Sounds of the Season - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Welcome! It’s December the 8th, and we’re continuing with our very first Redeemer Digital Advent Calendar! This year, in the lead up to Christmas, we’ll be producing daily content which we hope blesses you, encourages you, and reminds you of the hope that we can celebrate this Christmas!

We’re continuing today with the second of 4 Advent blogs which will be released every Tuesday until Christmas and will make up a series called ‘Sounds of the Season’. Each week we will be taking the opportunity to appreciate the deeper meaning behind Christmas music, with a focus on a specific Christmas carol that helps to shed light on the true meaning of this Christmas season.

Today, we look at another classic carol - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen! You can hear a version below.

Sheep have amazing hearing. In fact, one of the first ways a lamb associates itself with its mother is by learning her voice. Though they have poor depth perception when it comes to sight, they can recognise their shepherd’s call from far off. We are the sheep of God’s pasture, and we are called to hear his voice and to follow his lead, including proclaiming the good news of Jesus to the people he sends us to.

Unto certain Shepherds….

This is exactly what the angels did in Luke 2:8-20, a passage of scripture described in the second verse of today’s carol - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds 
Brought tidings of the same: How that in Bethlehem was born The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy 

The angels came and declared the incredible news of Jesus’ birth, not to the emperor Caesar, or even to King Herod, but instead to lowly shepherds.

Shepherds appear in the bible in many places, and their status changes throughout biblical history, from being an “abomination to the Egyptians” in Genesis 46:34, to a shepherd being anointed king with the selection of David by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:11). Krish Kandiah’s 2017 article “God Turns Up in All the Wrong Places at Christmas” describes shepherds as “considered untrustworthy and regarded as unclean…homeless strangers”. We however are called, as the angels were, to share the good news of Jesus with whoever God calls us to.

The Lost Sheep

The angels visit to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth is not the only appearance of shepherds in the book of Luke. In Luke 15:1-7, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, reminding those listening (as well as those reading his words 2000 years later), that in God’s role as our shepherd, her seeks us out when we have gone astray.

Shepherds are not just used by God as an example of those to whom the message of Christmas must be told, but also as those through which the reason for Christmas is revealed. God couldn’t let us go astray, but he sent Jesus that we might be found and brought back to him.

So what role will shepherds play in your story of Christmas this year? 

Perhaps you are challenged to reach out to those who the rest of society might be ignoring this Christmas, and reveal to them something of the true message of this time of year.

Or, perhaps you feel like the lost sheep, and you realise this Christmas might be an opportunity to come home.

However you feel right now, know that the Good Shepherd is calling you. Listen out for his voice.

Redeemer Advent Calendar Blog - Sounds of the Season!

Welcome! It’s December the 1st, and the start of our very first Redeemer Digital Advent Calendar! For the next 24 days in the lead up to Christmas, we’ll be producing daily content which we hope blesses you, encourages you, and reminds you of the hope that we can celebrate this Christmas!

We’re starting off the month with the first of 4 Advent blogs which will be released every Tuesday until Christmas and will make up a series called ‘Sounds of the Season’. Each week we will be taking the opportunity to appreciate the deeper meaning behind Christmas music, with a focus on a specific Christmas carol that helps to shed light on the true meaning of this Christmas season.

Today, we begin with an old favourite - Hark the Herald Angels Sing! You can hear a version below.

Pleased as man with man to dwell…

When we sing this carol together every Christmas as we get to verse 3 there is a specific line that sticks out to me - “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity. Pleased as man, with man to dwell…” This is one of the most incredible truths of the Christmas story, that God himself came to dwell with us. How do we know this? It’s written into his very name - Immanuel, that means God with us! We read in Matthew 1:22-23, a recalling of the prophecy brought by Isaiah and which we can read in Isaiah 7 & 8. In the book of Isaiah, the arrival of Immanuel signals temporary salvation for the people of Judah, but we know that the arrival of Jesus means salvation is available to all people! God became man, that we might be eternally saved from sin and death.

What does that mean?

The question for us today is how do we live out this salvation here on earth, how does our eternal hope influence our life right now?!

One thing we do is we honour and care for our own bodies! Christmas is often a time of indulgence, and though I’m not saying we should ditch our Christmas dinner, it is important to remember that we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and that we bear the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), it’s important that we look after ourselves physically.

It’s equally important that we choose to honour and care for others. We are called as his disciples to follow the example of Jesus, to be his presence here on earth. Let’s seek this Christmas to be a voice for the voiceless, to care for the vulnerable, victims of abuse, and to meet the needs of those who would otherwise go without. As we celebrate our own rescue from brokenness, we are called to care for others who are broken (James 1:27).

Another thing we are called to do as followers of Christ, is to speak truth in situations where it needs to be heard. There is a tendency in our culture today to think of the spiritual as separate from every day life, but as we sing of Jesus’ coming as a baby, to dwell with us, we are reminded that God wants our relationship with him to impact every aspect of our lives.

We were made for close connection

In 2013, a World Health Organisation study concluded that skin-to-skin contact between a mother and her baby led to increased connection between the two, better feeding, and more robust physiological development.

This is a scientific way of making the point that we were designed to have close connection with the one who made us. We believe as Christians that this means more than just close relationship with our earthly parents, but that we are made for intimacy with our heavenly Father. We are brought near to him in and through Christ! (John 17:22-23)

The TV show Undercover Boss features a CEO disguising themselves as a regular member of staff, and interacting with people at their company they would never normally meet. It is always interesting to see the realisation that though they are leading these people, they don’t truly know them at all. This is not how God loves us, he did not send Jesus simply to observe us, he came to serve, to dwell with us, and to restore us to relationship with our heavenly father.

This Christmas as we sing this carol let’s remember again the wonder that God came to dwell with us.

#RedeemerRecommends Upside Down Advent!

Turn Advent UPSIDE DOWN. 

In the run up to Christmas I was struck by an idea floating on the Web.  

A REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/family/547633/reverse-advent-calendar 

Instead (or as well as) opening an advent calendar door each morning for a piece of chocolate to munch with your cereal flakes of choice, create a collection for someone struggling to make ends meet this Christmas.  

Each day in the run up to Christmas, put aside a staple food item or something a little more festive.  And before Christmas hand it to a local food bank or a charity supporting the homeless to be passed on to someone who may not be anticipating a happy Christmas time. 

Go to https://www.trusselltrust.org/what-we-do/ for more ideas of the best items to include and to find your local foodbank.  

If you're in Ealing go to https://ealing.foodbank.org.uk

You can even hand it in at your local supermarket - Tesco's in Ealing is collecting.