Message Description

Dr. Kurt Bjorklund and his wife, Faith, examine the traditional song "O Holy Night" and provide historic biblical and social commentary leading up to the birth of the Messiah.

Message Transcript

Kurt Bjorklund: Good morning and welcome. Today is our day for what we call Message in Music, which some churches do something kind of like lessons in carols. We call it Message in Music. The last several years we've focused on one song primarily as we've interspersed the message in the song and we're going to do that again here today. And in just a few moments you'll get to hear from my wife, Faith. She serves in our counseling center as one of our counselors and so she'll be able to just share about the third verse of O Holy Night. I'm going to talk about the first verse here in just a few moments.

Kurt Bjorklund: And I like to say this, whenever I get a chance to introduce my wife publicly, I like to just acknowledge that my kids got all of their good looks from me. And the reason I say that is because my wife still has hers and yeah that was for her, absolutely.

Kurt Bjorklund: Just before we jump into it though, I do want to say this and that is next week we have a unique Christmas schedule, so please pay attention to that. For example, next Sunday there is one weekend service at 10:30 on Sunday morning so if you come at 11:15 you'll come in halfway through saying, "What's going on?" 10:30 next Sunday morning, 15 Christmas Eve services at our Wexford location, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon, evening, Sunday afternoon, evening, then Monday and then 6:00 on Christmas Eve. A lot of opportunities, chances to come, but just pay attention so that you know exactly when all of those are.

Kurt Bjorklund: Well, as I mentioned, we're going to talk about O Holy Night and when it comes to Christmas songs, there are really two kinds of songs. There are the songs that I would say are just kind of goofy and then there are songs that are sacred. And when I say goofy songs, I'm thinking about things like Grandma Got Run Over by the Reindeer, or All I Want for Christmas are My Two Front Teeth. You can fill all kinds of lists with these songs. And then there are the sacred songs, the songs that we say, these sing of something that has ultimate significance. And among the songs that are sacred, there are also two kinds of songs. There are those that reflect accurately the biblical narrative and there are those that don't reflect accurately so much the biblical narrative.

Kurt Bjorklund: For example, there's the song, We Three Kings. Maybe you've heard it sung. And that song isn't overly accurate. Here's why, the three isn't really accurate. What we know is that there were magi that came, magi is plural. We get three because of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And it fits really nicely in a kid's pageant to have three kids with little crowns coming forward with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But it's plural for magi. And when we say kings, it isn't that they were kings, they were magi. And what magi were were, wise sages, sometimes musicians. And then when we think about that, we often place them at the nativity, but in all likelihood they came probably two years after the birth of Jesus because when they came and inquired of Herod, they went and found him and then Herod made the decree that all the children under the age of two should be killed.

Kurt Bjorklund: Now, I'm not suggesting that you go home and yank the three kings out of your nativity scenes. Poetic license allows you to place them at the nativity and and allows us to sing those things. But that's an example of a song that doesn't always get all of the facts straight. When it comes to O Holy Night. There are some facts that are right. There are some that have a little bit of poetic license, but it's the theology of the song that is so captivating. And here's what I mean.

Kurt Bjorklund: We know that Jesus was born at night because Luke 2:8 tells us that. What we don't know is, were the stars shining more brightly? We have no reason to believe that. Again, I think we can sing it because it has some poetic license. But what we see with this song is we see some theology that spoke to people of the day in which it was written and speak to us today. Here's how the song was written.

Kurt Bjorklund: There was a French priest who was trying to come up with something creative for the Christmas Eve mass at his church. Much like our team will try to come up with creative new things for Christmas Eve so it isn't just the same thing all the time. And so he commissioned a guy in town that he knew that was a poet and he said, "Would you write a poem for this that maybe we could put to music?" The guy had fallen away from the church, wasn't attending church, but was a believer. And after he wrote the song, O Holy Night, then he came and he basically found a Jewish man who didn't believe in Jesus as the Messiah at all and said, "Would you help put this to music? And put it to music and they did it that first Christmas Eve and it became popular and spread throughout the country.

Kurt Bjorklund: But as the Catholic church found out that it was written by a non practicing church member and a person who didn't believe, they said, "We're banning the song." It went away for a few years and then it returned in America when a pastor and an abolitionist found it and liked the line about the slave is my brother and all oppression shall cease and said, "We need to do this song." And he translated it into English and it was done in America and became a popular song worldwide.

