December 17: Light & Life
♫ Music:
Thursday, December 17
Scripture: Isaiah 9:2
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Poem: O Oriens
Author: Malcolm Guite
O Oriens
E vidi lume in forme de riviera Paradiso XXX; 61
First light and then first lines along the east
To touch and brush a sheen of light on water
As though behind the sky itself they traced
The shift and shimmer of another river
Flowing unbidden from its hidden source;
The Day-Spring, the eternal Prima Vera.
Blake saw it too. Dante and Beatrice
Are bathing in it now, away upstream…
So every trace of light begins a grace
In me, a beckoning. The smallest gleam
Is somehow a beginning and a calling;
“Sleeper awake, the darkness was a dream
For you will see the Dayspring at your waking,
Beyond your long last line the dawn is breaking.
LIGHT & LIFE
The birth of Christ as a baby in Bethlehem is near. We can sense it in the air. Something—or in this case, someone—is coming. There’s excitement all around and within us.
We prepare for his arrival. We ready our hearts to worship the King. We don’t want to miss him. We want to be like the shepherds who ran to find Jesus, not like the innkeeper who had no room for him. We don’t want to pass up the opportunity to be in the presence of Almighty God. And so, we quiet ourselves…and wait in expectation for His coming.
Advent is a season of expectation. A time for us to anticipate the birth of Jesus. The prophets long waited in expectation for the coming of Messiah. Theirs was a deep longing as they desperately cried out to God, "How long, Lord?" Messiah had been promised and so they waited...and waited...and waited some more. They waited in the midst of turmoil, unrest and tragedy.
As Christians living in the 21st century, we can understand their longing. We too are waiting. And we also wait in the midst of turmoil (economy; race relations; politics), unrest (Egypt; Israel; Syria) and tragedy (refugees dying as they flee their homes; hurricanes destroying personal property). This time, we wait not for Messiah, for he has already come; instead we wait for Christ the King to return in all his glory to redeem the entire world in a re-creation of a new heaven and a new earth. This has been promised to us by Jesus himself. And so we wait in expectation and we ask, "How long, Lord?"
During these dark times, how can we even begin to think about the Advent themes of hope, peace, joy, or love; let alone experience them? With so much darkness in our world, it may seem difficult to find these. And yet, it is within the darkness that God, very Light himself, has entered in. We find hope, peace, joy, and love in the fact that Christ has come and Christ will come again.
Darkness cannot conquer light. One glimmer of light and darkness flees. So it is with Christ, the Light of the world. He dispels the darkness that seems to have a grip on us and reminds us that He is “the light of the world,” and whoever follows Him “will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
This is what we celebrate during Advent. It is an important season of the church and for our lives. Let us not miss this time of expectation and anticipation. Let us not rush to Christmas, but give ourselves the opportunity to say, "Come Lord Jesus, come."
PRAYER
O Christ, Morning Star:
Splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Amen.
Steven D. Brooks, Pastor and Professor of Worship
About the Artists and Art
Artwork #1
Crown Him
Tyrus Clutter
Linoleum Block Print
Artwork #2
Morning Star
Narelle Urquhart
Acrylic Painting
Tyrus Clutter is a printmaker and painter who resides in Ocala, Florida. Clutter’s work can be found in the Print Collection of the New York Public Library, the National September 11th Memorial Museum, The Museum of Biblical Art in NYC, The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas, and private collections throughout the United States. A past director of Christians in the Visual Arts, Clutter combines elements from well-known master prints to create his own unique compositions. In his print Crown Him, Clutter shows Christ both literally and figuratively as the “Morning Star.”
Website: www.tyrusclutter.com
Narelle Urquhart (b. 1971) was born in Leeton, New South Wales of the Wiradjuri tribe, the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Australian father. Her mother, also an artist, was very invested in the political plight of the Aborigines. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Urquhart began to paint traditional Aboriginal art from a Christian perspective in 1997. Morning Star is a depiction of Revelation 22:16 which reveals Christ as “the bright morning star.”
Website: www.morningstaraboriginalart.com.au/index.php
About the Poet
Malcolm Guite (b. 1957) is a poet, author, Anglican priest, teacher and singer/songwriter based in Cambridge, England. He has published four collections of poetry: Saying the Names, The Magic Apple Tree, Sounding the Seasons: Poetry for the Christian Year, and The Singing Bowl. His writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, and his Antiphons appeared in Penguin’s Best Spiritual Writing 2013, edited by Philip Zaleski. Guite’s theological works include What Do Christians Believe? and Faith, Hope, and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination. He is a scholar of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the British poets and serves as Bye-Fellow and chaplain at Girton College at the University Cambridge, supervising students in English and theology and lecturing widely in England and America. Guite plays in the Cambridge rock band Mystery Train, whose albums include The Green Man and Dancing through the Fire.
Website: www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com
About the Music
“Morning Star”
Lyrics
Christ is the morning star,
who when the night of this world is past,
brings to His saints the promise
of the light of life and opens everlasting day.
About the Composer
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. He is an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. Since 2013, Pärt has had the distinction of being the most performed contemporary composer in the world. Although the recipient of numerous awards and honors from nations around the globe, the humble maestro strives to keep out of the limelight, crediting God for his many accomplishments. The lyrics for Morning Star are taken from the tomb of St. Bede in Durham Cathedral, Durham, England.
Website: www.arvopart.org
About the Performers
Ars Nova Copenhagen was founded in 1979 and has long established itself as one of the world's finest vocal ensembles.The ensemble's chief conductor and artistic director since 2003 is renowned English conductor Paul Hillier. Ars Nova has a somewhat unusual design: the singers are the ultimate authority in decision-making, partnering with Hiller to create the artistic vision. The ensemble specializes in the interpretation of Renaissance polyphonic choral music and new vocal music, performed with precision and nerve, creating a sound that attracts attention worldwide. With an annual concert season in Copenhagen and Aarhus, several concerts in the rest of Denmark and recurring tours worldwide, the group is now more in demand than ever. Ars Nova have won numerous awards, including a Grammy for The Little Match Girl Passion, with music by David Lang.
Website: www.arsnova.dk