O Holy Night

 

 

 

 

Carols – O Holy Night
Sycamore Creek Church
December 2 & 3, 2012
Tom Arthur
Lamentations 3:19-26

Merry Christmas Friends!  Would you rather give up Christmas or your birthday?  That’s a question that was posed to me and the staff recently by a Would-You-Rather app I have on my phone.  I was a little surprised to find that 63% would rather give up their birthday than Christmas.  A minority of 37% would rather give up Christmas.  Christmas is time filled with a lot of traditions that many of us cherish.  One of those traditions is singing Christmas Carols.

Today we begin a new series simply called Carols.  Each week we’re going to explore a different well-known Christmas Carol.  We’re going to unpack it so that when you leave here, you’ll hear it in a totally new way.  Let’s begin today with the carol, O Holy Night.

O Holy Night was written in the mid 1800s by Placide Cappeau, a French wine/liquor merchant and poet.  He tended to be somewhat anti-church and religion, and was probably a bit surprised when his local priest invited him to write a poem to Luke chapter two, the classic retelling of the Christmas story.  Cappeau decided that his poem really needed to be a song, so he invited another non-Christian friend to write the tune.  The song soon took off and was extremely popular, even when it was learned who wrote it!

O Holy Night also has another historical distinction.  In 1906, Reginald Fessenden, a thirty-three year old Canadian university professor did the impossible.  He broadcast his voice over the airwaves inventing AM radio.  It was on Christmas Eve.  He read Luke 2:1 – In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.   Then he played O Holy Night on his violin, which became the first song broadcast live across the airwaves on AM radio!

Here’s a great music video to bring you up to speed on the song:

A Holy Night or a Weary Night?
Alright, this song conjures up all kinds of images from nativity scenes you saw as a kid.  Let’s think about the night when Christ was born.  Mary, pregnant, had traveled on a donkey some eighty to a hundred and twenty miles.  When they finally arrive atBethlehem, there’s no room for them to stay in.  So they stay in the “stable.”  This was probably something of a cave cut into a rock face.  It was unsanitary and full of unruly animals.  The cattle were lowing.  What is “lowing?”  I have no idea, but I doubt that it was fun to listen to in the midst of giving birth!

Perhaps the night when Jesus was born was more like the night when my own son was born.  My wife, Sarah, had labored for over twenty-four hours.  She was exhausted.  I remember at some point in the middle of the night in the midst of trying to make a decision while sleep deprived, we were gathered around Sarah lying in bed.  The nurse was there, our doctor, Amanda Shoemaker (who is a member of our church), and our doula, Connie Perkins.  I was a mess.  Sarah was a mess.  Someone, I don’t even remember who, suggested we pray.  Now, I’m supposed to be the pastor.  Right?  Yeah, I’m supposed to be able to pray at any moment in any situation.  NOT!  I couldn’t pray.  I passed it off to Connie, and while I don’t remember what exactly she prayed, I remember it was perfect for the situation.  Thank God for Christian community amidst the weariness of the night when my child was born!

I suspect that a lot of you are pretty weary right now.  I know you are.  We’re weary with the daily grind.  Our emotions are worn down.  Our bodies are worn down.  Our time is worn down.  Our money is worn down.  And we’re supposed to rejoice at Christmas!  Spend time with family and various parties eating lots of food!  And buy everyone and their mom a present with money we don’t have to spend.

An anonymous prayer request came to the prayer team this week:

Please remember all those for whom the holidays are a difficult time. Perhaps they have lost loved ones whom they miss; especially when family gather at the holidays. There are those who have little or no family, or do not feel part of the family they do have. They may have major financial challenges that make it difficult to go see loved ones or to buy food for a nice dinner or gifts for their children. They may have both sad and happy memories of holidays past, but this year, they are sad and depressed and just getting through another day is a challenge. May our Lord be a strength and comfort to them!  May we remember to extend a hand of hospitality and friendship, not knowing how much it may mean to those around us.

This person puts the weariness of the time quite well.  What I’d like to do is look at one line in O Holy Night that you may never have even noticed:

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Christmas at its essence (not all the cultural Christmas expectations) is a thrill of a hope amidst a weary world.  It is a new and glorious morning!  Where are you in need of a thrill of hope?  Where do you need a new and glorious morning?