Kurt Bjorklund: But here's what I'm going to just talk about first and that is the first verse. Here are some of the lyrics of the first verse. It says this, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining till He appears and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn." And so this verse captures something that I believe is universal. And it doesn't matter whether you've been around church your whole life or church isn't something that's part of your way of doing things. You felt what this song points to when it says sin and error pining.

Kurt Bjorklund: And here's why I say this because many times in the pages of the Bible we read about the brokenness of our world. Here's just one example. This is Romans 8, verse 22 and 23 it says, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." And what this points to is what the song talks about when it says, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining." In other words, when you look at the world and you say, "This isn't how it should be." And if you've ever had that moment of internal groaning, what you're experiencing is what Romans 8 talks about, what this song talks about and it's that moment when you see something and you say, "This isn't how it should be." And you have almost an uncontrollable ah, in your gut, in your soul that says, "This isn't how it should be.”

Kurt Bjorklund: I was just thinking about the news of the recent months and just if I read these locations, you'll have a little bit of an ah, New Jersey, New Orleans, Santa Clarita, Pensacola, El Paso. What do they have in common? That's where the shootings have been in recent days. I don't know about you, but every time I hear about another shooting, I just think, ah, that's not how the world should be. Somebody shouldn't be so full of their own pain and hurting that they go into a public space and decide that they want to create pain for somebody else and other people shouldn't lose their lives that way. It's just a moment of saying, "Ah, the world that we live in."

Kurt Bjorklund: I saw this fall, there was a story about the NBA and China and there were some protesters in Hong Kong who were protesting some human rights violations and saying, "We want to live more freely." And one of the general managers of one of the NBA teams tweeted something in support of them. And I saw that and my first reaction was, wow, I haven't thought much about people in China who are experiencing human rights violations. It took an NBA team being concerned about it for me to even get it on my radar and I think, ah, our world. But then there was something even more striking, in the days that followed China threatened to eliminate all NBA from China, which would eliminate streams of revenue to NBA players. And many of the same players who speak out very clearly on social issues in our country all of a sudden said, "I'm out." Because they didn't want their jersey sales and their own pocketbooks adversely affected. And I just think, ah, is it true that some of us would rather be personally wealthy than care about people in another part of the world are going through things?

Kurt Bjorklund: I read an article in the New York Times just the other week and it was about the myth of recycling and it says that only about 8% of the items that get into the blue recycling things end up actually being recycled. And what's happened is that industry has sold us by putting the little recycled thing according to this article, the little recycling thing on here, on each item that we can keep consuming bottles and cans and paper goods and all of that, and as long as we put it in a recycling bin, then it doesn't negatively impact our environment. But when you realize that only 8% of that stuff gets recycled, I just had a moment where I thought, ah, our world.

Kurt Bjorklund: And maybe there isn't those global issues. Maybe it's things that are closer to home. Maybe you got a report or somebody you love got a report from a doctor's office and you realize that things are never going to be the same for you or for somebody you love and you just say, "Ah, this isn't the way it should be." Or maybe something in your family, your extended family is broken. There's a relationship that isn't the way that it should be. And you say, "Ah, this isn't how life should be." Or maybe you did something or said something and it hurts somebody, somebody you care about. You thought, ah, how did I do this? Why did I do this? Or maybe you haven't had a moment recently where you thought, ah, I'm groaning with creation and I'm seeing the the air and sin pining of the world, but, but maybe it's just the monotony of life week after week, year after year of going through the motions of doing the same things over and over and over again and saying, "Ah, is this all there is? Is this all there is?"

Kurt Bjorklund: I saw another article in the New York Times. I do more than read the New York Times, by the way, but this was called Want to Get in the Christmas Spirit? Face the Darkness. It's by a woman named Tish Harrison Warren. Here's part of what she says. She said, "For Christians, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus' birth. That light has come into the darkness as the gospel of John says, the darkness could not overcome it. But advent bids us first to pause and to look with complete honesty at that darkness. To practice advent is to lean into an almost cosmic ache, our deep wordless desire for things to be made right and the incompleteness we find in the meantime. We dwell in a world racked with conflict, violence, suffering, darkness."

