Reflections on Advent Part 12

O Holy Night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

- Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure

translation - John Sullivan Dwight

Today I am taking a slight departure from the heart of the Christmas story itself, although I most assuredly will return to it.  I find my inspiration from the world around me and what I am seeing in God's word.  A few days ago, as I was finishing some grocery shopping I was drawn to the people around me.  Some went about their business with a pleasant step, greeting friends they knew as they went.  Others looked worn and haggard.  There seemed to be few that fit the in-between.  As a musician, it is not uncommon for my mind to be drawn to song lyrics, and yesterday was no exception.  The words to "O Holy Night" washed over me as I watched the crowds surrounding me and I recalled the line "a thrill of hope the weary world rejoices."

Yesterday, for the most part,  I indeed felt as though I was watching a weary world, a world in need of hope.  And is it any wonder?  This week, as usual, the media has reported a copious amount of bad news: yet another school shooting, a fire raging near Santa Barbara that has destroyed over 700 homes with no real hope of containment any time soon, an increasingly volatile North Korea shooting off another missile in an effort to flex its arm.  I personally have heard of smaller, more personal tragedies as well:  a family's loss of a son and a brother unexpectedly, someone suffering from a brain aneurysm, another battling cancer.  Truly we understand the weary world in sin and error pining.  It is our life.

The world in the days of Mary and Joseph, shepherds in the field at night and magi from the east was waiting for relief.  Relief from oppression.  Relief from poverty.  Relief from tragedies in abundance.  (Not unlike what we know, only without twenty-hour news networks reporting every detail the moment they are able to grab it.)  They set their hope on Messiah, promised long ago.  But surely in those days they were feeling a sense of hopelessness, too.  It had been 400 long years since God had brought them word of relief.  Four hundred years!  To give us a little perspective, keep in mind that Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World only a bit over 500 years ago.  Perhaps they were tired of waiting.  Perhaps they had given up hope that a Savior would actually show up.  Perhaps they figured they were just as well off working things out on their own.

Since Jesus showed up on the scene in a lowly manger not a whole lot has changed except, of course, we have heard directly from God Himself.  And not only have we heard from Him, He has laid down His life for us!  Hope!!!  Yet our bodies groan.  I am not more aware of this than I am right at this moment...the older I get the more familiar with decay I am.  And I know I'm not alone!  Paul knew this, I'm sure, when he tells the believers in Rome:

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to 

us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when 

God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all 

creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 

the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children 

in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all 

creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up 

to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though 

we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, 

for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. 

We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will 

give us our full rights as his adopted children.  Romans 8:18-23 NLT

Some 2000 years later and we are still waiting.  Some of us are waiting to be freed from a pain-consumed body.  Some of us are waiting to be freed from a pain-decimated mind.  Some of us desire to be freed from the sinful desires that overwhelm us.  Some of us simply want to be freed from an overwhelming schedule that seems to control way too much of our time.  And we groan.  We live in the now and the not yet.  We have available to us salvation as a result of a baby born in a manger who came to die for our sins.  Yet we have not yet escaped a world ravaged by sin in general.

Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure was not a particularly religious man when the parish priest in his small French town asked him to pen a poem for the annual Christmas Eve mass, nor was he afterward.  The popular carol was banned in European churches for almost two decades as a result.  But I believe de Roquemaure was divinely inspired when he wrote  "Cantique de Noel."  He recognized the sin-devastated human condition in lines such as  "till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth."  But he also recognized the worthiness of Christ and the uniqueness of His birth in the chorus:

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine
Oh night divine

Join the chorus in worship, O soul!!  This Christmas recognize that although we groan under the weight of a world broken by sin, we have hope!  There is a reason to worship.  Don't hold back or only pretend.  Let your heart be inspired by the Singer of the song.  He is worthy of our best!