, promises a future devoid of sickness, sadness and death. [Revelation 21:4].
How then should we respond to this good news. A story Jesus once told might help. This is what he said in Luke 18:10-14.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus is describing two types of people. The Pharisees were the religious types who prided themselves on how well they kept the law. The one spoken of in this story seems particularly pleased with himself and clearly thinks God should be impressed by his performance. In contrast the tax collector, one of that group of people hated even more in Jesus’ day than they are in ours, recognises his sinfulness and, rather than trusting in his performance, appeals instead to God’s mercy and his willingness to forgive.
When Jesus says it was the tax collector who was justified, he is using a word that means that it was he who was counted right before God. And so you see what Jesus is saying – since nobody but Jesus himself was truly good, it is not by keeping the law that we are saved. On the contrary, rather than reaching a certain level of awesomeness, it is by humbling ourselves before God, by recognising our weakness and our need for mercy, that we are reconciled to the God who really does love us in the way we all so long for.
I for one am pleased that this is the case because I haven’t got what it takes. The truth is I haven’t ‘got this’ – but I am glad that God has. Perhaps you will consider it foolishness on my part, but rather than pretend that I can cope, I am content to leave things in the hands of the one who really does know what he’s doing. This doesn’t mean that everything in this life will necessarily work out the way I would like it to, after all, as the old hymn goes, ‘God works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform’. Even so, in difficult days it helps me to know that, because he is good and because he is strong, what God ultimately brings about really will be for the best, irrespective of how unfathomable current circumstances might sometimes be.
And I hope this Christmas, that this might help you too. For God really can be trusted and those who do will surely find that the foolishness of God really is wiser than the wisdom of man. God really does ‘have this’ and he has you too – safe in his everlasting arms.
This is the hope of Christmas.
***
So with all that said, it only leaves me to thank those of you who have stayed with me these last twenty four days, and to wish you all, irrespective of your current circumstances, the merriest of Merry Christmases and the happiest of Happy New Years.
Because, as I hope I’ve made plain, Christmas really can cheer the broken-hearted, and rest merry even the most downcast.
Now, how long is it till the 40 days of Lent!
*****
And so to our final song selection. I did consider choosing ‘I Wish It it Could Be Christmas Every Day’ because, in a way, one day it will be, only more so – because heaven will have none of the disappointments that inevitably characterise the Christmases we currently experience.
But in the end it had to be Slade’s classic form 50 years ago. So ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and, as the song suggests, ‘look to the future’ – because of Jesus, it really is going to be ALL right
Take it away Noddy!
CHRISTMAS DAY
THE HOLY BIBLE
The Lord God said to the serpent…”I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring[e] and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 3:15
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel
Isaiah 7:14
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration before Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them
Luke 2:1-20
Christ Jesus…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mark 15:33-39
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:4-6
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:24
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:3-6
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13
And you, who were dead in your trespasses …God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.
Revelation 21:1-4
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!.
Revelation 22:20
*****
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let Earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven, and Heaven, 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
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 of His love (and wonders of His love)
And wonders, wonders of His love
Some musings 