Kurt Bjorklund: "Advent holds space for our grief, and it reminds us that all of us in one way or another, are not only wounded by evil in the world, but we were also wielders of it, contributing to our own moments of unkindness or impatience or selfishness. American culture insists that we run at a breathless pace from sugar laced celebration to celebration, three months of Christmas to the Super Bowl, to Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day and on and on." Kurt Bjorklund: "We suffer from a conflictive consumerist mania that demands that we remain optimistic, shiny, happy, having fun, fun, fun, but life isn't a Disney cruise. The tyranny of relentless mandatory celebration leaves us exhausted and often ironically feeling emptier. Many of us suffer from the holiday blues and I wonder whether this phenomenon is made worse by the incessant demand for cheer. The collective lie that through enough work and positivity we can perfect our lives in our world. I'm all for happiness, joy, eggnog, corny sweaters and parties but to rush into Christmas without first taking time to collectively acknowledge the sorrow in the world and in our lives, seems like an inebriated, overstuffed practice of denial. Both darkness and light are real and our calendar gives time to recall both. But in the end, Christians believe that light is more real and more enduring than darkness."

Kurt Bjorklund: See what Christmas does, what this song does beautifully, is it says, "Our world is not as it should be but there's a new and glorious morning when hope came into this world." And that's the celebration of Jesus. And here's how we read about this in Romans. Again, verse 23. "Not only so, but we ourselves have the first fruits of the spirit. We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?"

Kurt Bjorklund: And so what Christmas and what this song reminds us of is that as broken as the world is, Jesus coming into this world came to redeem and rebuild and restore all that is broken. And although we don't see it all now, there is a day when we will see that if we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. And so the hope of Christmas is really that if we will acknowledge our sin before a Holy God, that then we share in this idea of hope and redemption. And so our groaning, though still a part of our experience, is not the end of our experience. Our groaning instead has a hope that says, "Our lives are not marked by that, but are marked by the hope."

Kurt Bjorklund: There's a line at the end of the first verse that says, that we'll fall on our knees. Here's where this comes from in a sense in the scriptures again, Philippians 2, "Therefore God exalted him speaking of Christ to the highest place and gave Him a name that's above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

Kurt Bjorklund: You see, if you and I groan but we see hope, then we can fall on our knees and worship and say, "There is a God who entered our brokenness in the person of Jesus Christ and restores and rebuilds that brokenness." And this song beautifully captures it and it's part of why I think it's been sung worldwide by so many people because there was a night that as broken as our world was and is, there's a hope that's brighter still.

Kurt Bjorklund: Father, I pray today that you would help each one of us here just to experience our groaning, but not to experience it without hope, but to experience it with the hope and the possibility of redemption. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Faith Bjorklund: Chris. Wow. Wow. I'm not sure why my husband asked me to come and teach with him this morning, but I do have an idea about one of the reasons. About a month ago, I was seriously stressing out about this and I was whining and I was saying, "I just need some time to prepare this. When am I going to get this ready?" And he looked at me and he said, "So you're really stressed about your 15 minute talk that's a month away? Hmm, how tough that must be for you. Yeah. I think I have 10 talks to prepare before then." And I was like, "Oh, okay, okay, I get it." It may have taken this for me to have just a little bit of empathy for him, but okay, I get it now.

Faith Bjorklund: The third verse of O Holy Night begins with the words, "Truly He taught us to love one another. His law is love and His gospel is peace." Love and peace. Don't our hearts just long for these two things to give love, receive love, and to experience lasting peace. This song reminds us that Jesus is the one who teaches us how to love. When we encounter Jesus in the gospels, we see that with every person He interacts with in every situation, He leads with love. When He heals the sick and the suffering, when He forgives the sinner, when He includes the outcast, when He feeds the hungry, when He welcomes the children, we see love. "Love one another," He said, "as I have loved you." When asked what the greatest commandment was in Matthew 22 he replied, "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets," he said, "depend on these two commands."

