Joy and Woe
Advent is one of the earliest observances in our faith, dating back to the sixth century when fasting was a major part of the season’s preparation. Over time, our customs and rituals change, and our current custom is to have an Advent wreath with four candles, representing hope, peace, joy, and love. This week we gather around the candle of joy, and that may seem somewhat bittersweet.
This week and next, in our scripture readings and our reflections, we have young Mary, prophetess and priestess both, to show us how joy may be held in perfect harmony beside distress, loss, fear and uncertainty. Mary is and always was, the original rock star, and we shall hear her song in today’s reading of the Magnificat. Mary has much to teach. May we follow her lead in life, and in the great adventure of welcoming her child into our hearts.
Call to Worship, Remembering that it Happened Once, by Wendell Berry
Remembering that it happened once,
We cannot turn away the thought,
As we go out, cold, to our barns
Toward the long night’s end, that we
Ourselves are living in the world
It happened in when it first happened,
That we ourselves, opening a stall
(A latch thrown open countless times
Before), might find them breathing there,
Foreknown: the Child bedded in straw,
The mother kneeling over Him,
The husband standing in belief
He scarcely can believe, in light
That lights them from no source we see,
An April morning’s light, the air
Around them joyful as a choir.
We stand with one hand on the door,
Looking into another world
That is this world, the pale daylight
Coming just as before, our chores
To do, the cattle all awake,
Our own white frozen breath hanging
In front of us; and we are here
As we have never been before,
Sighted as not before, our place
Holy, although we knew it not.
“Man was made for Joy & Woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Thro the World we safely go.
Joy & Woe are woven fine,
A Clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief & pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine. ”
Third Week of Matthew Myer Boulton’s Must Listen Advent Podcast Series
“Is it possible to be joyful in the midst of the shadows of sorrow? Author and theologian Henri Nouwen puts it this way: while happiness usually depends on circumstances, joy runs deeper. “Joy," he writes, "is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing — sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death — can take that love away.” Thus joy and sorrow can not only coexist; joy can even be found in the midst of sorrowful circumstances. By all outward appearances, Mary’s situation was difficult and vulnerable, but her effervescent song of joy flows from a wellspring deeper than the surface of things.”
Welcome to “Strange New World,” a show about understanding the Bible, the world’s most influential, misunderstood book — a podcast tailor-made for skeptics, believers, and everybody in between.
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Here’s the third episode in our four-part series, “Understanding Christmas - Part Three.”
Selected Articles from UCC’s Broadview Magazine
This year, let’s take stock of how we celebrate the birth of Jesus
I wonder if we might take this as a year to let our Advent and Christmas lie fallow
By Richard Bott
I remember Advent and Christmas seasons when the church was a whirlwind of activity: pageants, potlucks, church services filled with young families, and carol singing with the choir in their best projecting voices. Amazing!
Yes, I remember Advent and Christmas in 2019. It feels a bit silly to put it that way, but it reminds me how different things are going to be this year with the changes that COVID-19….
Soprano Deantha Edmunds in an excerpt from her aria, "How Beautiful Are the Feet," performed for Messiah/Complex. (YouTube screenshot)
New Messiah production aims to lift up diverse voices
Handel's beloved Christmas classic has been shortened, made more inclusive and brought online for free
By Emma Prestwich, Broadview
For one Inuk soprano, performing an aria from Handel’s Messiah in Inuttitut connected her craft to her family history — and helped her feel closer to her late father.
“I’m just so excited,” says Deantha Edmunds, “because I get the chance to share the unique music history from Nunatsiavut, where my father was from.”
(Photo: Pavel Danilyuk/Pexels)
A different Christmas still offers a chance for growth
We won't miss the gifts. Instead, we yearn for each other.
By Rebecca Tucker
Christmas songs, largely, can be slotted into one of three categories: religious, kid-friendly and sentimental. Tunes like Silent Night and The Little Drummer Boy fit into the first category; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Here Comes Santa Claus fit into the second. Religious songs, and those tailored for the under-10 set, capture immutable aspects of the season: its foundation, in the birth of Christ; and the fact that many of its Western traditions — the arrival of Santa, the exchange of gifts, the boundary-free consumption of sweets and treats — are geared towards children.