Hearing the Music

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

And so begins the Advent season! Just like that we move from Thanksgiving into Advent, the season of preparation for the coming of Christ. During this time, we remember the story of Israel longing for a Messiah to liberate her from sin, exile, and oppression. We sing and remember how Christ came to this earth a first time as a human infant to carry out this mission. Even as we focus on his first coming, Advent helps us remember that, like Israel, we too await the full and final liberation from sin and death that Jesus will accomplish when he returns for the second and final time. 

Perhaps no chapter is more suited to Advent than Isaiah 40. This chapter, that begins the second part of Isaiah’s prophetic work, focuses squarely on the promise of deliverance for an exiled people. It is these words that G.F. Handel famously begins his Messiah with, leading with several minutes of glorious strains carrying the promise of this prophecy that points to the coming of the Jesus, the promised Messiah. It is this chapter that will hold our attention for the next month as we begin with God speaking tenderly to his people and climax with the promise that those who wait on the Lord will mount on wings like eagles, they shall run, even in exile, and not grow weary! (Isaiah 40:31).

I look forward to scaling these heights with you. Once again we will be uniting congregationally online, in the parking lot, or in person at one of our 3 morning services (note we have halted our evening service for the foreseeable future). Also we will once again be continuing our deeper reflection on these verses throughout the week with our prepared devotionals or sign up here to have them delivered to your email Monday through Friday.

Friends, these may be days of hard service, but every valley shall be exalted and every high place shall be brought low, and a highway shall appear in the desert, and we shall see HIM!

That the World May Know

While this Christmas Season has had a few less shopping/getting ready/cram-it-all-in days than usual, I find myself more taken, more excited, more anticipatory than normal. Perhaps it has been the focus on Glory and the opportunity to remember that in a world of impeachment, of suffering, of wars, of so much banality; there is something that is truly transcendent!  And the glory of the Lord shone around them ...

Perhaps it is the thought for this Sunday that is capturing my heart. This Sunday we will allow our hearts to be pricked with the idea that this Glory has been shared with us, that we may live it out that the world may know the One who was sent by the Father: The glory that you have given me (Jesus) I have given to them (disciples/us), that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:22–23).

Or maybe it is this overwhelmingly wondrous truth that we will be savoring Christmas Eve, namely, that because Jesus came as the Savior of the world we are promised an entrance into the eternal Glory forever. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, [25] to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen (Jude 24–25).

Friends, the glory, majesty, dominion and authority of the Peasant King born in a stable truly transforms our world and brings color to our view of it. May your hearts be full and may the joy of the Lord be your strength!

Let's Party

’Tis the season of the Christmas party. We have parties at the office, parties in the neighborhood, parties with close family, and parties with extended family. Parties that we are glad to go to, as well as a few that feel like a chore. Why so many parties? From a secular perspective it is about the here and now, a festal time to pause our work rhythms and celebrate a little. From a Christian perspective, we know what we are celebrating. We celebrate the greatest gift ever given. Christ has taken on flesh to dwell among us, and to redeem a people for Himself!

One thing I try to remember in this party season is that every party is a precursor to the party that is prepared for us by our God and Savior.  Listen to what God says through the prophet Isaiah: On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isaiah 25:6–9)

As children of God, all of our Christmas parties are a reminder that we are headed for the greatest party ever thrown! There will be no sadness or tension. We will all be delighted to be there and delighted with one another! The food and libations will be like none we have ever experienced. And all this because the Lamb will be in our midst, He will be the life of the party! We will be caught up in His Glory!

This week we will look at John 2 and John 11 as we contemplate what it means that Glory is unleashed in the person of Jesus. We will be drawn in to the power of Glory and what it means for the story that we are in. And while it may be true that our parties are like an acorn compared to the oak of The Party to come, may our senses explode with the fullness of a life in Christ! "This is the LORD; we (are waiting) for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

_{Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash}