Light of the World: The Sou Felt its Worth

You have all travelled through chaos, business, anxiety, to get to this moment.

In the midst of it, it is my hope that you have found, and will find tonight and over these next days to experience and reflect on the peace and the hope, joy, and love that are talked about so much during this season.

And remind you that none of these emotions exist within themselves. They all require a source.

Peace does not come from a pursuit of peace.

Hope does not come from pursuit of hope.

Christmas tells us that peace, hope, joy that overtakes us, has a source.

But it is a source that many are willing to dismiss because they do not understand that these are fundamentally issues of the soul.

It is the restless soul, that is without hope, chaotic, and joyless.

And if we do not recognize that we will try to solve spiritual deficiencies with deficient solutions.

PAUSE

I have sat through a my share of Christmas Recitals. Where you sit for 3 hours to watch the one minute where your own child is on the stage.

Where 4 different versions of Frosty the Snowman; original, pop, country, or hiphop, are performed and the Little Drummer Boy becomes a song about how funky the beat was that this little drummer boy came up with.

And I am not going to lie. I get bitter sometimes!

However, all of that bitterness gets wiped away, when the children come slowly walking in, their faces only perceptible by the single candle they each hold, singing O Holy Night.

There is something about this song. It has nostalgic connections to my heart. But it more than that!

OH HOLY NIGHT: THE SOUL FELT ITS WORTH

The year was 1847.   in a small town in France, a man named Placide Cappeau, wrote the lyrics for one of the most memorable Christmas Songs of all time....O Holy Night.

The year was 1847.   in a small town in France, a man named Placide Cappeau, wrote the lyrics for one of the most memorable Christmas Songs of all time....O Holy Night.

Not having a tune he called on Adolphe Adam to compose the music.

Wrote one of the most memorable Christmas Songs of all time....O Holy Night.

I have sat through a my share of Christmas Recitals. Where you sit for 3 hours to watch the one minute where your own child is on the stage.

Where 4 different versions of Frosty the Snowman; original, pop, country, or hiphop, are performed and the Little Drummer Boy becomes a song about how funky the beat was that this little drummer boy came up with.

However, all of that bitterness gets wiped away, when the children come slowly walking in, their faces only perceptible by the single candle they each hold, singing O Holy Night

 He asked him to write a song for Christmas Eve mass.  So, in 1847, in a horse-drawn carriage on his way to Paris, Placide Cappeau composed the poem that we now know as O Holy Night.  He had the words, but didn’t have a melody, so he approached his friend who was a composer.  He happened to be a Jewish man.  He asked him to write a melody for that great hymn we now sing every Christmas.  So in 1847 at Christmas Eve mass, this little church in France, for the very first time, sings this great, epic hymn O Holy Night.  Shortly thereafter, Placide Cappeau decided he was going to leave the church and joined the socialist movement in France.  The church had this wrestling, this tension, that they had to enter into.  What are we going to do with this great hymn that this now apostate man has written?  So they outlawed the hymn.  They refused to let it be sung in their liturgy.  For a decade the hymn was kept alive by the French common folk, but it wasn’t sung in liturgy until 1857 when a man named John Sullivan Dwight got ahold of this song.  John Sullivan Dwight was an abolitionist in America, in the United States, in the North.  He heard the line in that hymn: “Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.”  He grabbed onto this hymn and the church, especially in the northern part of the United States, started to sing this hymn.  Their declaration was if Jesus has come and He’s freed humanity, who are we to keep people enslaved.  The hymn was used to slowly, but surely, break down the chains that we’d grown so fond of as a country.

Fast forward a few more years to 1906.  There’s a man named Reginald Fessenden, a former colleague of Thomas Edison.  He was in his office one evening experimenting with a microphone and a telegraph.  He didn’t know if anything was coming through, but he decided to give it a try.  What he did was begin reading his Bible from Luke chapter 2.  He started to read: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered…..  It goes on to talk about the birth of Christ and glory to God and peace on earth to whom His favor rests.  For the very first time, voices were heard over the radio waves.  Can you imagine, ships in the open sea that were used to hearing only dot-dot-dash-dash-dash now hear in those days a decree went out…..  Reginald Fessenden decided that was good, but he pulled back from reading  and he picked up his violin and he started to play.  Any guesses what the first song EVER played over the radio waves was??  Jingle Bells, of course!  No, O Holy Night.   Can you imagine, on your ship in the open sea, hearing for the very first time, not just voice, but music coming through?!  It was this song, at that point now famous song, that declared the worth of humanity.  That declared the value of people that said chains shall He break.  Listen to the words of this beautiful Christmas hymn: O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.  Long lay the world in sin and error pining {Just trapped. That’s what he wants to communicate.} 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 {This is the dawning of a new day.  Not just a baby being born, but a redefinition, a re-invitation of what it means to be human.} Fall on your knees, O hear the angels’ voices…..Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, With all our hearts we praise His holy name.  

What a rich hymn!  We were singing this hymn last Christmastime and I thought to myself, “That would make a great Christmas series!”  Today I want to wrestle with, dwell on, and think through this reality that when He appeared the soul felt its worth.

 My guess is you had some sort of response to that line in that song.  Your response was either Thank you, Lord or it was well, some other people have worth, but it’s certainly not me?  Anybody there?  I vacillate between thank you, Lord and I wish that were true for me.  The more people I talk to, the more I’m convinced that as humanity we struggle with this idea of worth.  I’ve sorta boiled it down to….we have two roadblocks to believing the words of this song and the truth of the gospel that we indeed are people that have worth.

