Tis the Season?Some Fascinating Music Videos

Here are some music videos and their accompanying links:




Christmas Flash Mob by Journey of Faith at South Bay Galleria - official video





Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See! - YouTube


It seems that this is the one time of year when such things are counted as permissible, perhaps even to be encouraged.

But then, tradition is nearly always counted as valuable and acceptable, especially if it helps to foster merriment and good cheer so that people are thinking of “giving,” which translates to purchasing.

Yet the heart does rejoice to hear that the Gospel is proclaimed, even if only for a brief season and often with tradition and marketing as the motivation.  The Gospel is nevertheless briefly broadcast to fall upon the various kinds of soil, where perhaps it will sprout and take root and flourish for a precious few souls.




Joy to the World Christmas Food Court Flash Mob! - Must See!


How many people notice that this common use of this hymn or carol is truncated to omit the third stanza?  How many people even know the third stanza?  Though this video is offered by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, they make no mention of the stanza that explains the reason for this marvelous “Joy to the World.”

Here is the entire hymn:

1. Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
 Let earth receive her King;
 Let every heart prepare Him room
 And heaven and nature sing.

 2. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
 Let men their songs employ,
 While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
 Repeat the sounding joy.

 3. No more let sins and sorrows grow
 Nor thorns infest the ground;
 He comes to make His blessings flow
 Far as the curse is found.

 4. He rules the world with truth and grace
 And makes the nations prove
 The glories of His righteousness
 And wonders of His love.

Why is there cause for this wondrous Joy to the World?  It is because in Christ there is no more sin, the cause for sorrow and the curse that God placed upon the ground for Man’s sake.  In Christ, the Lamb who takes the sin of the world has come.  In Christ the curse, while still evident to remind us of the need for the repentance that the Holy Spirit works, no longer has power to bring us low and make us sad.  For in Christ we have redemption and justification and sanctification.

But people prefer to omit this stanza because apart from Christ there is no true Joy to the World because apart from Christ the curse still rules.  And so they embrace only the notion of the hope for joy, joy that is a fleeting emotion that must be conjured up through hyperbolic emotional facades.  Singing of carols without thought as to their meaning; bright lights on trees and the eves of the houses; flying reindeer and fat jolly old men in red suits farcically saying “Ho! Ho! Ho!” while the cameras flash and little children are urged into deeper delusions of self-gratification and lust for toys and other gifts of mammon, all these are promoted for the sake of fleeting moments of feeling happy without considering the cause of unhappiness in the world for which the Christ is come into the world to remove.

Perhaps the saddest realization of all is that this is done also in the churches, where the pure Gospel is supposed to be preached with the true Joy to the World that is realized only through the change of heart and mind that we commonly call repentance.

So, for those who know the true source of Joy to the World it is indeed proper to

Repeat the sounding joy:

 No more let sins and sorrows grow
 Nor thorns infest the ground;
 He comes to make His blessings flow
 Far as the curse is found.
 Far as the curse is found.
 Far as, far as, the curse is found.

After all, this is what the world most needs to hear, is it not, so that this joy may indeed be made known to the world?





Musical Interruption - Carol Of The Bells - Must See Christmas Video!


Wikipedia has a brief history of Carol of the Bells.


At Lyrics Carol of the Bells the full text of this very popular and merry song are available.  This again is fleeting hyperbole, but it does indeed move the heart, mind and spirit to momentary feelings of joy.


Certainly even such shallow songs can be of benefit in lifting the spirits of souls that are in need of upliftment.  But if this is all that people embrace, the emotional drop that occurs after the hype has ended can be devastating.  Such hyperbole has to be pursued continually and in the end has no real power to overcome the curse, only presenting a delusional momentary sense of escape.

In awareness of this some have taken songs like this one and have rewritten them to try to Christianize them and give them a more sanctified appearance.