Faith Bjorklund: His law is love. What does this mean for us? Just love God, love people, don't worry about the law or the Old Testament. Do we get the hall pass on Leviticus now? Because that book has seriously stalled more people out when they're trying to read through the Bible, I think, than any other book. We're the Beatles right? All we need is love. All we need is love. Love is all we need. Well, maybe we should consider the other things that Jesus said about the law too. Like in Matthew 5:17 when He said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." The law that Jesus is referring to in this is the entire Old Testament, the law given by Moses, what was written by David, what was written by the prophets and in the Old Testament is more a law like the 10 Commandments and then there are the civil and ceremonial laws, some of the crazy stuff about not mixing your fabrics and things like that which were written for the Jewish people for that time.

Faith Bjorklund: Jesus did not reject the law. He obeyed it and He fulfilled it. How? He fulfilled prophecies. He kept the moral law perfectly and in keeping that moral law perfectly, He fulfilled the ceremonial laws as well. His perfect life and His sacrificial death ushered in the new covenant, making the old civil and ceremonial laws unnecessary. The moral laws like the 10 Commandments which are rooted in the character of God and then confirmed in the New Testament, those are still binding for us today. What purpose does the law of God serve? Whether we're talking about Old Testament moral law or all the commands in the New Testament. Obviously it instructs us how to live a life that is glorifying to God, but the law serves another interesting purpose as well, which we read about in Galatians 3. Paul gives us two images that explain the purpose of the law.

Faith Bjorklund: Galatians 3:23 reads, "Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed." The law, Paul says, is like a prison guard. When we become acquainted with the word of God, we do become acutely aware of how sinful we are, of how far we fall short of the glory of God. And that sin that we recognize in us, it is a prison and there are different types of prisoners in the prison of sin. I think there are some that honestly really don't think they have a problem with sin. They don't think that they make mistakes, they're self deceived, not realizing that they are guilty of the sins at the very least of pride and self righteousness. And I think the Pharisees would probably fall in that category. And people we know, definitely not us.

Faith Bjorklund: There are those who know that they're sinful, but they are desperately and unsuccessfully trying to better themselves, to do more, to earn their way to God, to be a good person. And these prisoners are just exhausted. They're just trying to dig their way out of the prison cell with a plastic spoon. Doesn't work. And there are prisoners who know they're sinners according to the law. But you know what? They just give up. They lose hope that they can never be changed and they just give into sin and they become its slave. In prison we have the deceived, self-righteous, we have the exhausted try hard and we have the wave the white flag resigned. And none of them are actually following the law. None of them can get out from under the law. And the law is the guard outside of the prison cell saying, "You all better get comfortable in there because there's no way out."

Faith Bjorklund: But is there? Verse 24, "So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith." Guardian, this word, it's not the prison guard word, it's a different word and it's translated pedagogue. And this was usually an older trusted servant in a Jewish family. And his job was to watch over the children, to look after them physically. And one of his typical jobs would be to walk the kids to school, make sure they got there safely, walk them back home again. He wasn't the teacher, but he led the children of the family to the teacher. In today's language, Paul says, "The law is a nanny, a babysitter."

Faith Bjorklund: Well, we didn't have a nanny. My kids didn't. But we did have Amy who we refer to as babysitter extraordinaire, supreme capturer of the flag. Obi Wan Kenobi, a flashlight tag. She was the best. And my kids loved when Amy came. In fact, we would walk in after being out and they would just be crushed. They'd be like, oh, you're back. Oh, can you go back out? Maybe get some dessert or something. If the law is a babysitter, what does the law do? It watches over us. It teaches us how to play nicely and when we don't play nicely, ultimately the law shows us our need for a savior and it leads us to the teacher, Jesus. Who can take care of our sin problem once and for all.

Faith Bjorklund: John Stott said this, "No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness that the night sky, that the stars begin to appear. And it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth. The law shows us the darkness of our sin." And like Paul, we see, we confess that we do not do the things that we want to do and we do things that we don't want to do. Think about the simple command that Jesus gave us. He said, "Just love other people like you, love yourself." And at first glance we may think, oh, loving people. Yeah, that's me. I do that. Nailed it.

Faith Bjorklund: But really think about this morning, think about the people closest to you. Did you look out for their interests? Did you listen to them? Did you encourage them? Did you serve them with 1/10th of the energy that you took care of yourself today? I don't know about you. I can't even love the people I actually love very well let alone neighbors, strangers. I am with Paul in Romans 7 when I say, "Wretched person that I am who will deliver me from this body of sin and selfishness? Thanks be to God it is through Jesus Christ our Lord against the darkness of sin the gospel shines forth." It is Jesus who delivers us from the prison of sin and self-absorption. It is through faith that we are brought into His family.

