I love
Christmas carols'. We join the countless millions around the world singing
these timeless carols with gusto and fervor. "Joy to the world,
the Savior reigns .Let men their songs employ. ..While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills and plains,Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat
the sounding joy , Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy" " If there is a single word that describes what
Christmas is all about, it’s the little word “joy.” Several of our
favorite Christmas carols mention it: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” “O
come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,” “Shepherds, why this jubilee, why
your joyous strains prolong?” “Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul
and voice,” “Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies, with
th’ angelic host proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’” Humanly speaking, however, it’s not always easy to feel
joyful. William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, says
that joy can be a challenge to the Church. But is the all of grace.
Due to the amazing grace that came down at Christmas we are showered with
the Joy of Jesus at Christmas and in all seasons.
It is written in Luke 2:8-10: "And there were shepherds living
out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An
angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘‘Do not be
afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is
Christ the Lord."
There
is a quote from Rev. Willimon that seems to put this passage in
perspective: “Christmas is a delightful disruption of the way things normally
go.” I like that phrase “delightful disruption” because it catches the
spirit of Luke 2. One moment the shepherds were tending the
sheep in the middle of the night and the next they being scared by an
angelic choir. To some this may not be what they think of
as delightful, but it is definitely a disruption. The
angel came with “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
The good news is encapsulated in verse 11, which says, “For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” If you
are looking for Christmas joy, look into this single verse.
I
love the phrase simple and yet profound—"born this day in the city of
David.” The city of David is not Jerusalem—it’s Bethlehem, which is about
5 miles south of Jerusalem.
I have been to
Bethlehem a few times. Bethlehem is called the “city of David”
because David grew up there along with his father Jesse and his seven brothers
( 1 Samuel 16:1-3) for the story of David’s selection as the king who
would replace Saul). In fact, David tended sheep in the fields outside
the village just the shepherds were doing the night the angel appeared to
them. The Lord of wonder and majesty disrupted the lives of those humble
shepherds. The lives of the shepherds were characterized by the
mundane and the ordinary. They saw the brilliant light and heard the
songs of the choirs of angels, and their lives were transformed.
They came in haste and saw Jesus, the newborn king.
There
were countless witnesses of Jesus who have been propelled by the wonder of it
all and filled to the brim withe joy unspeakable. . . the Joy of
Christmas. Often our lives are saturated throughout the year with
the mundane and with the ordinary, but once again we come to the season of
Advent and Christmas. Christmas ushers into the world and into
our lives the Joy and the wonder of Christmas. May we all
be disrupted with joy, saturated in the wonder of it all, and bathed
in the glory that came down wrapped in the person of Jesus our Lord. May
we all be stunned withe Joy of Jesus once again.
A
Russian countess accepted the Lord Jesus as her Savior and was open about her
testimony. The Tsar was displeased and threw her into prison. After
24 hours with the lowest level of Russian society, in the most miserable
conditions imaginable, he ordered her brought into his presence. He
smiled sardonically and said, “Well, are you ready now to renounce your silly
faith and come back to the pleasures of the court?” To his surprise, the
countess smiled serenely and said, “I have known more real joy and more real
happiness in one day in prison with Jesus than I have known in a lifetime in
the courts of the Tsar.” She found out what was the real way of
joy.
In Jesus our
Lord,
Brown
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