One example is this one sung by the Ray Conniff Singers:

Ring, Christmas bells, Merrily ring,
Tell all the world Jesus is King!
Loudly proclaim
With one accord,
The happy tale;

Welcome the Lord!
Ring, Christmas bells,
Sound far and near,
The birth day of Jesus is here.
Herald the news
To old and young,
Tell it to all
In ev'ry tongue.
Ring, Christmas bells,
Toll loud and long,
Your message sweet
Peel and prolong.
Come, all ye people,
Join in the singing,
Repeat the story
Told by the ringing. Ring!
Christmas bells, Ring,
Christmas bells.
Loudly proclaim Ring!
Christmas bells. Ring!
With one accord,
The happy tale;
Welcome the Lord!
Ring, Christmas bells,
Ring, Christmas bells,
Merrily ring,
Tell all the world Jesus is King!

Another example is Michael W. Smith - Christmastime :

This lovely sounding song is yet another attempt to make Christmas merry through music.  The lyrics at Christmastime Lyrics - Michael W. Smith are nevertheless lacking in any real substance concerning the cause for Christmastime to be merry.  Apart from the real reason for the birth of Jesus to the world, His rule as King is a terrifying thing.  People turn to Jesus as King with the false notion that they are able to make Him King in their hearts and lives.  And so they find themselves trapped in charismatic hyperbole that they seek after all their lives.  They find a sense of peace for as long as they are able to convince themselves that they actually do honor Jesus as their King and Lord.  However, their own awareness of their sinfulness cannot be forever suppressed.  This leads to despair, sometimes even suicide.

But Jesus comes as a very different King than people choose to make Him.  He comes not with bright lights and flashy glory.  He comes not in hyperbolic singing.  He comes not through the giving of toys and presents from Santa under a glistening tree.  Neither does He come with demands to be worshiped.

Rather, Jesus comes as the King who gives Himself for us.  He comes through the humble vessel of a bloody womb, blood from which He Himself had to be cleansed and purified, the blood of Mary’s sin that she inherited from Adam, the same sin that inheres in our flesh.  He comes at the end of His ministry among the Jews humbly riding on an ass, even the foal of an ass, being carried as the King who is the final sacrifice for the sin of the world.

Today He comes to those who gather to receive Him according to His promise to give His very body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.  There He comes under the true Christ Mass gifts of bread and wine that we bring to His Table and He blesses with His gift of Himself in His true body and blood of our salvation and regenerated life in His Holy Communion.

Here is encountered the King of Glory offering us His gifts under the tree of salvation, a tree where the garland is a crown of thorns beaten deeply into  His bleeding scalp, a tree where the only light shining is the light of His love for sinful mankind and the glint that shines from His bright blood flowing down the trunk of the cross, blood shining with His own life that flows for the life of all who will be baptized into Him.

This King comes not to demand that we make Him King of our hearts and lives, but to enter into us through His means of grace to make His home our hearts, not by our choice and not by our commitment to Him, but by His choice and His commitment to us.  He pours Himself out to us and into us and as He creates faith in us, He begins to rule our hearts and minds through the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.  Then we finally know the Joy to the World that He comes to bring.  Then we realize that the curse is but God’s gracious call to stop seeking to make Jesus Lord so that we may receive Him as He comes to us as the one who truly is Lord of all.  Then our Joy no longer is something that we must produce through hyperbole, but the heavenly gift of Jesus who comes to us and produces in us what we cannot produce for ourselves.

Then our emotions are not the cause of our joy but merely reflections of the Joy who is come to the world to redeem the world and save the world from the curse of sin in the world.

Thus this season of Advent is a truly wonderful time of preparation for the celebration of the Christ Mass and these Advent hymns proclaim that for which we expectantly await:

"Come, Thou Precious Ransom, Come"

1. Come, Thou precious Ransom, come,
Only Hope for sinful mortals!
Come, O Savior of the world!
Open are to Thee all portals.
Come, Thy beauty let us see;
Anxiously we wait for Thee.

2. Enter now my waiting heart,
Glorious King and Lord most holy.
Dwell in me and ne'er depart,
Though I am but poor and lowly.
Ah, what riches will be mine
When Thou art my Guest Divine!

