.jpg)
Nativity
Light Manifest
Shade and Darkness - the Evening of the Deluge
Expectation, Richard Oelze (1935-36)
Moses Before the Burning Bush, Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
The Creation of the World, Gabriel Cohen (1979)The light of Christmas shines into our darkness! We should be the walking dead. What we deserve, in fact, is the absence of God - a cold and cosmic isolation - for this is our sin, that we chose to be gods in the place of God. In the day we disobeyed we began to die. We should, therefore, be dwelling in a land of deep darkness, mistrust, hatreds, hopelessness, finality and death.
But here in a child comes God, the light! And light in darkness in a frightening thing. ("People loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" John 3:19.) O my friend, a self-examination both humble and true must cause us to tremble before the living God... But even as we feared, so do we rejoice when we hear the light say, "Don't be afraid. I have not come to punish but to give you life...I am the Savior born for you."
(Preparing for Jesus: Meditations on the Coming of Christ, Advent, Christmas and the Kingdom, pp. 60-61)
I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving power...our temptation is to be distracted by them. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence - the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children , the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends - I will always remain tempted to despair.
The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream and overwhelm us with its claims and promises.
(Advent & Christmas Wisdom From Henri J. M. Nouwen, p. 2)
The celebration of the season of Advent (which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas day) dates back to the fourth century. It is a time that focuses our attention on Jesus Christ’s birth and ministry as well as his Second Coming when he will return to redeem all of creation and rule with all power and authority. Since we can’t anticipate the day or the hour of Christ’s return, we are filled with both a sense of joyful expectation and humble reverence, with our spiritual focus being on lives of prayer and preparation. The church has used the season of Advent (which means “coming” or “arrival”) to focus and reflect on the particular themes of John the Baptist’s preparation for the ministry of Christ, the annunciation to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus, Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, and the final judgment. Throughout the season we are constantly reminded that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.Please join me in preparing our hearts for His threefold advent - past, present and future.
We worship God because God created us to worship him. Worship is at the center of our existence, at the heart of our reason for being. God created us to be his image—an image that would reflect his glory. In fact, the whole creation was brought into existence to reflect the divine glory...
...When the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches us, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever," it gives witness to this same basic principle; God created us to worship him. . . . Worship must above all serve the glory of God.
Some people today justify worship for any number of other reasons. We are told that we should worship because it brings us happiness. Sometimes worship does make us happy, but not always. We are told that we should worship because it will give us a sense of self-fulfillment. Surely worship does fulfill the purpose of our existence, but we do not worship BECAUSE it brings us self-fulfillment. We are often told that we should worship in order to build family solidarity: "The family that prays together stays together." The priests of the Canaanite fertility religions said much the same thing. All kinds of politicians have insisted on participation in various religious rites in order to develop national unity or ethnic identity. Queen Elizabeth I was not the first or the last who tried to consolidate her realm by insisting that the worship be in some way English. One can always find medicine men and gurus who advocate religious rites for the sake of good health, financial success, or peace of mind. True worship, however, is distinguished from all of these in that it serves, above all, the praise of God's glory.
— Hughes Oliphant Old, WORSHIP: REFORMED ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, Revised and Expanded Edition, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002, pp. 1-2. ISBN 0-664-22579-9.
...Our talent and expertise are not what we rely on to draw people to Christ. It’s the gospel, proclaimed and demonstrated through a group of ordinary believers who have an extraordinary Savior. It’s our humility, joy, servanthood, power, integrity, and love, all produced by our relationship with a risen Savior.
As Paul put it, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:2-5)
If you click on the banner you'll find an excellent resource for meditative prayer using music and Scripture which is provided by the Jesuits in Britain. The great thing is, you can podcast or download an entire week's worth of prayer and take it with you wherever you go.
Here's a description of the podcast...
Each file (one for each day of the work week) is about 10-13 minutes long. It begins with bells as a call to prayer and then moves to an appropriate piece of music to begin to focus on God. After a time a Scripture is read followed (with space) by questions for meditation. The Scripture is read a second time followed by further questions. Finally, after more space the prayer concludes with the Gloria Patri.
Some days are better than others but one of the things I appreciate most about Pray As You Go is that it gives some direction to my prayer times which is especially helpful during seasons when I'm not quite sure what to pray. I also enjoy the opportunity it provides to be still in the Word even in the midst of a crazy day. Here are a couple of sample posts that I have found particularly helpful just in the last few weeks.
10.07.2008 - reflection on distraction and worry
10.13.2008 - reflection on prayer
Listen...be still...and enjoy.
Morning Addendum:
Every now and then Pray As You Go will use music from a contemporary band for the meditation. Sometimes it works and and sometimes it doesn't. Usually, those are the podcasts that I personally don't find as satisfying as others. All that said, I find it ironic that the day I encourage you to check out this resource is a day that a somewhat mediocre rock song is used. So, at least for this morning, try one of the samples that I posted above as I think it's a better entré into the series.
Though riches come and riches go,...and encourages the struggling soul to persevere in seeking the future grace of a life lived for Christ.
don't set your heart upon them;
the fields of hope in which I sow
are harvested in heaven.
For God has cheered our hearts and minds through His dear Son, whom He gave for us to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. He who believes this earnestly cannot be quiet about it. But he must gladly and willingly sing.Another thing I like about Luther's quote is that his delight lies first in God (as well as a right understanding of all He is for us in Christ) and then in music. God has given music to us for His glory. I think it is very important to understand the distinction of music being a gift lest we fall into an idolatry of music itself. If we find ourselves unable to engage our hearts with God unless there is music (or even a preferred music style) then we are replacing the gift with the giver. Harold Best tells us, "it is only when being moved by music is coupled to a preceding passion for God that we are truly moved."
I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God...
This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.
However, when man's natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.
(Martin Luther, 1538, in his foreword to a collection of chorale motets)
Music and singing are necessary to Christian faith and worship for the simple reason that the realities of God and Christ, creation and salvation, heaven and hell are so great that when they are known truly and felt duly, they demand more than discussion and analysis and description; they demand poetry and song and music. Singing is the Christian's way of saying: God is so great that thinking will not suffice, there must be deep feeling; and talking will not suffice, there must be singing.Piper goes on to unpack Ephesians 5:17-20 giving 6 statements on what the passage has to say about corporate worship. Go and read the whole sermon. It's a great reminder of the importance of singing and music in the life of church and the Christ follower. You'll find the link to the text in sermon title above.
