Remembering the first martyr

Feast of St. Stephen
Text: Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51c-60

Naturalists might try to explain away the giftedness of Stephen. They might say he was just a better debater than his detractors. But Stephen was a man so filled with the Holy Spirit that signs and wonders accompanied his words. He spoke the truth because the Holy Spirit spoke through him, and people heard and believed. But this upset a lot of people. For Stephen’s opponents, their livelihood depended on the perpetuation of a lie. They were intimidated by Stephen and felt threatened by his words and the signs which accompanied them. He spoke the truth so convincingly, yet with such genuine humility, that his opponents just couldn’t stand it.

You know what happens next. Unable to withstand Stephen’s proclamation of the truth, his opponents trump up a bunch of lies about him and drag him before the council. But this only gives Stephen yet another opportunity to preach the Word. He rehearses the whole history of Israel, reminding the people of their heritage and of their hope for a promised Deliverer. But he also reminds them of the dark side of their history; of their stubbornness, their rejection of the prophets, and finally their rejection of the Righteous One himself. In a ringing indictment, Stephen declares, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.” He indicts his accusers with their own words: the words of Abraham, of Moses, of David, and of all the prophets of old; the words they held to be the very Word of God. Had not God himself said of the Israelites that they were a stiff-necked people, stubborn, unwilling to accept the messengers he sent?

This, of course, is not the way to win friends and influence people. But Stephen isn’t finished yet. He sees a vision of heaven opened and of Jesus standing at the right hand of God. This is more than Stephen’s enemies can stand. But their rage is not really directed at Stephen. They’re not angry with him. They’re angry with God. Stephen knows this. That’s why he is able to face death unafraid, knowing, having already beheld that wondrous vision of Christ in glory, that he will be vindicated and share in the glory. But it’s also the reason he has pity on those who murder him, praying with his dying breath that God will not hold their sin against them.

In his death, just as in his life, Stephen models the perfect Christ-likeness that Peter speaks of: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

Collect of the Day

We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at your right hand: where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Christmas is the birthday of peace

by St. Leo the Great

Although the state of infancy, which the majesty of the Son of God did not disdain to assume, developed with the passage of time into the maturity of manhood, and although after the triumph of the passion and the resurrection all his lowly acts undertaken on our behalf belong to the past, nevertheless today’s feast of Christmas renews for us the sacred beginning of Jesus’s life, his birth from the Virgin Mary. In the very act in which we are reverencing the birth of our Savior, we are also celebrating our own new birth. For the birth of Christ is the origin of the Christian people; and the birthday of the head is also the birthday of the body.

Though each and every individual occupies a definite place in this body to which he has been called, and though all the progeny of the church is differentiated and marked with the passage of time, nevertheless as the whole community of the faithful, once begotten in the baptismal font, was crucified with Christ in the passion, raised up with him in the resurrection and at the ascension placed at the right hand of the Father, so too it is born with him in this Nativity, which we are celebrating today.

For every believer regenerated in Christ, no matter in what part of the whole world he may be, breaks with that ancient way of life that derives from original sin, and by rebirth is transformed into a new man. Henceforth he is reckoned to be of the stock, not of his earthly father, but of Christ, who became Son of Man precisely that men could become sons of God; for unless in humility he had come down to us, none of us by our own merits could ever go up to him.

Therefore the greatness of the gift which he has bestowed o us demands an appreciation proportioned to its excellence; for blessed Paul the Apostle truly teaches: We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. The only way that he can be worthily honored by us is by the presentation to him of that which he has already given to us.

But what can we find in the treasure of the Lord’s bounty more in keeping with the glory of this feast than that peace which was first announced by the angelic choir on the day of his birth? For that peace, from which the sons of God spring, sustains love and mothers unity; it refreshes the blessed and shelters eternity; its characteristic function and special blessing is to join to God those whom it separates from this world.

Therefore, may those who were born, not of blood nor of the will fo the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God, offer to the Father their harmony as sons united in peace; and may all those whom he has adopted as his members meet in the firstborn of the new creation who came not to do him own will but the will of the one who sent him; for the grace of the Father has adopted as heirs neither the contentious nor the dissident, but those who are one in thought and love. The hearts and minds of those who have been reformed according to one and the same image should be in harmony with one another.

The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace, as Paul the Apostle says: For he is our peace, who has made us both one; for whether we be Jew or Gentile, through him we have access in one Spirit to the Father.

