A Christmas prayer for the sick

To listen to me read this prayer, click here.

O God our healer,

Who sweetened Mara's bitter waters with wood:

Sweeten the bitterness and loneliness of illness with the cross of Christ;

Console the ill with the fellowship of His sufferings and the Holy Spirit's comfort;

Show forth the sufficiency of Your grace and fullness of Your power;

Remind Your people to love, encourage, and pray for them;

Heal the grief of missing out, especially on days of celebration;

Forgive those who have added sorrow by their words and actions, intentional and accidental;

Transform sickrooms and hospital beds into sanctuaries through Your presence;

That the sick and their families may endure these afflictions as seeing You who are invisible,

And rest in Your promises that these sufferings are, even now, working for them an overwhelming, eternal, incomparable weight of glory;

In the name of Jesus,

the Man of sorrows who bore our sickness and pain as well as our sin,

Amen.

A Christmas Prayer for Those Who Feel Invisible

To listen to me read this post, click here.

O Sovereign King,

You who see the unseen and forgotten people,

Who sent Your royal angelic herald

To the unclean, uncouth shepherds,

The offscourings of society,

Distant from the rites of public worship,

But not from Your gaze:

Proclaim Your good news of great joy

To the invisible souls on the margins of church and culture now;

Invade our darkness with Your light,

Our fear with Your joy,

Our alienation with Your presence,

Our anonymity with Your attentive delight,

That we also might sound forth Your praises

And herald the glories You proclaim to us,

So that all glory and worship might resound

To Jesus the Savior,

Virgin-born yet God-enfleshed.

Holy and gracious is He.

Blessed be His name.

Amen.

A Christmas Prayer for the Broken Hearts

To listen to me read this prayer, click here.

Most merciful Father,

who draws near to the brokenhearted

and bandages their wounds:

Who but You can heal a broken heart?

Comfort Your bruised and battered children;

Minister to their wounds 

with the intimate companionship of Emmanuel,

God with us,

so that they might discover treasures

in the darkness of their heartache

which they could not have seen

in the sunshine of happier days.

Light of light, our Rescuer and Healer,

in You we ask this.

Amen.

Christmas Lovelight

Lord of light,

Lord of love,

Who rested not content in darkless, unblemished, eternal glory

Without the people You created:

People who traded Your bright fellowship for the darkling bondage of iniquity.

In Christmastide we remember and celebrate

The mystery of infinite, omniscient, omnipotent Deity

Weaving Himself into double helix,

Pouring Himself into a single human cell

In the confines of a virgin's womb.

While no less God,

You took upon Yourself the finitude of human form,

The patience of gestation,

The trauma of birth in blood and water.

Your voice--which shatters cedars and shakes wilderness,

stripping forests bare in power and splendor--

Cried out, hungrily inhaling the oxygen You spoke into being.

You, Savior, submitted to swaddling;

In humility, You gave Yourself to be diapered, held, rocked.

You who hold up the world by the Word of Your power

Condescended to months unable to hold up Your own head,

Immortal clothed in epidermis of mortality.

And why?

For love of Your enemies,

Sinners, rebels, reprobates,

Who deserve only wrath.

You entered our world,

Into every aspect of humanity but sin,

Lived the righteous life we could not,

Died the criminal's death we deserved,

Atoned for sin,

Conquered death,

Begat us to a living hope

Through Your resurrection from the dead.

Being fully human, You were a suitable substitute for scoundrel sinners

Such as I.

Being fully God, You were a sufficient substitute for all sinners

Who call on You in faith

(Such as I),

Trusting in Your name,

Jesus,

Savior,

Anointed One.

You took up our tears that we might find joy.

You took up our mourning that we might dance.

You took up our sickness that we might be whole.

You took up our hunger that we might be satiated.

You took up our sins that we might wear the garb of Your righteousness.

You took our judgment that we might receive grace.

You laid aside the glory of Sonship that children of wrath might be adopted sons of the Most High.

You enfleshed the Old Covenant and inaugurated the New,

Implanting new hearts that beat the rhythm of Your law.

Christ, our Passover, You gave Yourself for us

As priest and sacrifice.

