"A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices"

Possibly my favorite part of the Christmas season is this single Christmas song- O Holy Night.  Every year as I listen to and sing and meditate on and pray the words of this song, I find them more and more profound.

There honestly aren't many things about the Christmas season that I enjoy.  (My friends may or may not accuse me of being a Christmas scrooge, and I don't know much of anything about this movie character so I can't come up with a legitimate defense against such accusations.)  I just see SOOOO little evidence of this time being anything having to do with the thing that started it all.  I have a handful of really shitty Christmas memories, and dread the "Christmas traditions" each year.  I usually am hopeful that at least whatever church service we go to on Christmas eve will help redeem things... unfortunately it often doesn't.  Like last night.  We listened to a 20 minute sermon about nativity scene decor and the pastor's recent trip to Bethlehem.  But he bookended it on both sides by reading from Luke, so I guess that makes it a sermon.  Never mind the fact that there are a ton of people sitting there that need to hear the Gospel- including me- and/or be reminded that presents and decorations and food and all the bullshit our society has gotten us to think that Christmas is don't necessarily have anything to do with what it actually is.  The whole scene is set to share the Gospel, you just have to tell the story that we are supposedly celebrating.

One of the few things I look forward to every year is singing "O Holy Night" on Christmas eve.  Tonight, though, it was just an instrumental piece during the offering.  I cried tears of deep anger and sadness throughout the song.  I don't deny the beauty of the melody.  But the words are what make this song amazing.  They paint such a vivd picture of this weary world, trapped in sin and without hope... and then God breaks into humanity by becoming one of us.  A thrill of hope... a new and glorious morn... a new kingdom where love rules and oppression does not exist...  FALL ON YOUR KNEES!!!  Do you hear the angels rejoice?!?!?  CHRIST IS THE LORD!!!

THAT is what it is all about.  Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, came to save His people and set us free.  And the day is coming when He will judge in righteousness and all will finally recognize Him as the long-ago promised Messiah but it will be too late to want to start following Him.  The time to follow Him is now.  And Christmas made that possible.

There's a lot of really, really hard stuff this time of the year for a lot of us.  Suicide rates are high, psych wards are filling up, addiction is rampant, relational strife intensifies, poverty is highlighted in a way that causes profound shame, people are dying on the streets from the cold, the pain of lost loved ones is deep... we live in a world weary of it's own sin and error, held slaves to oppressive laws and systems.  This Savior is our only hope.  And Christmas is supposed to remind us of the simple and incomprehensible fact that He showed up.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! 

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!