Tag: Christmas

December 2019

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

Dear Redeemer Family:
Advent, preachers love Advent. Preparations for Christmas often stir up a combination of anticipation, anxiety, and excitement. The fact that the days are becoming colder and darker in many places brings other connections. Yet, Advent is the season that most honestly names and acknowledges our human condition of longing, waiting, and restlessness. Advent is usually seen in relation to Christmas, and though it is the time of year when listeners face the most distractions due to the many things on their minds and hearts, preachers have the unique role of being spiritual guides, providing time and space for reflection on key spiritual themes.

The lessons of the season can easily lead us into two traps: one in the past and one in the future. The prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures can cause us to pretend that we are waiting for Jesus to be born as he was two thousand years ago. Some of the apocalyptic lessons can propel us into a distant future, wondering if and when Christ will come again to bring justice and peace to our earth. Though in many ways we are still waiting for the Messiah to come (again), and we need to have a healthy trust in God’s promised future, we are actually invited to wake up to Christ’s presence among us here and now. In the Sunday worship services, we learn to recognize the Lord’s coming week after week, but from there we go to behold anew this Advent coming in the events of everyday life – whether in the news or in our personal circumstances; whether frightening, confusing or even mundane.

The human theme of longing resonates with all of us to some extent. We are always wishing we could delay aging, go back to a certain time in our lives and relive it, or live in an unrealistic ideal situation. In most cases, we fail to embrace fully the present and what is.

Advent puts before us this great mystery: we wait for what we already have. The message of the Gospel serves as a spiritual director, in a sense, inviting hearers to behold anew Christ coming again and again, Sunday after Sunday, day after day, not only in Word and meal, but in the sacramentality of everyday life, day after every single day yet to come. He who was, who is, who is yet to come!
In Christ, Pastor Rose

January 2019

On: By: Rev. G. Michael Rose

“And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.” Micah 5:4a

Dear Redeemer Family:
Christmas isn’t just a day. It isn’t just a season. Christmas is an event! It is exactly what the word means: Christ – Mas(s), a celebration of Christ. Among the faithful, it is always. Many of you will be reading these words as we are in the Season of Christmas, which goes for twelve days, and culminates on the Day of Epiphany, the evening before which is called “Twelfth Night” (that’s where Shakespeare got the title of his play of the same name, although it has little to do with date).

Lately, I’ve been reading the lyrics of some of our most beloved Christmas carols. The words of some of the older ones are the most powerful, and sometimes the most obscure. But, that shouldn’t be too surprising, as the lyrics are often poetry, and so are symbolic. Often the tune was attached to the poetic lyrics later. And although we may run through our lives humming the tune of a song, as that is often what sticks with us, it is really the words which strike home. One of the strangest of our Christmas carols is “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It is the most symbolic. Here is what it means, and why it is:

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ (Christ on the cross).
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-Four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-Five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-Six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit–Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-Eight maids a-milking were the eight Beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit–Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-Ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
-Eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-Twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

Now, we may sing it with fuller meaning and understanding. Merry Christmas to all!
Pastor Rose