Grant us grace to walk in forgiven freedom

Under the bright shelter of Your love and mercy,

Peace and grace,

Loving You who first loved us

And loved us to the end.

All praise to You, King Jesus,

For coming to shatter our darkness with Your sunrise from on high.

Come soon, Lord Jesus.

Amen.

The Lord Has Come

How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of the herald,

who proclaims peace,

who brings news of good things,

who proclaims salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

The voices of your watchmen—

they lift up their voices,

shouting for joy together;

for every eye will see

when the Lord returns to Zion.

Be joyful, rejoice together,

you ruins of Jerusalem!

For the Lord has comforted his people;

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has displayed his holy arm

in the sight of all the nations;

all the ends of the earth will see

the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:7-10

Who would have thought that the herald would be an angel,

the watchmen poor shepherds?

Who would have thought that the glow of God's shekinah glory in the night sky

Would lead to a feeding trough in a stable?

That a newborn's cry would be the first utterance of God come to reign?

That when God bared His holy arm

It would be the pudgy, flailing arm of an infant?

That the Word made flesh, come to comfort His people,

Would Himself first need the comfort of His mother's arms

And swaddling clothes?

Who would have thought that the revelation of God's reign to all the nations

Would first mean the worship and gifts of the magi

And not conquest and judgment?

May the majesty and mystery of Christmas fill your hearts with wonder, today and always. Much grace and peace to you and yours in Christ Jesus, from Amore, tinuviel, and the Ebony Dog.

"The Gift of Gifts" {A Christmas Prayer}

O Source of all good,
What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,
   thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,
   my redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
   his self-emptying incomprehensible,
   his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp.
Herein is wonder of wonders:
   he came below to raise me above,
   was born like me that I might become like him.
Herein is love;
   when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,
             to raise me to himself.
Herein is power;
   when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
   he united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreate and the created.
Herein is wisdom;
   when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
                                     and no intellect to devise recovery,
   he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
               as man to die my death,
                           to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
                           to work out a perfect righteousness for me.
O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds, and enlarge my mind;
   let me hear good tidings of great joy,
        and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
        my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
        my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;
   place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
        to look with them upon my redeemer's face,
        and in him account myself delivered from sin;
   let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,
        embrace him with undying faith,
        exulting that he is mine and I am his.
In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.

       ~The Valley of Vision, p. 16

Blessed Christmas, dear Crumbles, to you and yours, from us here at Wits' End!

Celebrating the Redeemer

And coming up at that very hour she [Anna] began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:38).
And his [John's] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days" (Luke 1:67-75 ESV).

Once upon a time in a public-school high school French class we sang "O Holy Night" with its original French text. Several years ago I remembered this as Amore and I rehearsed the English translation for a church Christmas concert.

The thing is, I couldn't remember a word of the French lyrics.  So the chase began. Two years ago, I shared my best attempt at translating those words into English and why they are more precious to me than the English interpretation we sing. 


Here is my literal translation, without attention to rhyme or singability, again:

Midnight! Christians, it is the solemn hour

When the man God descended unto us,

To erase original sin

And to stop His Father’s anger:

The whole world trembles with hope

At this night which gives us a Savior.

People, to your knees! Await* your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas! Here is the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas! Here is the Redeemer!

Let the burning light of our faith

Guide us all to the cradle of the Child,

As formerly, when a bright star

Led the chiefs of the East there.

The King of kings is born in a humble manger,

Powerful men of the day, proud of your grandeur—

It is from there [the manger] that a God preaches to your pride,

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

The Redeemer has broken all shackles,

The earth is free and heaven is opened.

He [the Redeemer] sees a brother where was only a slave;

Love unites those whom iron had chained,

Who will tell him our gratitude?

It is for us all that He suffered and died:

People, stand! Sing your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!

(French text, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure; trans., C. Moore)

*alternately "Expect" or "Be ready for"

For this Christmas, coming as it is at the end of a tumultuous and burdened year, let's shift our focus to the concept of Redeemer, which appears in the chorus of each of the 3 verses of the French lyric.