The Incarnation and human dignity

by St. Peter Chrysologus

A virgin conceived, bore a son, and yet remained a virgin. This is no common occurrence, but a sign; no reason here, but God’s power, for he is the cause, and not nature. It is a special event, not shared by others; it is divine, not human. Christ’s birth was not necessity, but an expression of omnipotence, a sacrament of piety for the redemption of men. He who made man without generation from pure clay made man again and was born from a pure body. The hand that assumed clay to make our flesh deigned to assume a body for our salvation. That the Creator is in his creature and God is in the flesh brings dignity to man without dishonor to him who made him.

Why then, man, are you so worthless in your own eyes and yet so precious to God? Why render yourself such dishonor when you are honored by him? Why do you ask how you were created and do not seek to know why you were made? Was not this entire visible universe made for your dwelling? It was for you that the light dispelled the overshadowing gloom; for your sake was the night regulated and the day measured, and for you were the heavens embellished with the varying brilliance of the sun, the moon and the stars. The earth was adorned with flowers, groves and fruit; and the constant marvellous variety of lovely living things was created in the air, the fields, and the seas for you, lest sad solitude destroy the joy of God’s new creation. And the Creator still works to devise things that can add to your glory. He has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth; he has made you his legate, so that the vast empire of the world might have the Lord’s representative. Then in his mercy God assumed what he made in you; he wanted now to be truly manifest in man, just as he had wished to be revealed in man as in an image. Now he would be in reality what he had submitted to be in symbol.

And so Christ is born that by his birth he might restore our nature. He became a child, was fed, and grew that he might inaugurate the one perfect age to remain for ever as he had created it. He supports man that man might no longer fall. And the creature he had formed of earth he now makes heavenly; and what he had endowed with a human soul he now vivifies to become a heavenly spirit. In this way he fully raised man to God, and left in him neither sin, nor death, nor travail, nor pain, nor anything earthly, with the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, for all the ages of eternity. Amen.

In praise of Christmas

by St. Ephrem the Syrian

Lord, give us leave this day to celebrate thy true birthday, of which the present festival puts us in mind. This day is like thyself: it is the friend of man. Year by year it returns throughout the centuries, growing old with the aged, renewing itself with the new-born child. Year by year it comes to us, passes, and then returns, full of the old magic. It knows that human nature cannot do without it; like thyself, it comes to the rescue of our imperiled race. The whole round earth is thirsting for thy birthday, Lord. In that one happy day are contained all the ages to come; it is one, yet it multiplies itself to infinity. May it then resemble thee again this year, and make peace between heaven and earth.

All days bear the imprint of thy goodness, but today thy goodness brims over. The other days of the year borrow their loveliness from this one; the coming festivals owe to it all their dignity and luster. Thy birthday, Lord, is a treasure great enough to repay the common debt.

Blessed be that day which gave back the light of the sun to us who were astray in the dark, which brought us the sheaf of divine plenty and gave us that vine from which the wine of salvation would be pressed. In the depth of winter, when the trees were stripped of fruit, the vine clothed itself with heavenly foliage; in that icy season a branch sprang from the tree of Jesse. In that month of December which holds deep down in the earth the seed that was entrusted to it, the bud of salvation unfolded itself from the Virgin's womb, where it was planted in the spring days when the lambs were skipping in their pastures.

TO GOD THE FATHER

Today the true sun is risen on the world, today a light has come forth in the midst of the darkened earth: God has become man, so I that man may become God in his turn; the Master takes upon himself the form of a slave, so that the slave may be converted to his Master. He who founded and dwells in the heavens has made his abode on earth, so that man, the earth-bound, may find a new home in heaven.

O day more brilliant than any sun! season for which all ages have longed! That which the angels were awaiting, that which the cherubim and seraphim and the ministering choirs of heaven knew not, has been revealed in our time. That which they viewed as a reflection in a mirror, we see face to face. He who spoke to the people of Israel through Isaias, Jeremias, and the other prophets, now speaks to us through his Son.

By thy favor, Lord, let the holy angel bring tidings of great joy to Christian people all over the world. Today in David's city Christ the Lord is born, the salvation of all, the eternal Savior; and in that city, which is the Church, he will reign for ever, guarding and guiding her until the end of time. Grant that his reign over her may be whole and entire, extending throughout the world, and causing her to partake of that eternity which belongs to the citizens of heaven.

Merciful and loving God, whose will and gift it was that our Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself to this end that he might raise up the whole race of men, stooping low to exalt the lowly, a God born of a Virgin to restore in man the lost image of heaven: grant that this people of thine may cleave to thee, and that those whom thou hast freely redeemed may ever give thee zealous and acceptable service.

Merciful God, prepare the minds of the faithful, and subdue unbelieving hearts, to welcome the surpassing mystery of thy Son's human birth.

