Advent 2024

Scripture Texts: Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

Can you imagine living in a world where there were no contrasts, no extremes, no differences?  A world in which there was no right and wrong, no good and evil, no sour and sweet, no hot and cold, winter and summer, no light and darkness.

We probably don’t give it much thought but contrasts and comparisons help us understand and appreciate things more.  It is contrasts that make our world what it is and without them we would have no frame of reference, our world would be utterly bland and boring.

Without contrasts, everything would become meaningless.  Bad doesn’t have meaning without understanding good.  We can’t fully appreciate how good a good friend is unless we have had a bad friend.  I don’t fully appreciate good health until I have been sick for three weeks.  When I encounter greediness it makes me appreciate generosity.

If everything we had was taken away from us and then given back…. Imagine our humble gratitude.

The prodigal son didn’t appreciate his father until he was stripped of everything, only then did he see what he had all along, an abundant life with a loving, caring, father who withheld nothing from him, but gave him everything.  He didn’t know how blessed he was until he experienced the opposite.

Our God is a contrasting God. He gives us night so we can better enjoy day. Gives us Fall so we can better see Spring. Let’s us go through dark valleys to better enjoy the view on the mountaintops. He allows heartbreak so we can better treasure love. Let’s us go through the dry, parched, spiritual times so we can experience the times of refreshing and grow stronger; and then really value His Spirit dwelling in us. Steve Smith

In the Messiah, Handel uses music to create a contrast he draws out of several texts in Isaiah.  The contrast is between darkness and light.

Handel puts words in a low range, in the voice of a bass soloist to paint a tonal picture of the contrast between darkness and light.  He wants us not just to hear the darkness, but to feel the darkness.

Scripture Texts: Isaiah 40:1-5; Luke 3:3-8; II Corinthians 1:3-7

It is the season of advent and Christmas with all of its sights, sounds, tastes and smells and memories.  For one month of the year, we get to sing and listen to many of our favorite hymns and songs.  One of the best parts of our annual celebration is Handel’s Messiah.

George Frideric Handel was a German born composer of opera who spent most of his life in London up to the mid-1700s.  When his operas began to fail, along with his health, Handel sank into bankruptcy and despair, believing his career was over.

In the summer of 1741, a devote Christian by the name of Rev. Charles Jennens paid a visit to Handel and handed him the text, or libretto as it is properly call, for an oratorio he wanted Handel to compose.  It consisted completely of Scripture, 81 verses from 14 different books of the Bible, but mostly from Isaiah, the Psalms and I Corinthians 15.

Handel took the text and composed what is one of the world’s greatest masterpieces in music.  He went into seclusion, barely eating or sleeping and in 24 days he finished a 260 page handwritten manuscript for a two-and-a-half hour oratorio, that is considered by many to be the greatest feat in the history of musical composition.

At the end of the manuscript, he wrote the initials “SDG,” Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone be (the) Glory.”  About the Messiah Handel said, “I think I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Himself.”

When his eyesight began to fail, Handel underwent surgery, but with the tragic result of total blindness.  He continued to perform for eight years, until, at age 74, he collapsed while conducting a performance of Messiah. He died April 14th, 1759, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His grave is marked by a statue of Handel at his table, with the score of Messiah opened to the page, “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.”  Chuck Colson.

The Messiah is divided into three parts, the birth, the death and the resurrection of the Messiah.

Lord willing from now until Christmas day I want to reflect on a few of the texts in the first part of the Messiah, and then on Christmas day, on the Hallelujah chorus.  Isaiah 40:1-5 is the opening text for the Messiah.  To understand why Jennens chose this text to open the Messiah, we have to know the context.

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