In Greek, as is often preached, the word "redeem" originates in the marketplace and the idea of buying something or someone back. It gives us imagery of paying a price and setting free.

In the ancient Hebrew culture, a redeemer functioned in 4 desperate situations:

• Loss of land (Lev. 25:23-34): If an Israelite became so poor that he lost his God-given, inherited portion in the land of promise, a relative with means to buy it back could do so and restore it to the original owner. The redeemer provided the remedy to bankruptcy.
• Loss of life (Num. 35:9-29): If a murder occurred, the redeemer (or kinsman-redeemer) was the Mosaic Law's appointed instrument of capital punishment. The redeemer provided justice for violence against his close relative. (The law also provided a means of protection for the killer in cases of accidental or ambiguous death until a fair trial could be held.)
• Loss of liberty (Lev. 25:47-55): If an Israelite became so poor that he had no alternative but to sell himself into slavery, the near relative could buy him back, The redeemer freed his enslaved kinsman.
• Loss of legacy (Deut. 25:5-10 and entirety of Ruth): If an Israelite man died with a wife but no child, the widow was in dire straits. In the ancient near east, a godly son fulfilled the role of a modern 401K, Social Security, and Medicare package. He was his parents' sustenance and protection in their old age. As strange as it seems to 21st-century readers, the husband's brother would temporarily act as a husband to the widow in order to beget a child to care for her when she was advanced in years. The resulting child would be considered the dead husband's, not the brother-in-law's. The redeemer would prevent the dying out of a family line and raise up an heir for the dead father and son to sustain the widow.

The common threads? Hopelessness and close relationship. Someone who can help himself or herself has no need of a redeemer. The redemption principle only comes into play when there is no other option. A stranger with no personal, familial relationship has no qualification to be redeemer.

At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer. We have no hope in ourselves to regain the inheritance of Eden, to judge wrongdoing righteously and effectively, to free ourselves from slavery to sin and death, or to make ourselves fruitful, let alone fruitful with abundant, lasting, good fruit. We are desperate and hopeless, in need of rescue. The rescuer has to be qualified, though; we need a rescuer who is a near kinsman.

Our Rescuer had to be fully human in order to redeem the children of men; He had to be God to be strong, rich, free, and life-giving, able to help the impoverished, enslaved, dead sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Only Jesus fully qualifies. As the hymn says, "the man God descended unto us,/To erase original sin/And to stop His Father’s anger."

Are you in a desperate, hopeless situation today? Are you carrying more lament than joy in your heart as you walk into Christmas? Beloved, if you are a Christian, your desperation puts you in the perfect place to appreciate the arrival of your Redeemer. May your need and pain turn your heart toward Him in worship and praise today. 

 Christians, "Who will tell him our gratitude?

It is for us all that He suffered and died:

People, stand! Sing your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!"

P.S.  For the inquisitive, here are the best websites I found:

http://www.paroles.net/chants-de-noel/paroles-minuit-chretien French lyrics

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/94/story_9463.html story behind the song – English

www.carols.org.uk/ba32-o-holy-night.htm English lyrics as we sing them

Hope for the Burdened at Christmas

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,

Look now! for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing.

O rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophet-bards foretold,

When with the ever circling years

Comes round the age of gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world send back the song

Which now the angels sing.

~from "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" by Edmund Sears

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set Thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us,

Let us find our rest in Thee....

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

~from "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" by Charles Wesley

However this finds your heart, dear Crumble,

may the Lord bless you with incomprehensible joy,

the joy only possible because Christ was born,

Christ has died,

Christ is risen,

and Christ will come again.

Come soon, Lord Jesus!

With prayers of blessing and much affection,

Amore, tinuviel, and the Ebony Dog

Let Us Sing the Redeemer! (Cantique de Noel)

Once upon a time in a public-school high school French class we sang "O Holy Night" with its original French text. Several years ago I remembered this as Amore and I rehearsed the English translation for a church Christmas concert.

The thing is, I couldn't remember a word of the French lyrics.  So the chase began.

When I eventually found the words, delayed by my failure to recall the French title, I discovered a beautiful, much stronger gospel message than in the English lyrics we Americans usually sing. The origin story explained why yet added to the mystique of the beautiful words.