TO THE INCARNATE WORD

This is the day on which the Savior of the earth, the Light of the world, shone forth. On this day the Savior of Israel came down from the pinnacle of heaven to set free all those whom the ancient enemy held captive by reason of Adam's fault; he came down so that blind souls might have light and deaf souls might hear. The mountains and hills leap for joy, the very foundations of the world break into song, thrilled by the great mystery of his incarnation and all the good it has brought.

For our part, let us humbly entreat our Redeemer to show us his love and mercy. May our souls, begrimed by sin, be cleansed by heartfelt contrition, so that his light may shine gloriously in and about us, and the bliss of salvation be ours to enjoy for ever.

For our sake a child is born, to our race a Son is given. Thou who art thy Father's full-grown Son hast become thy mother's baby; in heaven, infinite: here, tiny; abiding in thy Father's bosom, yet carried in thy mother's womb; changeless in Godhead, peerless in thy humanity, because for ever one and the same in both; in thy divine nature our Creator, and in thy human our Redeemer.

Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, God and Man; as God, infinite, yet from the beginning destined to become man; God before time was, Man in process of time; all-embracing, all-transcending; from whom all beings have life; thou who wast born for our sake, have mercy upon us.

Abiding still within thy own Godhead, thou showest thyself in our midst; self-centered, thou comest to our help; not lacking power from the Father to pass judgment upon us wretches, thou comest in mercy to save us; while filling the heavens, thou dost not abandon the earth. Without abating thy infinite majesty as Creator, complete in us, we pray thee, the work of a most kind Redeemer; and let that pity which led thee to pay our ransom move thee also to pardon our misdeeds.

We have had sight of thy glory, Lord, glory such as belongs to the Father's only-begotten Son: sole-born in Godhead, first-born in earthly rank; in heaven the only Son of the Father, here on earth the chief among thy brethren; there one with the Father, here the first among thy fellows; there abiding in the Father's bosom, his equal, here never deserting thy companions; there creating, here renewing. Give us grace to become partners of thy kingdom, since for us thou madest reparation on earth. Thou who camest into this world to redeem us, be our reward in the world to come.

God, who in putting on humanity didst of thy own accord become our partner in weakness; make us thy partners in the glory of thy heavenly kingdom.

Thou hast risen upon us, Jesus Christ, true Sun of Justice. Thou hast come down from heaven, Redeemer of mankind, and built for us a rampart of salvation. Thou, the everlasting Son of the Most High, born as man from the stock of David, as ancient prophecies foretold, hast been pleased to forgive thy people, and blotting out the record of our primal sin, hast opened a triumphal way to eternal life.

New therefore, we pray thee, let us behold the depths of thy mercy. Eternal Savior, rescue us from the devilish foe, make us zealous in holy living, keep us from straying into peril of death, and lead us, by the straight path of thy service, which is peace, 0 Savior of the world, who art God, living and reigning, and ruling with God the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Christmas Hymnody: Theology and History (5)

The collaborative effort of Josef Mohr and Franz Gruber in composing "Silent Night" is legendary. For years, the story was told of how Mohr and Gruber, assistant pastor and organist at the Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, Austria, wrote the song on Christmas Eve and had to use a guitar for accompaniment because the church organ was broken. In recent years, the traditional story behind the composition of the hymn has come into question. Gruber's score may have been written some 2-4 years after Mohr composed his original poem. This discrepancy, however, may be explained in this account from Nazarene missionaryHoward Culbertson.

While we were serving as missionaries

in Europe we visited a small little church in Austria. That church was the birthplace of "Silent Night." Here's the story how this most famous of Christmas carols came to be written:

In 1818, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they arrived at Oberndorf, a village near Salzburg. There they were scheduled to perform the story of Christ's birth in the Church of St. Nicholas.

Unfortunately, the St. Nicholas' church organ wasn't working and would not be repaired before Christmas. (Note: some versions of the story point to mice as the problem; others say rust was the culprit) Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That Christmas presentation put assistant pastor Josef Mohr in a meditative mood. So, instead of walking straight to his house, Mohr took a longer way home. The longer path took him up over a hill overlooking the village.

From that hilltop, Mohr looked down on the peaceful snow-covered village. Reveling in the wintry night's majestic silence, he gazed down at the glowing scene. His thoughts about the Christmas play caused him to remember a poem he had written a couple of years earlier. That poem was about the night when angels announced the birth of the long-awaited Messiah to shepherds on a hillside.

