"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy," -- 1 Peter 1:8, NIV
Tonight, many from our church gathered at dairyman Dave's country estate for a Christmas meal. The food and atmosphere were great. But sweeter was the time of our fellowship and bonding in the rejoicing of Christ's birth.
Rather than an allegorial tale, The Chronicles of Narnia is a Christ infused story. In chapter 7 of 'Narnia', the four children are referred by Mr. Beaver as the 'Sons and Daughters of Eve' (cf Psalms 144:3; 8:3-4). Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are the keepers of the prophetic word. Their place is a refuge of hope (i.e. the interpretive Word) filled with warmth and hot food.
Excerpts from Chapter 7, 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe':
A Day With The Beavers.
----------
"Here we are, Mrs Beaver," said Mr Beaver, "I've found them. Here are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve'- and they all went in.
The first thing Lucy noticed as she went in was a burring sound, and the first thing she saw was a kindlooking old she-beaver sitting in the corner with a thread in her mouth working busily at her sewing machine, and it was from it that the sound came. She stopped her work and got up as soon as the children came in.
"So you've come at last!" she said, holding out both her wrinkled old paws. "At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day! The potatoes are on boiling and the kettle's singing and I daresay, Mr Beaver, you'll get us some fish."
"That I will," said Mr Beaver, and he went out of the house (Peter went with him), and across the ice of the deep pool to where he had a little hole in the ice which he kept open every day with his hatchet. They took a pail with them. Mr Beaver sat down quietly at the edge of the hole (he didn't seem to mind it being so chilly), looked hard into it, then suddenly shot in his paw, and before you could say Jack Robinson had whisked out a beautiful trout. Then he did it all over again until they had a fine catch of fish.
Meanwhile the girls were helping Mrs Beaver to fill the kettle and lay the table and cut the bread and put the plates in the oven to heat and draw a huge jug of beer for Mr Beaver from a barrel which stood in one corner of the house, and to put on the frying-pan and get the dripping hot. Lucy thought the Beavers had a very snug little home though it was not at all like Mr Tumnus's cave. There were no books or pictures, and instead of beds there were bunks, like on board ship, built into the wall. And there were hams and strings of onions hanging from the roof, and against the walls were gum boots and oilskins and hatchets and pairs of shears and spades and trowels and things for carrying mortar in and fishing-rods and fishing-nets and sacks. And the cloth on the table, though very clean, was very rough.
Just as the frying-pan was nicely hissing Peter and Mr Beaver came in with the fish which Mr Beaver had already opened with his knife and cleaned out in the open air. You can think how good the new-caught fish smelled while they were frying and how the hungry children longed for them to be done and how very much hungrier still they had become before Mr Beaver said, "Now we're nearly ready." Susan drained the potatoes and then put them all back in the empty pot to dry on the side of the range while Lucy was helping Mrs Beaver to dish up the trout, so that in a very few minutes everyone was drawing up their stools (it was all three-legged stools in the Beavers' house except for Mrs Beaver's own special rockingchair beside the fire) and preparing to enjoy themselves. There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes, and all the children thought - and I agree with them - that there's nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago. And when they had finished the fish Mrs Beaver brought unexpectedly out of the oven a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot, and at the same time moved the kettle on to the fire, so that when they had finished the marmalade roll the tea was made and ready to be poured out. And when each person had got his (or her) cup of tea, each person shoved back his (or her) stool so as to be able to lean against the wall and gave a long sigh of contentment.
"And now," said Mr Beaver, pushing away his empty beer mug and pulling his cup of tea towards him, "if you'll just wait till I've got my pipe lit up and going nicely - why, now we can get to business. It's snowing again," he added, cocking his eye at the window. "That's all the better, because it means we shan't have any visitors; and if anyone should have been trying to follow you, why he won't find any tracks."
----------
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace -- Isaiah 9:6, KJV
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. -- Isaiah 40:5, KJV
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee -- Zachariah 9:9, KJV
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.-- Luke 2:10-11, KJV
What Sweeter Music (Selection Expired)
Words: Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
'A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King
in the Presence at White-Hall'
Music: John Rutter
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honour to this day
That sees December turned to May.
Why does the chilling winter's morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly shorn
Thus on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
'Tis He is born. whose quickening birth
Gives life and lustre, public mirth,
To heaven and the under-earth.
We see Him come, and know Him ours,
Who, with His sunshine and His showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome Him, to welcome Him.
The nobler part of all the house here, is the heart.
Which we will give Him: and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath.
To do Him honour. who's our King,
And Lord of all this revelling
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
The two foremost English kapellmeisters are Dale Warland and John Rutter. Warland has retired his Dale Warland Singers and returned to the campus of University of Minnesota in mid-2004. That leaves us John Rutter and his Cambridge Singers.
Although Rutter himself has said he is not particularly religious, he has composed many beautiful Christian choral pieces. One could say God has a plan for this man and his artistry. *
In the course of this Christmas season, I will post a few Christmas choral selections from Rutter's Christmas album. One of my favorites from this album is Rutter's setting to Robert Herrick's Christmas poem 'What Sweeter Music.' Stay tuned if you will.
* For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. -- Ephesians 2:9-11 (NASB)
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
-- Micah 5:2, KJV
Aslan is on the move.
Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
-- Isaiah 26:8, KJV;
And
"The Spell Begins to Break"
The reason for that reassurance is that the sledge is Father Christmas' who, with the Witch's spell losing power, is finally able to enter Narnia. He comes bearing gifts for the fugitives: a sword and shield for Peter, a bow and quiver and a hunting horn for Susan, a dagger and a vial of magic cordial that can immediately heal any injury for Lucy.
-- C.S. Lewis "Chapter 10. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe"
The area concert choir and chamber singers presented a combined choral program at our church tonight. Included with the traditional Christmas carols and advent chorales, was O Magnum Mysterium. Setting by Morton Lauridsen (Chair of the Dept. of Composition at USC).
Posts
All Comments
