Today’s
devotion brings our reflections on beloved Christmas carols to a close. Thank
you to everyone who shared their thoughts and memories. Thank you to readers
and those who have sent private notes of gratitude and further memories.
The
carols In the Bleak Mid-winter and Of the Father’s Love Begotten are
set to tunes that are pensive. The carols’ words reflect on profound mysteries and
proclamations of theology.
The
Christmas season bridges one calendar year to the next. In Canada, the weather
is winter cold, precipitation, and wind. It is a time to ‘hibernate,’ to curl
up by the fire with a blanket, and a mug of one’s favourite hot drink. There is
time to pause and reflect.
*As
one year transitions to the next, do you reflect on the year past, and/or make
goals for the coming year?
*Do
you reflect on your year’s faith journey? Do you take stock of your hope-stores?
*This
past year, what did you discover about God?
*Consider
the health of your relationship with God.
Approaching
a new year with Advent/Christmas themes still ringing in our ears, makes for an
auspicious time to ‘repent’ – to turn around- to hit the reset button. Emmanuel,
Hope, love, peace, and joy – are present, sitting within, waiting to address life’s
big questions of purpose and meaning. They speak to hearts inviting people to
approach life from a counter-cultural perspective. To consider that one is part
of something far weightier than themselves and day to day situations.
These
carols are weighty.
Ian
Bradley (theologian and hymnologist) questions the theology of the carol, In
the Bleak Mid-winter, asking, “is it right to say that heaven cannot hold
God, nor the earth sustain, and what about heaven and earth fleeing away when
he comes to reign?” Singing, Of the Father’s Love Begotten, one does not
get past the title, without a dose of theology; followed by a text that
expresses much of the Nicene Creed – tackling the mystery of Trinity and
matters of Christ being both divine and human.
The
Gospel for Christmas Day is John 1. This is John’s ‘Christmas Story.’ There are
no shepherds, angels, or wise men. The narrative is not earthly. The narrative
is cosmic! In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God. This theology opens many paths for contemplation. It takes
one outside the earthiness of the stable and directs attention to that which is
beyond human understanding. Acceptance of weightier matter offers freedom,
freedom from bondage to self, to circumstance, to what others think. Contemplation
on ‘in the beginning was the word’ births elements of the cosmic – transcendence,
awareness, awe, and gratitude- into the very nature of human life.
*Do
you find it helpful to describe Christ as cosmic? To express God in terms of an
expansive Great Mystery?
*In
2023, what would you like to explore about God?
*What
theological question would you like to ponder?
*How
does the experience of transcendence, awareness, awe, and/or gratitude change
you and how you live?
Holy
and Cosmic,
With
awe we contemplate mysteries beyond our understanding. Birth in us freedom from
all that keeps us in bondage. Birth in us gratitude and a thirst for
contemplation on weighty matters. May 2023 be a year of renewed relationship
with Emmanuel. Amen.
Link
to In the Bleak Mid-winter https://youtu.be/PuDpOWPf7_g
Of
the Father’s Love Begotten https://youtu.be/n7YN97P72Rs
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