Advent: December 21st
Matthew 28:18-20 | "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" | "This Christmas"
“Christ Walking on Water” by Julius von Klever
The writer of today’s song lyrics was a Unitarian pastor. This means he did not believe in the Trinity. You can hear the way the angelic song to the shepherds is alluded to and sort of pulled away from the text and from history to be spread over the modern man in a happy banner. It’s unclear from the song alone whether Edmund Sears believed in the claims and promises of Scripture. And yet, the song ends with the assured hope of a renewed world as foretold by the prophets. Let us be warned by his bad example not to pick and choose what we will believe from God’s word. He has spoken all of it, and it is all equally trustworthy.
The practice of picking and choosing portions of Scripture to take seriously while leaving others grows more and more foolish with reflection. Who are we to say that some of it is valid or good or authoritative while another part is not? A critic could, of course, broaden out the skepticism and say that none of the Bible is God’s word. This would at least be more consistent. But the believer in Christianity who rejects some of God’s teachings is merely sawing off the branch he sits on. He is an inventor of his own religion, making a patchwork monster of dead body-parts that can never be brought to life.
The Bible clearly teaches that God is Father, God is Son, and God is Spirit. Yes, God is one, but he is tri-personal. If not, how could God send God? Isaiah 9:6 shows us that the prophesied Messiah will be “Mighty God”, and at the same time that God sent him (John 3:16). Christmas is not possible without the Trinity.
Whether it was midnight and clear or not, Sears at least got one thing right with his title: on one particular night sometime in the first century AD, angels did appear to shepherds and give glory to God in the highest.
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Christmas hymn: “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” (I recommend the version by the Canterbury Choir)
Christmas fun song: “This Christmas”
Prayer: O Lord, Father, Son, and Spirit, we thank You that You have revealed Yourself to us Your lowly creatures, and nowhere more profoundly or viscerally than in Jesus Christ the God-man. By this we have obtained the greatest comfort our souls could ever long for.
Be exalted this day and this Christmas by our worship and our adoration, and we pray that the truth of who You are would cover the world as the waters cover the sea.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.