3. My hosannas and my palms
Graciously receive, I pray Thee;
Evermore, as best I can,
Savior, I will homage pay Thee,
And in faith I will embrace,
Lord, Thy merit through Thy grace.

4. Hail, hosanna, David's Son!
Help, Lord, hear our supplication!
Let Thy kingdom, scepter, crown,
Bring us blessing and salvation,
That forever we may sing:
Hail, hosanna! to our King.

"Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel"

1. Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

2. Oh, come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

3. Oh, come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

4. Oh, come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home:
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

"Once He Came in Blessing"

1. Once He came in blessing,
All our ills redressing;
Came in likeness lowly,
Son of God most holy;
Bore the cross to save us,
Hope and freedom gave us.

2. Still He comes within us,
Still His voice would win us
From the sins that hurt us;
Would to Truth convert us
From our foolish errors
Ere He comes in terrors.

3. Thus, if thou hast known Him,
Not ashamed to own Him,
But wilt trust Him boldly
Nor dost love Him coldly,
He will then receive thee,
Heal thee, and forgive thee.

4. He who thus endureth
Bright reward secureth.
Come, then, O Lord Jesus,
From our sins release us;
Let us here confess Thee
Till in heaven we bless Thee.

Yes, indeed!  Tis the Season!

God bless us every one!

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It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

     “It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” argh!  Argh!  ARGH!  I really dislike this song.

     However, as I heard it play on the radio today I realized how true it is.  It really does describe very accurately how Christmas looks.

     It really does look very much like when the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  Who realized then the great miracle that the Lord was working as the Word was being made flesh to save us?  With all of the hustle and bustle of Caesar’s decree, with all of the business to transact, with all of the family affairs to conduct, who was really noticing the birth of the promised Seed of salvation?

     Who had room for the Lord? Who had room for the holy family?

     Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

     This year I heard the first so-called Christmas song on the radio already before the end of October.  This week I heard a radio announcer say, “In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Christmas season.”

     We have not even concluded the Trinity season.  Advent does not begin till this Sunday.  The Christmas season does not begin until the Christ Mass.

     But how many people care anymore?  For most people the season of Christmas is over when the presents under the tree have been opened.  The day that the season begins is the day that people cast aside their notions of Christmas.

     The season of Advent, the season of preparation for the blessed coming of the Lord to save the world from sin, that wonderful season is counted as a time for buying and selling.

     Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

   

     And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.  (Luke 2:1-7)

     Nevertheless, both at that time as well as today, a few have had a different view of Christmas.  Even today a few do grasp the meaning of this first Advent of the Christ.  Yes, a few are glad for the season of Advent and its wonderful focus upon our great need for the gift of salvation that was nurtured within the womb of the virgin and delivered to the world wrapped in swaddling cloths. For a season the holy catholic Church falls to her knees, confessing her great need for the forgiveness that the child born of Mary would purchase with His lifeblood.

     Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  It has always been a tiny few who understood and were gathered by the Spirit to the means that the Lord has ordained for the imparting of His grace to those who have gathered to receive it.  As most look elsewhere for meaning and hope and purpose and goodwill, the saints humbly gather to the one place that it is readily accessible and they do receive that which their hearts desire.

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Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

How many more times will this be played or sung? Argh!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Lyrics

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

So...You better watch out,
You better not cry
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Little tin horns,
Little toy drums.
Rudy-toot-toot
and rummy tum tums.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Little toy dolls
that cuddle and coo,
Elephants, boats
and Kiddie cars too.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

The kids in Girl and Boy Land
will have a jubilee.
They're gonna build a toyland town
all around the Christmas tree.

Oh....You better watch out,
You better not cry.
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is comin'
Santa Claus is comin'
Santa Claus is comin'
To town.

I hate this song. It teaches the exact opposite of the spirit of Christmas. Rather than the comfort and joy of God’s grace it teaches that one must make oneself righteous. Moreover, because all children know that what it demands is impossible, it teaches that holiness is but an illusion.

