Light In the Darkness
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Scripture:
Luke 2:1-16
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. Read more…
Isaiah 9:2-7
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
I’m writing this after spending time putting together song books for our Christmas Eve Carols in the Park. One of the things that really struck me as I was typing out all the lyrics for this year’s event, was the way so many of them manage to tell the Christmas story as a multi-layered story. They tell the story of the baby born in a manger. But they also tell the story of God’s redemption of and reconciliation with humanity. They speak to the meta-narrative of Scripture – the grand, overarching story of history that began with creation. One of the carols that best captures this multi-layered meaning, in my mind, is O Holy Night. Take a moment to read through the words of the first verse of that carol:
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
That’s the Christmas story. The first layer.
Long lay the world, in sin and error pining,
Till he appeared and the soul felts its worth.
It’s the historical context of the Christmas story, for sure.
But does it not also speak to the entirety of history up to that point?
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
These words take us beyond just history, to the point of that first Christmas.
The weary world… If that doesn’t capture the end of 2021 I don’t know what does. We are weary – of disease, of inequity, of racism, of violence, of conspiracies, of selfishness… the list goes on and on. But Christmas speaks into that weariness.
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is another carol that speaks hope into a weary world. Read these words out loud if you can:
Still through the cloven skies they [the angels] come
With peaceful wings unfurled.
And still their heavenly music floats o’er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains they bend on hovering wing.
And ever o’er its Babel sounds [remember the story from Genesis 11?]
the blessed angels sing.
This year I find myself feeling particularly cognizant of our need for hope in our weary world. I find myself particularly aware of our global need for a Saviour – not just from this unending pandemic, but from everything that’s wrong and broken in our world.
On Sunday we’re going to be celebrating Christmas together. We’ll be reading the Christmas story as well as some traditional passages from the Old Testament. And we’ll be singing Christmas carols. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time with the words of one or two traditional Christmas carols (the kind that speak about Jesus, not the kind that talk about Santa Claus and Christmas trees). Read them out loud or, even better because it’ll slow you down even further, write them out. What might God be trying to say to you through these words?