O Come All Ye Faithful

Carols 2021

Week 1

O Come All Ye Faithful

<Series Title Slide>

I love Christmas time, don’t you? The Christmas lights are up on the trees around town, parades are being planned, the Christmas music is playing in all the stores, I have really started getting in the Christmas mood now that Thanksgiving is past.

Yes, we ate way too much on Thursday. And of course, we saved hundreds of dollars on Black Friday, by staying home and starting the Christmas decorating. The trees are up… Renee has set up her nativities… all 50+ nativities… And with that, we are ready for Christmas at the Fraze home and we look forward to the Parsonage Open House on the 19th.

But, may we remember, it isn’t Christmas yet. It is Advent. For those that didn’t grow up in what we call a liturgical church, Advent is the period of expectant waiting that leads up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus. The word comes from the Latin adventusthat means coming. Adventus is a Latin translation of the Greek word Parousia that is used to describe the Second Coming of Jesus. So… during Advent we prepare for the coming of Christ in 2 ways. In the one way, we prepare to celebrate the baby Jesus, born in a manger outside of Bethlehem. In the other, we prepare for the return of Jesus, the Christ, in victory when he comes.

We can’t really tell how long Advent has been celebrated. What we know is that it was being celebrated before 480 AD, and legend has it that it was instituted by Peter and practiced by the Disciples and Apostles of the 1stCentury.

One of the traditions of Advent is that we sing Carols. The thing is, I grew up singing Christmas Carols and enjoying the songs, but it wasn’t really worship… I mean, they were Christmas songs, not worship songs and hymns. It wasn’t until I was older that I started looking at the words of these great songs that I realized they are worship songs. They are songs lifting up the greatness of God and glorifying the goodness of God. Then, I started looking at the history of these great songs and I really got interested in them. Much of my study of these songs has come from the reading of a book called The Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas written by a family friend Ace Collins.

<Sermon Title Slide – O Come All Ye Faithful>

So this week, we are going to look at our first Carol of the season, O Come All Ye Faithful. While some of the songs have beautiful stories of how the song was written by a priest to save Christmas, or sung in battle as a sign of a truce, this one really doesn’t have much of that. In fact, the song and its author were lost for a period of time. It was originally written during the late 1700’s in Latin, but it was rediscovered in 1841 by Frederick Oakley and translated into English. He listed the author as Unknown, but rumors began to swirl about who actually wrote it. Some said Saint Bonnaventure, others claimed John Redding. It became one of the best loved Christmas songs of all times and remained number 1 on all lists of favorite Christmas songs until Bing Crosby released his song White Christmas, of course, Crosby included O Come All Ye Faithful on that Christmas album as well. After that release Maurice Frost researched and found 7 copies of Adest Fideles which means “Come Faithful Ones” in Latin. All 7 copies were written in hand and signed by the English Catholic Priest John Francis Wade, the songs original author.

For 200 years, the world enjoyed the creation of the song without ever knowing the creator. For generations, we enjoyed the beauty of the work, we knew the work, but we never knew the one who graced us with the lyrics and music. Finally, the author and creator had been revealed.

Today, we aren’t just going to look at the history of this song though. We want to go deeper, we want to see what this song has to say to us, what the words of this song actually mean.

O Come All Ye Faithful”

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;

Come and behold him, born the King of Angels:

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above! Glory to God, Glory in the highest.

O, come, let us adore him, O, come, let us adore him,

O, come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

The lyrics are both haunting and inviting. They draw us in, yet at the same time remind us of our limits. That first line alone is enough to give us pause. O Come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant. While we should be filled with faith, joy, and triumph this time of year, often we aren’t.

For some of us, the time around Christmas is not so much about faith as it is doubt.

It’s not so much about joy as it is depression.

It’s not so much about triumph as it is the feeling of defeat.

We look at the shopping list and compare it with our checkbook and don’t know how we can ever give the gifts people want.

We look at the calendar of school, work, family, and church events and wonder how we will ever fit one more party into that schedule.

We look at the empty seat around the table and know it will be another year without that loved one.

Oh, Christmas is a time of Faith, Joy, and Triumph, but often we forget it and let it get trampled like a display of cheap TV’s on Black Friday.

But I see hope. Even in these words and the meaning behind them, I see hope for what is ahead. I see an invitation to come to Jesus. A calling to come to Jesus even as we wait for his return.

So, as we look at this, the beginning of Advent, who does Jesus call? We sing the songs, O Come all ye Faithful and wonder, what do we come to, who is it that is called?

First of all:

Jesus Calls the Weary and Burdened.

In fact, Matthew 11 tells us

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

I don’t know about you, but I can feel weary and burdened. I can feel worn down. I can feel that I bear the weight of my family at times, the weight of this church, the weight of those I minister to. I feel weary and burdened in this never ending pandemic.