In mid-nineteenth-century France, an obscure parish priest requested that a marginally involved poet-wine merchant in his congregation compose a poem for the midnight Mass dividing Christmas Eve from Christmas proper. The poet, Placide Cappeau, obliged and uncharacteristically felt moved to find music for his piece. For the tune he turned to Adolphe Adam, a French composer of Jewish heritage.

The song quickly became popular among the people. When the poet renounced faith in God and joined the socialist party and church leaders learned the composer was of Jewish lineage, they decried the song as unbecoming to Christian worship (from "Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas" as reprinted at BeliefNet). So much did the people love this Christmas carol that their efforts availed little.

In the next decade or so, "Cantique de Noël" came to the attention of American abolitionist John Sullivan Dwight, who translated the poem for American carolers, but with the addition of an abolitionist spin not present in the original.

For reasons I do not know, Dwight softened the first verse's lyrics about the God-man erasing original sin and stopping His Father's anger. Instead he offered a validation of the soul's worth. In the second verse, he replaced a line about God in the manger preaching to our pride with the true but very different sentiment, "In all our trials born to be our friend."

The greatest change, however, occurs in the third stanza. The original speaks of a mighty Redeemer who has broken shackles, set earth free, and opened heaven. This Redeemer now regards the slaves as brothers, uniting them in love.

Then Cappeau challenges the singers and hearers to respond to so great a redemption:

Who will tell him our gratitude?

It is for us all that He suffered and died:

People, stand!  Sing your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas!  Let us sing the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas!  Let us sing the Redeemer!

In its place, Dwight seized upon the original slavery imagery and anticipated an end to all human oppression. The end of slavery in the United States was unequivocally a good thing; by no means do I intend to argue against it.

That said, it grieves me that English-speaking Christians have lost the sense of the original French lyric which reminds me that I myself, regardless of race or ethnicity, am a slave set free, that my Redeemer rent heaven to break my shackles, our shackles, that the "King of kings born in a humble manger" suffered and died for me. This deliverance and nothing else unites us former slaves in love. Will I tell Him my gratitude? Will I, this Christmas, sing of my deliverance?

Translation, especially of poetry, is notoriously tricky business. Eugene Peterson, in Eat This Book, cites an Italian proverb to the effect that "the translator is a traitor." That said, since I can't teach you enough French to read the original "Cantique de Noël" for yourselves, I offer for your Christmas blessing my best attempt at a literal (not rhymed or singable) translation of the original text. Those of you proficient in reading French would do better to follow the link below (and correct me where I've erred).

Midnight! Christians, it is the solemn hour

When the man God descended unto us,

To erase original sin

And to stop His Father’s anger:

The whole world trembles with hope

At this night which gives us a Savior.

People, to your knees! Await* your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas! Here is the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas! Here is the Redeemer!

Let the burning light of our faith

Guide us all to the cradle of the Child,

As formerly, when a bright star

Led the chiefs of the East there.

The King of kings is born in a humble manger,

Powerful men of the day, proud of your grandeur—

It is from there [the manger] that a God preaches to your pride,

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

The Redeemer has broken all shackles,

The earth is free and heaven is opened.

He [the Redeemer] sees a brother where was only a slave;

Love unites those whom iron had chained,

Who will tell him our gratitude?

It is for us all that He suffered and died:

People, stand! Sing your deliverance,

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!

Christmas! Christmas! Let us sing the Redeemer!

(French text, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure; trans., C. Moore)

*alternately "Expect" or "Be ready for"

May the Redeemer grant you a heart full of worship this Christmas with time to kneel before the manger and adore our Lord and Savior.

Below you may view a contemporary French-Canadian arrangement with lyrics displayed:

And here is a tenor's rendition in classical style:



P.S.  For the inquisitive, here are the best websites I found:

http://www.paroles.net/chants-de-noel/paroles-minuit-chretien French lyrics

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/94/story_9463.html story behind the song – English

www.carols.org.uk/ba32-o-holy-night.htm English lyrics as we sing them