Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
With “Joy to the
world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of
these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation,
especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.
Bright blue skies, sunshine, and sparkling white snow
brought joy to people in central Nebraska today. The snow on parts of this
frozen lake was still immaculate, unbroken by footprints or thawing.
See, amid the winter's snow,
Born for us on Earth below, See,
the tender Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.
Chorus: Hail,
thou ever blessed morn,
Hail redemption's happy dawn, Sing
through all Jerusalem:
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
With “Joy to the
world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of
these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation,
especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.
January robins are always a treat. A whole flock of them
appeared near our house this morning. The temperature was 10°, the wind chill
was -5°, and there was a covering of fresh snow that had fallen during the
night. And suddenly there were robins
singing (and a bluejay squawking), just like they do on warm mornings in
springtime.
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
We remember today, O
God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive,
we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great
might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice,
love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Collect for Holy Innocents, Book of Common Prayer, p. 238
Pollution and the effects of climate change impact children
especially hard. Pollutants generally do more damage to developing bodies;
dehydration from diarrheal diseases caused by lack of clean water is especially
dangerous for infants and young children. According to World Health Organization information about climate change and health, “children – in particular, children living in poor countries – are among the
most vulnerable to the resulting health risks” from climate change”. Among
these risks are extreme heat, malnutrition, lack of clean water, impacts of
natural disasters, and increasing risk of diseases such as malaria, dengue
fever, and diarrheal diseases.
Today the church remembers the Holy Innocents, the children
who died when Herod ordered the slaughter of all children who were two years
old or younger (Matthew 2: 13-23). Augustine of Hippo called these children
“buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves.”
As air and water pollution and climate change take their
toll of young lives, many children in our world never get a chance to be more
than buds, buds killed in this case by the frost of the world’s indifference
the moment they showed themselves.
The people with power in this world – the political leaders,
the economically comfortable, the corporate heads – differ from Herod, of
course. Their intention isn’t to cause the death of thousands of children; their
intention instead is to maintain political power by not addressing a difficult
problem, or to ignore the effects of climate change so that we can continue
enjoying the sorts of comforts and conveniences to which we are accustomed, or
to make a profit producing, selling, or investing in fossil fuels.
Children are the collateral damage of our failure to control pollution and address
climate change. There is no intention to harm, but instead of an intention to protect children, there is indifference and denial.
When we look the other way and refuse to acknowledge what is
happening as a result of our failure to control pollution and address climate
change, we aren’t really all that different from Herod. And the grief of the
mothers of today’s innocent victims is no different from the grief of the
mothers of Bethlehem some two thousand years ago.
Here is the Coventry Carol in honor of the innocents who died in Typhoon Sendong in the Philippines in 2011.
Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
With “Joy to the
world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of
these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation,
especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.
“I know every bird in the sky, and the creatures of the
fields are in my sight.” (Psalm 50:11)
Several cardinals have brought color to our neighborhood the
past few days. This morning while fresh snow was falling they were especially
lovely.
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
With “Joy to the
world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of
these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation,
especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.
Holly is traditional for Christmas decorating, something we
absorbed from older winter solstice traditions. The holly’s glossy green leaves
are a welcome sight in the winter. Besides bringing some color to the winter
landscape, the green holly reminds us of the coming spring, when places that
are now white or brown will again be green.
When the temperature had finally climbed up to about 15
degrees today, I went out and found parts of our little cold hardy hollies poking
through snow drifts that sparkled with ice crystals.
Seeing the holly brought to mind part of Psalm 96 from
our Christmas Eve celebration:
Let the heavens rejoice, and let
the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it;
let the field be joyful and all that is therein.
Then shall all the trees of the wood
shout for joy before God, who will come,
who will come to judge the earth.
And along with the perhaps better known carol, The Holly and the Ivy, it also brought to
mind this traditional carol from Cornwall:
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite
you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that
runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and
wonder of God’s world.
When we started out to drive to Grand Island for the 10:00
Christmas morning service at St Stephen’s, the skies were gray. The world
seemed very quiet, very calm, but also very gray and somber! But as we got out
into more open country, a sliver of blue sky became visible in the northeast.
Somewhere the sun was shining, and it might very well shine on us before the
day was done.
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
Joy to the world! The
Lord is come: let earth receive her king;
Let every heart
prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
(Hymn 100)
We celebrate the birth of Christ, God’s coming to live among
us, during the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere. Our often
glorious sunrises and sunsets this time of year, the stars on a cold, clear
night, and the Christmas lights shining through the darkness in the open
country all help us to understand John’s Gospel (John 1:5): “The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
We Episcopalians celebrate Christmas for twelve days. With
“Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking
each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of
creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.
Our Christmas Gospel from John (John 1:1-14) begins by articulating the connections among God’s creation of the world,
Christ, life, and light:
In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not
one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the
life was the light of all people.
The wonders of the world around us not only help us stay
connected to joy; they also remind us that God is God, the creator and
sustainer of all that is in the entire universe, and they help to strengthen our
connection to God.
Joy to the world! The
Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills,
and plains, repeat the sounding joy.