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

This makes me angry when I hear it. This is not what Saint Nicolas taught at all. He taught God’s grace in Christ Jesus.

This song teaches the exact opposite of what the season of Advent and then Christmas teaches. Advent and Christmas teach us that Jesus came in answer to our cries and our pouting. Because of sin, we have genuine reason for our tears and our sorrow. Jesus came to be born as the Savior from Sin and all the consequences of sin.

The Lord does not command that we not cry. Rather, He commands that our crying be directed to Him with the assurance that He has heard our cries and has answered them, even before we feel the need to cry. His answer is from eternity. It is part of His everlasting love toward us.

Moreover, Jesus did not merely come as a baby. He continues to come to us today through the ordained means of grace. He continues to urge us to cry out to Him and to look for Him in the manger of the altar where He gives His body and blood for our comfort and relief.

Here is a hymn that expresses the true spirit of Advent and Christmas. When the other garbage spews forth from the radio in the car or the speakers in the store, here is a hymn that will give comfort and peace and assurance instead:

"Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel"

Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Oh, come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Oh, come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Oh, come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home:
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Here we are taught to cry out in accord with the promises of God. He wants us to hear Him and respond with cries for His mercy and salvation. He wants us to cry to Him in expectation that He will indeed give us relief.

Moreover, beyond trusting Him so as to cry to Him as He has commanded us, what does He demand? Even the faith by which we trust Him He gives to us as a gift! He has established His Church on earth for us so that we have a safe haven into which we may gather even as He calls us to do. He is present for us eager to bestow His grace upon us. This is the message of Christmas. This is the God of Christmas. Immanuel, “With Us God.”

So, now, as you watch out,
Lift up your sad eyes,
Stand with me and shout,
With all of your cries,

Jesus Christ is coming to town!

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Nation Shall Not Lift up a Sword Against Nation, Neither Shall They Learn War Any More

This passage quoted from Isaiah 2:4 is also stated in the Old Testament reading appointed for the Second Sunday in Advent, Micah 4:1-7.

How wonderful it would be if this passage engraved in stone on this wall were understood as the prophets proclaim it. Sadly, on this wall across the street from the United Nations building in New York City it is used as though these words are to refer to the actions of mankind rather than what the Lord promises to work on our behalf.

At the end of World War II mankind formed the United Nations as their presumptuous answer to the world’s problems. History shows how far short their attempts at peace have fallen. History teaches us that peace is not possible through the efforts of mankind.

But peace is effected through the means that the Lord has established and ordained.

These wonderful words as they are declared through the prophet Micah were appointed for the Second Sunday in Advent for very good reasons. More on this is presented in Sunday’s Sermon.

What these words declare is really very deep. Yet the message is not at all complicated. It is really very straightforward when one hears what is proclaimed from the perspective from which it is given. This is the way of the Gospel. It is not a complicated message. It is really very simple, even though it reaches to heaven and makes the blessings of heaven available on earth. The message of the Gospel is given to us through very simple means, the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Yet even the simplest message loses its power when those who proclaim it change it in any way. The Gospel is clearly defined. It is the very power of God unto salvation to all who believe. But when it is altered, it is no longer what God declares, but what someone else declares, and its effects are changed.

The peace that the Gospel declares is the peace that Christ works and administers through His Church through the pure administration of His means of grace. Seeking peace through any other way results as the false application of the quote from Isaiah on a stone wall in New York City. Surely New York City itself stands as a powerful witness to this fact. For example: New York Crime Rates 1960 - 2010. Of course, the tragic events of 9-11 are hard to ignore. Then also are the so-called responses that have followed.

In the fuller context, both Isaiah and Micah say:

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Even this gives a very different perspective to how peace is achieved. This still is not the full context, but it sets a person looking in the right direction. The perspective presented by the full context is far more glorious.

