A Song for Every Generation

Leah returned from last Saturday's Christmas brunch and said, "Kathy Baker gave a great teaching on tradition at Christmas."  I asked Kathy to send me a condensed version, I read it, and agree with Leah.  It is great.  So, this week, I'm sharing it with y'all on the blog.  Enjoy Kathy's thoughts and Merry Christmas!

Out of all the wonderful traditions surrounding Christmas, the one that I enjoy the most is the music.  Music has always told the story of who we are; what we feel through our experiences both past and present, and the deep longing in what we hope for in the future.  Christmas music is no different. 

My favorite Christmas song, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, contains these three dimensions of past present and future within its many verses.   The song is thought to be written sometime before 800 AD most likely by an anonymous monk in Europe and was originally an antiphonal chant used as a call and response between two choirs.  It found a new and haunting melody in the company of French nuns ministering in Portugal in the 15^th century, rediscovered and transcribed from Latin into English by an Anglican priest serving in the Madeira Islands off the coast of Africa in the early 19^th century. 

This song, based on Isaiah 7:14, "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel" (which means “God with us”)  speaks first out of the ancient past as the Israelites longed for God’s deliverance from their captivity in Babylon through the promise of a great and coming King, to the author’s present moment living in the Dark Ages as he also looked for Christ coming to them, and finally to the hope for the future where God would come and bind all peoples in one heart and mind.  To each generation the author proclaims Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to you!

Emmanuel comes to us in every generation because God’s love for the world is so extravagant that He gave us His only son. Jesus, the living Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.  And that same Jesus who was taken from the earth into heaven will come back in the same way that he left.  In this promise we have hope.  Past, Present and Future:  The song of Emmanuel, God with us, is a song for every generation.