1.1.1 11.29.2020 In the Bleak Midwinter...Long, Long Ago.

Start

Entice:

Mystery and Disclosure.

Faith and Fatigue.

Exhilaration and exhaustion.

What. A. Year. We always begin in hope and joy but as we worship today on the brink of the Christmas season; many of us kind of wish 2020 would hurry on up and move along. For 20 centuries Christians have remembered the birth of Jesus. For millennia prior Israel waited His coming. This year we don't mind rushing Christmas just to get past it to the new year.

The Biblical witness is a deliberate, unfolding process. It took millennia to envision, a turbulent generation to execute, and has prospered through 20 centuries of sometimes painful expansion. This year I have chosen to frame our worship leading up to Christmas with the haunting lyrics of a poem/hymn we rarely sing, but should.

In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan,Earth stood hard as iron,Water like a stone;Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow In the bleak mid-winter Long ago.

Engage: In the Bleak Midwinter is a romanticized non-theological re-imagination of the Nativity. It is profound because of its mood. It is somber. It is not jingle-belly, deck-the hallsy, or Baby it's Cold Outside Kitsch. It is not Silent Night sentimental nor is it Hark the Herald Angels Sing profound. There are times we need the long view. Breadth and depth, reflective and perspective. Christina Rosetti's poem, set to music by Holst sets the mood for an honest examination of a bad year in the light of the good Word of God.

Our own Bleak Midwinter follows a sequestered spring, a conflicted summer and an alarming autumn. Most of us have asked the rhetorical question "surely, it can't get worse?" Only to be met with the surreal answer..."yes, yes it can!" Now we are at the end of a year that most would agree has been quite bleak. How do we move past the emotion the exhaustion the emptiness, and share the joy of incarnation and the celebration of Jesus' Birth?

Expand: We are not the first to think God's unfolding revelation pokey at times. The disclosure of His plan and how He would realize it and then extend it through His Church requires virtues we find very difficult after sequestration, quarantine, stress and disillusion.

Excite: There are times that the most aggressive, faithful thing God asks you to do is...nothing. To simply believe and wait upon Him.

Explore: This bleak midwinter is just a small part of God's long unfolding plan for saving His creation and gathering His church.

Explain: We should approach this Christmas season with renewed conviction about...

Promise.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 12:2 ESV

2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Genesis 15:5–6 ESV

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Matthew 1:21 ESV

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Patience.

Psalm 37:7 ESV

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!

James 5:7–8 ESV

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Presence.

Job 19:25–26 ESV

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Perspective.

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

The Constant quest for certainty.

During 2020 we have been constantly petitioning God for a return to normalcy. For a return to certainty. For a return to comfort. And God has been answering with one of His favorite messages "wait on Me."

Often during Christmas we substitute feelings for faith. A false sense of wonder for true watching and waiting upon God. Our constant quest for certainty came up shaken this year. Leaving us to genuinely lean upon our Faith. His promises are true. He wants us to learn patience. He is present amongst His people...and we need to take the long view, as He himself has.

The winter may be bleak but the outcome is sure. God is faithful to His faithful people.