The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. —John 1.14
The word is love. —The Beatles
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Today as I write, it is Wednesday, December 14. Just another Wednesday to knock out my blog post. I thought I’d tell you my favorite Christmas carol (“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) and then ask you to tell me yours.
(You still can if you feel like it after what is to come.)
Before I started on this post, I read The History Channel’s newsletter, “This Day in History”—as I do most mornings.
December 14: Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole in 1911; the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations for its invasion of Finland in 1939; 20 students and 6 teachers were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
I remember. You remember. We all remember.
Rachel weeping for her children.
Who can think of “Joy to the World” or “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” on such an anniversary? My mind went to “In the Bleak Mid-winter” and then to “7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” by Simon and Garfunkel (released in 1966).
That song haunts me.
The lights of Christmas cannot eliminate the darkness. Jesus is not a way out of this world. Jesus is a certain way of being in this world. Of being in love. Emmanuel. God (love) with us.
Last Sunday we put on a Christmas playlist and put up the tree with our 14-year-old twin granddaughters. That was a first. That was joy.
I settled in my chair to watch the news and saw jagged fragments of Pan Am Flight 103 strewn on the ground at Lockerbie, Scotland. I didn’t remember that this week is the anniversary of that massacre. Two hundred and seventy people killed on December 21, 1998.
I’d forgotten. So many other massacres squashed it. 9/11. Sandy Hook. Marjory Douglas Stoneman. Uvalde. Colorado Springs.
Rachel weeping for her children who were and now are not.
And that took me to the “Coventry Carol.” I’ve heard it many times but never paid attention to the lyrics. I thought it was a lullaby. It’s not.
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child
Bye bye, lully, lully
O sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day?
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
“Bye bye, lully, lully”?
Herod the king, in his raging
Charged he hath this day
His men of might in his own sight
All young children to slay
That woe is me, poor child, for thee
And ever morn’ and day
For thy parting neither say nor sing
“Bye bye, lully, lully”
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child
Bye bye, lully, lully
Herod’s decree (“Kill all male children two years and younger!”) and Rachel weeping for her children are also part of the Christmas story.
Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time to stand in solidarity with those who mourn. Light the candles of hope, love, joy, and peace tonight.
You are the light.
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