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Thanksgiving and the last singing of the Gloria in Excelsis

Yesterday, during the divine service, I had the nagging awareness that this would be the last time that we would be singing the Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God on high) until Christmas Eve. This is the song of the announcement of the birth of the Savior that the angels shared with the shepherds in the region of Bethlehem. The words of the angels begin with the pastor chanting: “Glory be to God on high.” The congregation completes the announcement, chanting: “And on earth peace, good will toward men. . . .” It is the glorious announcement that with the birth of the Prince of Peace, peace now resides upon the earth in accord with God’s good will toward men, the great love of God that moved Him to provide Jesus as the Savior of sinful mankind.

The season of Advent is penitential and preparatory for the advent/coming of the promised Savior. Thus, the Gloria in Excelsis is omitted during this season to help us remember what is missing apart from being Baptized into the Holy Communion of the Christ. He is the one who comes to restore what sin has stolen away from mankind.

The Church Year is designed to carry us through the promises of the Holy Scriptures, beginning with the Advent of Jesus and ending with His return at the Last Day. Thus Advent is a preparatory time, reminding us that Jesus was promised as the cure for sin and its consequences and came to the world in the fullness of time, born of the virgin in Bethlehem. He continues to come to His Church on Earth with the healing of forgiveness and the renewal of reconciliation into His Holy Communion through the Holy Supper. And He will come again at the Last Day to bring to completion all that He began in the garden with the promise to the first two needy sinners, as He comes to separate those who refused His grace from those whom the Holy Spirit through faith has gathered into the Holy Communion of the body of Christ.

Therefore, though I always feel a bit of a sting with the departure of the Gloria in Excelsis from the liturgy, I benefit from what it teaches me concerning my great need and God’s greater fulfillment of that need, not only for me, but for all of mankind. It moves me to never ending thanksgiving and it reminds me that this proclamation for all the world needs to be proclaimed today so that those for whom God has provided His peace may be brought into it through the working of the Holy Spirit in connection with the Word.

Advent is a wonderful time as we prepare for the joyous announcement of “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”

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By the way, yesterday’s sermon has been posted.

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Are You Prepared for Christmas?

Are you prepared for Christmas? This is the theme of the texts from the Fourth Sunday in Advent. The texts and sermon are available here.

Faith, The Two-Legged Dog

Pastor Jackson at Ichabod, The Glory Has Departed has this video posted from YouTube:



Faith and the family that adopted her are a very special demonstration of what love does. While a dog does not have a soul, it nevertheless responds to love. Faith does not care how she looks. Dogs don’t worry about such things. Faith does not care that she has faced many struggles and continues to press beyond what is normally expected of a dog. Faith has encountered the persistence of love from those who cared for her and rather than lying helplessly in a ball on the floor, she walks and runs, wagging her tail so strongly that she nearly unbalances herself.

In the beginning, God established that Man should be like Him, ruling the world for good, in the same way in which God Himself created and now rules over all things.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28)

God created the world for Man and set Man over all things to dominate and to rule the world after the same manner that God Himself does. He created Man in His own image, full of goodness and love. Even after the rebellion of Adam, even after the choice to become sinful, God’s love still prevailed so that God reclaimed His fallen children and lifted them up with the promise of the ultimate display of love. He promised that salvation would come through the advent of the Son of Woman, who is God in the flesh, Jesus. With this promise, God restored love to Man once again.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19)

The miracle that was worked by the love of the Stringfellow family for this doggy is a reflection of the love of God and the power that God’s love works in us and for us. How lovely to behold such a display. While sin veils the love of God in the world, still He shows us the power of His love in everyday things, even as in this special occurrence with Faith and the Stringfellow family. While such displays are not automatically evidence of the true faith in people’s lives, these displays do continually hold before us all what God intends for us to receive from Him.

As the season of Advent comes upon us again this coming Sunday, we again rejoice in the love of God manifested in the birth of His Son, who is come in order to give Himself as the restoration of God’s merciful love to the world. By His life, suffering, death, and resurrection, love is available to everyone through the pure Gospel and Sacraments. May this season of Advent serve us all the hope that is freely given and received through our Lord Jesus Christ, even as is given as a small reminder in the response of Faith to the love of the Stringfellow family.