For the final week of Advent Song Reflections, we will be using Scripture and Carols from a traditional Lessons and Carols service. The reading will be posted in full, followed by a carol, followed by a thought or quote to ponder, and then finishing with reflection questions.
You are encouraged to read the text slowly and prayerfully. This week is a time to truly enter into the wonder and joy of the incarnation, and it is our prayer that these texts and carols help you do just that.
Reading for Friday: Luke 2:1-7 (NRSV)
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place in the guest room.
Carol: Nativity Carol
Born in a stable so bare
Born so long ago
Born 'neath light of star
He who loved us so
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Cradled by mother so fair
Tender her lullaby
Over her son so dear
Angel hosts fill the sky
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Wise men from distant far land
Shepherds from starry hills
Worship this babe so rare
Hearts with his warmth he fills
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day
Love in that stable was born
Into our hearts to flow
Innocent dreaming babe
Make me thy love to know
Far away, silent he lay
Born today, your homage pay
For Christ is born for aye
Born on Christmas Day...
“The Incarnation provides a marvelous paradigm for Christ’s work in our lives. Every Advent season, and hopefully at other times as well, we are brought again to the wonder of the Incarnation. See the swaddled Jesus, lying in the feeding trough in the stable, the birthplace of common livestock. Look long and hard with all your mind and all your heart. From early times the paradox of the Incarnation has given birth to mind-boggling expressions. St. Augustine said of the infant Jesus:
Unspeakably wise,
He is wisely speechless.
Lancelot Andrewes, who crafted much of the beautiful English of the Old Testament in the King James Version, preaching before King James on Christmas Day 1608, picked up on Augustine’s idea and described Christ in the manger as:
the word without a word.
He is in his person the Word of God!
Luci Shaw, in her beautiful poem “Mary’s Song,” says:
Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
The one who asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand … when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness” (Job 38:4, 9) now himself lay wrapped in swaddling clothes.The wonder of the Incarnation! The omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God became a baby!”—R.K. Hughes
As we approach Christmas Eve, how might you prepare to encounter the “wonder of the Incarnation” anew? It is a mystery we can never fully understand or appreciate, so spend some time on this December 23rd asking the Holy Spirit to prepare your heart and mind for the telling of the Christmas story. Ask him to strip away any sense of being over-familiar with the story, that you may hear it with fresh awe and wonder.