Today’s
devotion highlights two carols: Will and
Ed’s favourite, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and from Colleen and Glen’s
household, The First Noel.
There
is something about a tune that sets the stage for the words. The tunes of these
two carols are quiet and lilting, haunting in places, and yet, have a sense of
moving forward, pulling singers and listeners into the scene.
*What
tunes or type of music calm you?
*Where
do you find peace and quiet?
And
what a scene. In a sleepy little village in the backwaters of the Judean countryside,
of no significance to the occupying Roman Empire, a neighbourhood is momentarily
upset by a pregnant traveling couple needing shelter and a midwife.
Unexpectedly the stars, the shepherds, the angels appear too. In the silence of
this tiny place, the baby’s birth showers the town with blessings, peace, and abiding
love.
The
author of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Rev. Phillips Brooks, wrote this carol
for his Sunday School, as a reflection of his experience visiting Bethlehem in
1865. He wished to convey to his
students, themes of peace and quiet – the quietness he found in Bethlehem. It
was a peace and quietness desperately needed as President Lincoln had recently
been assassinated and the Civil War drew to a close. At the time of Jesus’
birth – Bethlehem lay in stillness – with the larger world in turmoil, paying
no attention to the common events in a sleepy little town.
*Have
you imagined the nativity happening today?
*Where
is God born? How? Or in what form?
One
of my favourite books is “A Northern Nativity,” by Canadian artist
William Kurelek. As a 12 year old boy in the 1930’s, he experienced the hard
times of the Depression. Across the country people, especially men, traveled by
rail to find work, to be able to send money home to their families. People
begged for shelter, food, and relied on the kindness of strangers. At this time
William dreamed, muddling together Sunday School stories, geography lessons,
and the words of Christmas carols like Joy to the World. He came to the
question: “if it happened there, why not here? If it happened then, why not
now?’ “A Northern Nativity” is a book of his dreams turned into paintings,
where the nativity – Mary, Joseph, and Jesus- appear in corners of small-town
Canada: in an igloo, in the forest below the Parliament buildings, in a
fisherman’s shelter, a crib in a garage, on the floor of a grain elevator, at a
soup kitchen, in Mennonite buggy… The family is Inuit, white, First Nation,
Black, and are welcomed and not welcomed along the way.
*If
it happened there, why not here? If it happened then, why not now?
First
Noel continues the story combining the Gospel of Luke’s narrative - the
shepherds and angels – with the Gospel of Matthew’s narrative of the wisemen.
The wisemen took notice and went to great lengths to step out of the world and
search for peace and quiet, in a child.
The
First Noel has a special
message, one that is repeated over and over in the chorus. The angels, the
shepherds, and the wisemen are changed by their quiet encounter with the
Christ-child. They become the tellers of the experience.
Noel
is a word derived from the Latin word for news; it is like the call of a town
crier, “News! News!” “Noel! Noel!” For
many years, Christmas carols were passed along orally. This carol was not
transcribed until the early 1800s, after having been sung for a long time in
streets throughout Europe. It was popular because it was, and remains, a simple
message, easily remembered: news, news, Jesus (God) is born.
*Do
you share your experiences of God?
*Do
you quietly tell others that God is born? Do you share the ‘news’ of Christmas?
God
who loves the backwater towns and places of little significance to the world,
Usher
in and open our eyes to unexpected miracles in everyday places. May we welcome
the stranger -the holy family, find peace and quietness, and tell the news that
you have come.
Amen.
Links
to the carols:
O
Little Town of Bethlehem - https://youtu.be/qbAUABvXS8k
The
First Noel - https://youtu.be/tR_wsglKsiY
No comments:
Post a Comment