Preparing For Worship: December 13th, 2009

Once again, I fell off the blogging wagon, and failed to help you prepare for the last two weeks! My apologies!

This Sunday we go full force towards the celebration of the Savior's birth; I've been thinking of the phrase "savoring the Savior" as I plan and remind myself of the wondrous gift we were given in the babe in the manger.

Pastor Todd will continue his sermon series called "Looking For Something More" leading up to next Sunday, the 20th. This week he's talking about Joy, and unpacking the text of 1 John 1:1-4. CLICK HERE to read through the text as you prepare to come worship together with the saints.

We have a great group of Christmas carols to sing together this week, and we're going to start it off with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." (the video's a really fun cover by Weezer!) Now, this may be something akin to when you first found out that Santa wasn't entirely real, but I can't, in good conscience, lead us in carols that talk about the angels without mentioning that the Bible never tells us that angels sing. It's true; when Christ was born, angels didn't span the night sky with songs and carols. They did spread the news that he'd been born, but Scripture tells us they "told" it, and didn't necessarily "sing" it.

That being said, Scripture doesn't tell us that angels DON'T sing, so we just need to be aware that our beloved carols are taking a bit of artistic license when we talk about angels singing.

We'll see one more video about the Union Rescue Mission as we gear up for our big outreach project there next month, and Pastor Todd will welcome everyone and lead us in prayer for the morning.

Then we'll sing "Angels From the Realms of Glory" which recounts the journey of the angels to the shepherds to tell them of Christ's birth, and to bid them to come and worship him. There are a number of YouTube videos that show this song, but I recorded my own that's closer to what we'll actually sing on Sunday, so enjoy! We'll finish off that set with "What Child is This?" as an intro to Pastor Todd's sermon.

I like the way those two songs fit together, because when the Jewish people were waiting and anticipating the birth of the Messiah, they would have been expecting something very different than a barn and a manger filled with hay. I think sometimes in our own lives, we expect God to look very different than what he really is, and when we come to worship him and respond to his own revelation of himself, we are forced to evaluate our own views and expectations. Coming to worship and really thinking through who we believe God is, is an important process as we come to know him and understand him better.

After Pastor Todd's message, we will sing "The First Noel." This is yet another carol about the proclamation of Christ's birth by the angels to the shepherds. As we respond to God's Word, and the joy that is to be found in proclaiming the gospel, we will more closely relate to the joy of that first Christmas when the angels shouted the good news.

We'll close with the song that Candace and I sang during communion last week: "Jesus Thank You" as we put in perspective that Jesus was born to go to the cross for our sins. His life is an example and a model for us, but more importantly, it was a life that perfectly satisfied the righteous standards of God, and was subsequently sacrificed for us. This is the true joy of Christmas, not just that Christ CAME, but WHY he came; to set us free from the curse of sin, and reconcile us to a restored relationship with the Father!

So that's what's going on; happy prep!