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Once in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed.
Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ, her little child.
It's that time of year again... time for our annual Lessons and Carols service! Lessons and Carols is a service of Christian worship where the story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings or lessons from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir anthems.
Before this service became popularly associated with King's College, Cambridge, it began in Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. Up to the late 19th century, Christmas carols were usually performed by singers visiting people's homes, singing mostly secular music, which had been excluded from Christian worship. In the Victorian era, hymns became more popular, and church musicians were encouraged to introduce carols into worship. The first formal service of nine lessons and carols was held on Christmas Eve of 1880, conducted by Edward White Benson, who became Archbishop of Canterbury three years later. While the popularity of the service has spread to mostly Anglican churches, numerous Christian denominations have adopted the service as part of their Christmas celebrations. At JCPC, we have celebrated this service during Advent for several years.
This year, we are at least indoors for one service! The prelude will begin 15-20 minutes before the hour and will be a mix of anthems and carols which will begin to tell the familiar story. Later in the service, our virtual Chancel Choir is back for one of the anthems, and three soloists will sing live!
You may ask why we do this year after year... I could say all sorts of things about tradition and ritual and "just because it's Christmas..." but it's so much more than that... we NEED to stop regularly and ponder about the idea of God coming to us in the flesh. We NEED to reaffirm that we believe in a God who loves the world so much that he made a way for us to be able to approach him, to bring all we are and all we have, to be in relationship with the creator of the universe.
Now if you can wrap your brain around all of that and comprehend all that it means, that's pretty spectacular. The rest of us need to repeat the story and discover this miracle anew, year after year.
So please join us this Sunday and open your hearts to what God is saying to you, how God is drawing you into his presence. O come, let us adore him!!
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn king!"
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