Mohr decided those words would make a good carol for his congregation the following evening at their Christmas eve service. However, he didn't have any music to which that poem could be sung. So, the next day Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Gruber only had a few hours to come up with a melody which could be sung with a guitar. However, by that evening, Gruber had managed to compose a simple musical setting for Mohr's poem. It didn't matter that the organ was broken. They now had a Christmas carol they could sing without it.

On Christmas Eve, the little Oberndorf congregation heard Gruber and Mohr sing their new composition to the accompaniment of Gruber's guitar.

Weeks later, well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher arrived to fix the St. Nicholas church organ. When he finished, Mauracher stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument. When Gruber sat down, his fingers began playing the simple melody he had written for Mohr's Christmas poem. Deeply impressed, Mauracher took the music and words of "Silent Night" back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers -- the Rainers and the Strassers -- heard it. Captivated by "Silent Night," both groups put the new song into their Christmas season repertoire.

The Strasser sisters spread the carol throughout northern Europe. In 1834, after they had performed "Silent Night" for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, that king ordered his cathedral choir to sing it every Christmas eve.

The Rainers brought the song to the United States in 1839, singing it (in German) at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside New York City's Trinity Church.

In 1863, nearly fifty years after being first sung in German, "Silent Night" was translated into English (by either Jane Campbell or John Young). In 1871 the English version was published in an American hymnal: Charles Hutchins' Sunday School Hymnal.

Whatever its actual origin, "Silent Night" has become a staple for Christmas Eve candlelight services.

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and Child.
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love’s pure light;
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

Silent night, holy night
Wondrous star, lend thy light;
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born!

While predominantly a meditative, devotional piece, the phrase, "With the dawn of redeeming grace," is rich in theological substance. Grace has, from the beginning, been the means through which God brings redemption to a fallen creation. But not until the birth of the Christ child did that "redeeming grace" shine upon the world like the dawn of a new day.

Originally published 12/15/07

Christmas Hymnody: Theology and History (4)

No Christmas celebration is complete without a few rounds of Isaac Watts' classic, "Joy to the World." Yet, surprisingly enough, Watts' text does not make any explicit mention of any distinctively Christmas theme.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

It is doubtful, in fact, that Watts ever intended this hymn to be used within the context of the celebration of Christmas. His Puritan heritage would have instilled in him a disdain for what was, in his day, a notoriously raucous holiday with only the thinnest of religious overtones. Certainly, the birth of Jesus is a joyous occasion, but "Joy to the world, the Lord is come!" is not necessarily a celebration of his birth (an historical event) so much as it is a declaration of his Lordship made manifest throughout the world (an ongoing reality). Unlike so many of the overly sentimental hymns now associated with Christmas, "Joy to the World" is a deeply theological and Christological treatise, adapted not from the Christmas narratives of the New Testament, but from the Psalms of David.

While orthodox Christians everywhere have always sung this hymn with great enthusiasm, it was despised by Enlightenment-era thinkers who were particularly taken aback by the line, "Far as the curse is found." Any reference to "the curse" was a direct implication of the Fall, a doctrine wholly unacceptable to a naturalistic worldview. Any reference to deity was also unacceptable. Thus, some enterprising naturalists during that period attempted to alter the opening line of the first stanza to "Joy to the world, the light has come!" Thankfully, Watts' original words survived this butchery and continue to be sung today as a celebration of the true Light, the Lord of heaven and earth, who is come and will come again in glory.

Brandon Vallorani offers an excellent exposition on the eschatology of Watts' classic hymn.

Originally published 12/14/07

Christmas Hymnody: Theology and History (3)

Today, we look at one of the sentimental favorites of the Christmas season. The children's lullaby, "Away in a Manger," focuses on the Christ child, sweet and innocent, but also, for want of a better phrase, excessively divine.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the Baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes;
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.

It's the line, "But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes," that is problematic. To suggest that the infant Jesus did not cry when he awoke, like any normal baby would, is to diminish his humanity and over-emphasize his divinity. Sound theology holds Christ's divinity and humanity in proper balance. But perhaps we should cut the author a little theological slack here. A lullaby, after all, is supposed to be a soothing melody to calm a whimpering child, and what better comfort can there be than to have "the little Lord Jesus" himself staying by your cradle "till morning is nigh?"

Authorship of this hymn is the source of much dispute. The third stanza was written by John McFarland (1851-1913). The original two stanzas, as published in an 1885 Lutheran children's songbook, have been attributed to none other than Martin Luther. But this claim is dubious, to say the least. Two years after the initial publication, the song appeared in another children's book under the title, "Luther's Cradle Hymn," but there is little or no historical evidence to trace the text back to the Great Reformer himself.

Originally published 12/13/07