Basically… I can be weary and burdened with what feels like the weight of the world.

But, Jesus calls people like me, people like you who are weary and burdened, to the rest that he offers. So, Jesus calls the Weary and Burdened, but Jesus also calls the Sinners.

Jesus Calls the Sinners.

Jesus tells us that, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. …For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:12-13

You, me… we have all failed. As long as we acknowledge our sin and don’t claim to be righteous by our own power, Jesus is calling us. He is calling the weary, the burdened, the sinners.

And when we hear his calling, when we accept the rest he offers, the healing he gives, then something beautiful happens.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says that,

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV

We become new. We become part of the new creation…

The New is Here…

And… that is the message of Advent.

The New has Come...

So, when we come to Jesus as the faithful, joyful, and triumphant, or as the weary, burdened and sinners, Jesus helps us become a New Creation… but what does that look like?

I was thinking about my life, an area of my life that God is working on and I thought, “Jesus accepts me as I am… Why do I concern myself with overcoming this obstacle in my faith?” Then, I remembered what I have told some of you, “yes, God accepts me as I am but he loves me too much to leave me as I am.” Jesus makes us new… and Jesus is still making us new.

So, as we look at this carol, where do we see that Jesus makes us new?

First, we see that Jesus helps us to become more faithful.

In fact Paul tells us in Hebrews, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith… Hebrews 12:2 Or, as I would have said last week, Let us Focus on Jesus…

Jesus is the author, the creator of our faith. And it is in Jesus that we find our perfection. Jesus works within us to perfect our faith. Now I want to pause and explain that word again. It isn’t perfect as in we never do anything wrong and we always do everything correct… yes we are to work toward that as we grow in faith, but that isn’t the image of ‘perfect’ here. It is like this. I have two boards that I need to screw together. Now I can take a butter knife and make it work, but that isn’t its intended purpose. I can take a screw driver and beat the screw through the board, but that isn’t the best way either. What I need to do is take a screwdriver from my box; perfectly fitted to my hand and slotted perfectly for the screw. With the proper, perfect tool, I can accomplish my task. That is the image of perfection here. That in our faith, we are perfect. We are fully equipped to be who God created us to be. We are made perfect in Christ. Our faith is perfected.

How does this happen?

Romans 10 tells us that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 ESV

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

- Someone shares scripture with you during a time when you need it.

- You study in a group and in private and God’s Word convicts you.

- You hear the Word proclaimed in worship and God works to perfect your faith.

There is power in the word of God.

Jesus also helps us to become more Joyful.

Joy is a fruit of the spirit. We find it in Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, (peace, patience, kindness…) Galatians 5:22

Let’s think about that… what does a fruit tree produce? Fruit, but not just any fruit. You can’t get an orange off an apple tree. As hard as it tries, and apple tree will only produce apples. And, it really doesn’t have to try to produce an apple. An apple tree produces apples, why? Because it is an apple tree. It is the same with us, our Joy comes from our relationship with God. It is not something that we can produce on our own. In fact, when we become that new creation that we read about from 2 Corinthians, that is a part of what happens to us. When we receive Christ, God puts the Holy Spirit inside us, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the grave. The fruit of that Spirit living inside us is then produced. Love, Joy, peace… are produced in us.

In this way, Jesus helps us become more joyful.

But, there is something we need to remember about joy. Joy isn’t about happiness.

Happiness depends on happenings. Joy depends on Jesus.

What goes on around us affects our happiness, but we choose to not let it affect our Joy. Because Joy depends on Jesus.

As we begin this season of Advent, we begin to think of the Christmas story we find in the Gospel of Luke and how Jesus is the origin of our joy. Luke 2 tells us the story of the Angels appearing to the Shepherds in the field and the terror they must have felt.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you… Luke 2:10-11 NIV

Jesus is the reason for our joy.

And Jesus helps us to be more triumphant.

Triumph does not usually happen alone. Even in an individual sport it takes a team to prepare the athlete. A martial artist is trained by a master, a coach, and a team. A Tennis Pro works with specialists to improve each area of their game: back hand, forehand, power serve... It all comes back to the team.

In life, we find our triumph not in our strength, not in our power, not in what we can do… we find our triumph in Christ Jesus and the Body of Christ that surrounds us.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever… Isaiah 9:6-7 NIV

That is triumph. Christ is with us and he has been with us from the beginning.

Christ has died,

Christ is risen,

Christ will come again.

This time of year we pause to remember the coming of Christ when so often we forget.

[Sermon Title Slide]

It is like the song O Come All Ye Faithful. We knew the creation, we knew the work of the creator but we didn’t know the author. We may have known of him, but we didn’t know him.

We didn’t know the creator until he was revealed.

Jesus has been revealed… and that is what Advent is about.