Shepherd Song

This past Sunday, the fourth in Advent, our service took on a musical theme. We had special music from the choir augmented by trumpets and drums, a wonderful anthem by the hand-bells and a Calypso Carol for childrens time. My own contribution was the Shepherd song … a version of which can be found here.

In the midst of all the music one of our elders read from the King James version of the Bible the account of the angels and the shepherds. He had e-mailed me earlier in the week to say that he would prefer to read the traditional version rather than the version in our NRSV pew bibles. There is just something about familiar words that communicates the Christmas story in a special way!

He also shared how he was reading from a bible that had been presented to him in 1942 by one of his great-grandparents. After the service another member shared how they had been praying about whether to give their own great grandchildren and grandchildren the gift of a Bible for Christmas. The experience of hearing somebody share how precious such a gift had been to them, answered their prayer.

One of the themes of the Advent season is that ‘The Word’ becomes flesh. We are blessed when during worship we get a sense that God is at work in ways we had never anticipated and through actions that are very human.

Throughout this Christmas season may we continue to have experiences of the Holy Spirit that are truly ‘incarnational’… a theological term for God becoming flesh and hope being born into the midst of our everyday world.

Prayer ‘Lord, help us in this holy season to seek for Your love to be born in the midst of our celebrating. We thank You for this joyous season, and pray for all those we know of who are finding it hard to celebrate because of their life circumstances. Continue to shine the light that removes all darkness. Amen.’