The first is what I’ll call a faulty narrative.  You do know that you have a tape that plays in your mind.  You have ideas.  You have thoughts.  You have things that people have said to you that just play.  It could be something that your mom or dad said to you from a very early age.  “You’re never going to amount to anything.”  “You’re ugly.”  “You’re not smart.”  We have these narratives we carry with us.  And so when we hear something like and the soul felt its worth and we go I’m wrestling with that because that’s not what I’ve been told and that’s not what I’ve been telling myself.  A lot of us when we hear that go I just don’t know if that can be true for me.  That might be where you’re at this morning.  A faulty narrative, a tape that plays in our mind, something we’ve been told and we believe on a heart level.  On a head level we know it’s not true, but on a heart level it is the background music to everything we do.  So we find ourselves trying to achieve in order to say here’s my resume.  Can you validate me?  Am I okay?  

The first roadblock is a faulty narrative.  The second is false theology.  Our view of God sometimes reflects back on us to where we say people don’t have worth.  Here’s how we get there.  There’s a difference between having worth and being worthy.  So the Scriptures are really clear: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ( Right?  In  it says:  None is righteous, no, not one.  So you are unworthy.  Worthy simply means that you’re deserving.  So you’re undeserving.  But worthy is not the same as worth, because as clear as the Scriptures tell us that we are unworthy, that we’ve fallen short of the glory of God, that we are not undeserving, the other side of the coin is that God declares clearly and unequivocally that humanity has worth.  Deep and abiding worth.  What happens theologically is we tie those two things together.  We equate being worthy with having worth.  We say we’re not worthy so we don’t have worth and I just want to tell you…..it’s a lie from the pit of hell!!  The Enemy would love, love, love to keep you confined to this way of thinking and being and to the tape that plays in your mind I have no worth because I am not worthy.  But luckily you’re here this morning.  The message of the gospel is the message that although you are unworthy, He (God) deems you as having unending value and worth and He proves it in the season of Christmas that we celebrate and His life given to us, entering into our story.  Living and dying and taking our sin upon Himself and conquering death through the resurrection.  You cannot read the Christmas story and not come to the conclusion that in the eyes of God humanity has deep, deep worth and value.  Here’s the thing.  My guess is you’re going to give a lot of presents this year and you’re going to get some.  My hope is that this is the first one you get all year.  My hope is that you’re able to receive it!  Instead of going I’m unworthy….let’s just admit it, we’re unworthy!…then go alright God, in light of that, tell me who I am in Your eyes.   You can only give out what you have in.  So a lot of us are trying to love the people around us, but we don’t believe that we are loved.

When Placide Cappeau writes: …and the soul felt its worth, he’s inviting us into a whole new Narnia-esque world of being, where we go oh, so that’s what it feels like to know that the one who sits on the throne says you have value in my eyes.  Listen to the way the Apostle John invites us into his version of the Christmas story.  His version is from heaven’s perspective.  Listen to the way that he talks about the coming of the King, of the Christ, of the Messiah.  He says:  The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  {He said not everybody received Him.  Not everybody welcomed Him with opened arms.  That’s an understatement. But he goes on to write….} But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  {That’s who you are.  So when we sing a song I’m no longer a slave to fear, I’m a child of God,we’re singing Scripture to each other.  We’re reminding ourselves of the story that we live in that He deems us as being valuable enough to give His life for and make us not orphans anymore but children.  That’s huge!} …who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ( 12-14   In the book of Ephesians, Paul is going to pick up this idea and say He did it because of His good pleasure.  He wanted to!  I love that!  

God doesn’t just love you…..He actually likes you!

The Christmas story reflects the heart and the desire of God to welcome you home.  Man, this is not just a story about a baby being born.  This is a story about God making a declaration.  That He loves you.  That you have value and worth.  John goes on to say: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us {Literally, in the Greek, it’s this idea of Jesus came and he sorta just set up shop in your neighborhood.  He’s present in your life.} …and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So, light.  Adopted as children?  And a God who says I’m not just leaving you on your own, I’m coming to dwell in your midst?  Now you tell me humanity doesn’t have value to God.  Did He need to do this?  No! Absolutely not! He did this out of His good pleasure, out of His desire, out of His heart, it overflowed to humanity.  So what if this Christmas we allowed ourselves to hear the voice of God singing over us and speaking worth into our souls. What if this Christmas, we heard the Christmas story not so much about a baby born in a manger in this small town 2000+ years ago.  But what if we heard the story of God speaking worth over humanity, declaring it as clearly as He could, by entering into our world.  What if this season, first and foremost wasn’t about giving gifts, but about, maybe for the first time, allowing ourselves to receive one, without thinking there’s a footnote in our Bible that goes except for you.  Do you ever read the Bible that way?  This is true for everybody else except me.  He goes no, no, no, no, no.  The soul…your soul…allow it to feel worth.  It’s in Jesus’ birth that He declares humanity’s worth.  It’s in His life and His teaching that He tells us how to walk in this, because you and I both know we can hear it, but not really implement it on a heart level.  Right?  So Jesus wants to teach us how to walk in our worth.  He wants to teach us how walking in our worth changes the entire world that we see and the life that we live. 

This morning we find ourselves in church, singing songs of deliverance.

Proclaiming the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince fo Peace.

Maybe this will be the day you looked back on to say....that was the Christmas. That was the day Christmas Eve 2017m that my soul felt, understood its; worth.

That Hope and Joy, and peace, were not abstract feelings, they have a source, and His name is Jesus.