December 10, 2005

Joy To The World

Advent Church Our new church The First United Methodist Church of Bella Vista AR

I am receiving a Christmas gift tomorrow. Woody and I are joining a church filled with loving people that love God and are commited to sharing that love with others. This is a sort of homecomming for me as we have been so long away from a Body of Believers. I know that some of my friends are concerned, that this is not the non demnominational church that they feel we should be a part of nor is it the Church of Rome where some of my new friends have been praying that we would become a part of. Its a happy balance, a meeting of the minds between Woody and myself and that is along cause for rejoicing.

I have written three years running on "Joy to the World". I would only add to the post below that the carol is resounding in a nation and a world that would push Christ and the spiritual aspects of this season to the sidelines in favor of crass commercialism. I actually dont think there is any danger of this, for how can you celebrate CHRIST-MAS without CHRIST... you cant. And you never will...

I wrote about this, my favorite carol, last year for Christmas Day. I had a epiphany about it and Christmas back in 1993 and really had it again today sitting in the squalid, air so greasy you can feel it, atmosphere of Ryan's coffee shop and Okazuya... Here surrounded by japanese good luck cats, fat bhuddas in tinkling feng shui fountains, I heard the sounds of slightly off key singing as Ryan and the waitresses began to sing along with the canned music....



"Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
while fields and floods,
rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of His righteousness,
and wonders of His love,
and wonders of His love,
and wonders, wonders of His love"

Joy to the World
[Psalm 98, Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason, 1839]

It caught my attention first as this is likely my favorite song in all of Christian Musical literature... In fact I want it done at my funeral should someone care to hold one for me... and second...These non believers...and they of oriental religions to boot are lustily singing praise to my God and King. It was very much like this experience that I posted about last year.

....I love it (Joy to the World) because of the message that it brings, the hope that it shares and...Because in the guise of a cultural seasonal song the whole world gives honor to my Jesus. I realized this phenomena was occurring about 10 years ago. I was a starry eyed novice worship leader... Really in touch with words, music ect and I was walking alone in the crowded Cerritos Mall, in Southern California. I heard the words and the music to "Joy to the World" and I stopped and just listened. People were streaming past me, hundreds of them... singing or humming the familiar tune as the walked by me. The room was atrium like and the shafts of light were pouring in on me and I was enveloped with the thought that the whole world was singing about Jesus. Jesus as King, Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Ruler of the earth...Amazing. The Bible says that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus in Lord of All. All Christmas is, is a rehearsal for this great event. I shared this with my fellow worship leaders and later that week on from the platform Christmas Eve...

And so it is... They sing it in China, as they celebrate "Winter Holiday" having learned that Christmas is a huge part of the capitalist economic equaision... It is sung in India as millions still cling to customs learned from the British during the colonial era... It is sung in the Neo pagan post modern Europe, where the meaning of the message of the words has been lost... They sing it in new places, linguists teach it to tribes people in the Philippines and New Guinea, and here in Hawaii, I have heard a rendition where each line is sung in a different tongue that is spoken here as symbolic of the racial diversity that is both blessing and curse to this beautiful place...

It is being sung in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the former Soviet republics and in Cuba, where a friend tells me that nothing is more anticipated as the new holiday that was once banned only a few short years ago...

Where these words are sung and taken to heart, the freedom that is found in Christ cannot be long to follow...

Joy to the Earth, The Saviour reigns!...

No matter what happens, famine, pestilence, terrorism, We know that the earth is The Lords, in all of its fullness. Psalm 24:1 We can trust Him to banish the Curse, and bring us through, no matter what the future holds...