O God of God, O light of light, O Prince of Peace and King of kings: To you in heaven’s glory bright The song of praise forever rings. To him who shares the Father’s throne, The Lamb once slain but raised again, Be all the glory he has won, All thanks and praise! Amen, amen.
For deep I prophets’ sacred page, And grand in poets’ winged word, Slowly in type, from age to age The nations saw their coming Lord; Till through the deep Judean night Rang out the song, "Goodwill to men!" Sung once by firstborn sons of light, It echoes now, "Goodwill!" Amen.
That life of truth, those deeds of love, That death so steeped in hate and scorn These all are past, and now above He reigns, our king first crowned with thorn. Lift up your heads, O might gates! So sang that host beyond our ken. Lift up your heads, your king awaits. We lift them up. Amen, amen.
Then raise to Christ a mighty song, And shout his name, his glories tell! Sing, heavenly host, your praise prolong, And all on earth, your anthem swell! All hail, O Lamb for sinners slain! Forever let the song ascend! All hail, O Lamb enthroned to reign! All hail, all hail! Amen, amen.
Thats right! I'm posting about Christmas on New Year's Eve. Why? Because I don't really get the celebrating of a new year beginning. Certainly there are things that I am looking forward to in 2007, like my graduation, my sisters wedding, and of course FOR YOU in MN. I just don't understand why we celebrate midnight of January 1st.
The year is a very strange thing. Its the name we give to 365 days. Wait thats not even right because we have a year with 366 days every 4 years. A year is 12 months. What kind of number is 12? Wouldn't it make more sense if it were 10, a nice even number. But apparently a month is based on the moon and Years are based on the Sun rotating around the earth. Wait! I guess they found out that its the earth that goes around the Sun. So those smart scientists people decided to teach us something even it it doesn't make much sense to people like me. Maybe I will understand more through my astronomy class next semester.
But what about other ways of measuring time: Days I can understand it gets bright then it gets dark even if its cloudy. Though I am not sure why the day starts when it still dark out when it would be much easier to start when the sun rises. But hours Why are there 24 hours in a day? 24 not 25 not 50 not 20 not nice even numbers but 24. What makes up a hour? 60 minuets 60, not 100 not 50 but 60. Then they break up the minuets into 60 seconds. What do we need seconds for? All of this came from me mentioning the New Year.
So how about the Christmas part of this post?
I love music! All kinds of music I just love it. (Except rap but is that really music?) I can't get enough of singing music, listening to music, attempting to play music on my keyboard I got for Christmas. Advent is full of really Good hymns. I like Advent hymns more then I like Christmas hymns.
But why is that? With other things advent is full of good things leading up to the great things of Christmas. One thing that comes to mind is when I was younger and we used to have those chocolate Advent calenders. We got a piece of chocolate each day and then during Christmas we got a ton of it in our stockings or my favorite chocolate cookies that my aunt makes for Christmas every year. But for some reason I just like the Advent hymns more then Christmas ones.
Even though in general I do like Advent hymns more then Christmas hymns none of my favorite hymns come from the Advent section. Two of them come from the Christmas section. One of them is From Heaven above to Earth I come, and the other I have typed out below.
LSB #384
Of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be, He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He, Of the things that are, that have been, And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!
O that birth forever blessed, when the virgin, full of grace, By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race; And the Babe, the world's Redeemer, First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!
This is He whom seers in old time canted of with one accord, Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word. Now He shines, the Long expected; Let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!
O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing; Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King! Let no tongue on earth be silent, Every voice in concert sing, evermore and evermore!
Christ, to Thee with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee, Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving, and unwearied praises be: Honor, glory, and dominion, And eternal victory, evermore and evermore!
Luke describes the Birth of Christ in great detail, but one of the synoptic Gospels skips the birth of Christ completely. Mark begins with a prophecy about John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ.
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”
“a voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight paths for him.'”
Mark begins much like when we were first brought into the world. Not in the Royal City of David, but in a very desolate place, a desert. What does John do to those who are in the desert. He prepares the way for Christ's coming by baptizing them! What better way to prepare for the coming of Christ then to forgive those in the desert away from Christ.
Advent means “coming.” One of my favorite advent hymns, “Once He Came in Blessing” (LSB 333) talks about Christ's coming.
Once He came in blessing,
All our sins redressing;
Came in likeness lowly,
Son of God most holy;
Bore the cross to save us;
Hope that freedom gave us.
This verse talks about Christ first coming in the flesh at Bethlehem. It talks about how he came as a man to take away all of our sins. He did that by the Cross!
Now He gently leads us;
With Himself He feeds us
Precious food from heaven,
Pledge of peace here given,
Manna that will nourish
Souls that they may flourish.
This second verse talks about how he comes to us now. He comes to us now in the Word and Sacrament. At my church last Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent, We were blessed with the word. We were blessed by hearing the words of absolution pronounced to us. We were blessed by welcoming a new member to our congregation through baptism. Finally, we were blessed by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Soon will come that hour
When with mighty power
Christ will come in splendor
And will judgment render,
With the faithful sharing
Joy beyond comparing.
This third verse talks about how he will come once again in judgment. On the last day Jesus will return in all his splendor and majesty and judge.
Come, then, O Lord Jesus,
From our sins release us.
Keep our hearts believing,
That we, grace receiving,
Ever may confess You
Till in heaven we bless You.
As we look forward to His final coming, we find our deepest joy and comfort in His present coming with His very body and blood for our forgiveness.
Christ came For You in Bethlehem! Christ comes For You in His Word and Sacraments! And Christ will come again For You to take you to your eternal home with him.
I had a wonderful opportunity last night to see a LIVE broadcast of ISSUES, ETC.. The topic was Praise and Worhsip Music. They took a few of the Top CCM songs and evaluated them. Dr. Leonard Payton gives some very good things to look for while listening to popular praise songs.
You can find the first hour here: http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc_Oct_15a.wma
and the second hour here: http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc_Oct_15b.wma
In between the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 there is the story of the Syrophoenician women's faith. Jesus makes his way into the land of the gentiles. The woman came to him and told him she had a daughter who was possessed by an unclean spirit. The women was a gentile and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Jesus says to her "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." She answers him with, "Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's curmbs." Jesus first limits his body (bread) to the children of Israel. The woman had been blessed with great faith and for that, her child was cleansed from the demon (baptism). Thus, the sacrament was opened to the gentiles with the feeding of the 4,000.
With the feeding of the 5,000 the people did not really need anything to eat, it was more of a luxury. With the feeding of the 4,000 the food is necessary. They people gathered would not make it home without fainting because of hunger. The disciples still do not understand, they ask how one could feed the people with bread in a desolate place. They have 7 loaves this time. Seven is a gentile number, it is the number of deacons that the apostles appointed to watch over the Gentiles in acts . 7 is also the number of completion, Christ giving his body completely. This points to the Lord's supper basically in the same ways as the feeding of the 5,000 did. They picked up the pieces left over. They gathered the pieces in 7 bushel baskets, bigger then the ones used at the feeding of the 5,000. 7 baskets for the gentiles and they are complete meaning it will never run out.
Thanks be to God for the opening of this wonderful mean of grace to the entire world! The Sacrament of the Altar is a great gift. Where else can Truth be placed in your mouth? The body of Christ sustaining us for eternity and the bread sustaining us for our time here on earth. Through this we receive forgiveness of sins. Without having to do anything!
I may add more to this later, if something else comes to me to post. I'll basically be putting this post and the last one together, probably adding scripture where you would have had to look it up before, before I put it up on my HT Blog.