A New and Glorious Morning
I want to explore this idea of a new morning at Christmas in a place that you might not think to look at Christmastime: the book of Lamentations.  Lamentations was written after the fall ofJerusalemin 586 BC.  The Babylonian empire sacked the city and took the leadership and all the wealthy and skilled into exile.  A most weary moment if there ever was one.  Let’s see what the author of Lamentations says:

Lamentations 3:19-23 NRSV
The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!  My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

We’re talking about a major depression here.  And what does he do about it?  He calls to mind the truths of God.  Sometimes when we’re weary we forget to call to mind the truths and promises of God.  That’s all it took for the author to have hope!  And here’s the truth and promise he called to mind: that God’s love never ends; God’s mercy goes on and on and on; God’s mercy and love are new every morning.

Christmas is a new morning because it is the birthday of Jesus, the son of God.  And with Christmas comes the possibility for a new morning in your own life.  A new morning with Jesus’ birth in your life brings:

Exactly What You Need

Lamentations 3:24 NRSV
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

“My portion” probably is a reference back to the manna that the Israelites received while wandering through the wilderness.  After Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, they spend forty years wandering around in the dessert.  One need they had was food, and God provided it every morning in the form of manna.  “Manna” literally means “What is it?”  It was a kind of flaky bread-like substance found on the ground each morning.  God told them to gather just enough to meet their needs for the day.  If they gathered more it would rot.  God wanted them to trust that he would provide what they needed, their portion, each and every day.  The LORD is my portion.  A new morning with Jesus gives you exactly what you need (not always what you want, but what you need). 

When we pray the Lord’s prayer one of the lines we pray is: Give us this day our daily bread.  That’s a request to God to meet our basic needs today.  What needs do you have today?  I’m not talking about a Red Rider B.B. Gun, but what basic needs do you have today?

Jesus is what your marriage needs.  Jesus is what your children need.  Jesus is what your past, present, and future needs.  When you are weak, he is your strength.  When you are lost, he is your way.  When you are hurting, he is your comfort.  When you are down, he is your joy.  A new morning with Jesus brings exactly what you need.  It also brings…

The Hope to Keep Going

Lamentations 3:24 NRSV
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

It has been said that you can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without oxygen, but only a few seconds without hope.  We tend to put our hope in all the wrong places.  We hope in the stock market. We hope in the biggest jackpot lottery of all time.  We hope in the company we work for. We hope in a boyfriend or girlfriend, a spouse, a child, or even a pastor.  Friends, I’m not your hope.  That job description is already taken.

The author of Hebrews says:

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:23 NRSV
We tend to let go of hope and hold on to our fears.  But we’ve got to let go of the fear and hold on to the hope.  Sarah and I have a friend who several years ago committed suicide. He took his life amidst a deep depression and circumstances that overwhelmed him.  He did it while standing in the pre-dawn waters of the Little Traverse Bay, the same bay that Sarah and I had watched sunsets and sunrises a hundred times.  I can’t help but think, if only he had hung on till the darkness of that bay had been eclipsed by the sunrise of a new morning, a new morning that offered the hope of Jesus.  If you’re at that place today, hang on. Hang on till the morning. Hang on to the hope that Jesus is hanging on to you more firmly than you can even hang on to him.  A new morning with Jesus brings the hope to keep on going. It also brings…

The Help You’re Waiting For

Lamentations 3:25-26 NRSV
The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Wait for it…wait for the amazing difference that one day can make.  It can be the difference between life and death.  Being lost and being saved. 

Lazarus was dead for four days, and then Jesus raised him from the dead.  A woman with an issue of blood for twelve years was healed when she touched Jesus.  A man unable to walk for thirty-eight years was healed when he met Jesus while sitting beside a pool of water that supposedly healed people.  There is only one thing in common between how all these things happened: they each encountered Jesus.  

We are living in the darkness of the night.   But Christmas reminds us that a new day’s coming! A new twenty-four! St. Paultells us that

…The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here…

Romans 13:11-12 NIV
O Holy Night are amazing words written by a talented poet.  But while he knew the story of Christmas in his mind, he did not know it in his heart.  It is possible to know about Jesus without knowing Jesus.  To have the head but not the heart.  This Christmas, give your life to Jesus.  Follow him with everything you’ve got.  Don’t just know the story in your head, but know it in your heart.  Know the thrill of hope that a new morning with Jesus brings. 

Prayer
Jesus, we are weary.  We’re weary with all kinds of things.  We’re even weary with the way our culture celebrates Christmas.  But help us to encounter you amidst all the weariness of this Christmas season.  Be our need, our hope, and our help so that we might follow you more faithfully  Give us these things by the power of your Spirit at work in us.  Amen.

O Holy Night
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;