Faith Bjorklund: The next two verses in Galatians read, "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." And if you have an NIV, it says children of God here, but instead of sons of God. But I think that this misses something. I think it loses some significance. Paul here is talking to men and women when he says, "You are all sons of God in Christ Jesus." And this was a radical statement in that culture. Daughters, they could not inherit goods or land. Paul was saying, "But in God's family, men and women, you are equal heirs. You're all favored. You're all recipients of God's gifts and His saving grace." Radical. And we are no longer small children who need a babysitter. We are meant to come to full maturity in God's family. When we come to faith, we acknowledge, okay, the law cannot save us, but we still seek to follow the commands of God.

Faith Bjorklund: Why? Because when you have come to Christ in faith, when you know that you have been adopted into this beautiful family and you have been clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Himself, when you know you're forgiven in the present, and when you know you have the promise of an eternity with God forever, you're grateful. You don't, you know you don't deserve it. You know you can't earn it and you are overwhelmed with the goodness of God. When Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commands," your response is, "Of course. Why would I want to do anything else?"

Faith Bjorklund: The law shows us our sin. It leads us to Jesus who makes it possible to be adopted as God's children. And when we experience the transforming love of Christ, we experience true peace with God. His gospel of peace. How does that gospel of peace transform us in community? There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. In the body of Christ, we have people of different races, different cultural backgrounds, different economic statuses, different genders, and none of these differences have any bearing on our status as children of God and heirs of the promise. And this was another radical statement for Paul who most likely was reversing a common morning prayer said by Jewish men at that time that went like this.

Faith Bjorklund: Thank you God, that you have not made me a Gentile, a slave or a woman. Paul turns this prayer upside down and he says, "In Christ, there are no inferiors. We are equally loved, equally gifted, each bearers of the image of God, each receiving an inheritance at the foot of the cross the ground is level." His gospel is peace among those who are different and peace even in the face of conflict.

Faith Bjorklund: Legend has it that on Christmas Eve, 1871, in the middle of fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France during the Franco Prussian war, a French soldier suddenly jumped out of the muddy trench and both sides stopped and looked at him, the seemingly crazed man as he lifted his eyes to the heavens and he started singing the first verse of O Holy Night. His actual words were, "Minuit, Chretiens, c'est l'heure solennelle ou L'Homme Dieu descendit jusqu'a nous."

Faith Bjorklund: Thank you three mandatory semesters of French at Wheaton College. I've been wondering why for 25 years. Now we know. These are the actual French words of the first verse translated verbatim. Midnight Christians is the solemn hour when God as man descended unto us to erase the stain of original sin and to end the wrath of his father. The entire world thrills with hope on this night that gives the savior. After completing all three verses of O Holy Night, a German infantry men saying the beginning of Martin Luther's Christmas hymn from Heaven Above to Earth I come, which I will now sing in German for you. I'm just kidding. The story goes that the fighting stopped for the next 24 hours while the men on both sides observed a temporary peace in honor of Christmas Day. His gospel is peace, peace with God and peace with others.

Faith Bjorklund: In 1855 the him was translated into English by John Sullivan Dwight. He was drawn to the him by the third verse, chains shall he break for the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression shall cease. He published it and O Holy Night quickly became a favorite him of abolitionists during the Civil War. A call to end the horrors of slavery. I have vivid memories of sitting in my church basement, 1982 it was the choir room and I was surrounded by about 30 of my teenage, my middle aged, not middle age, I'm middle-aged now. Middle school age at the time. And we were all middle class. We were all white. We sat there and sang with great intensity and they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Faith Bjorklund: And the funny thing is in that little microcosm of Christianity, we couldn't even pull it off. There were cliques and there were misunderstandings and romantic triangulation. All the drama. We couldn't do it even though we were so much alike. And now the church worldwide has amazing diversity. But do we have unity? One of the last stats I read said there are 40,000 Christian denominations. 40,000. Another article said that nine out of 10 churches are predominantly one race. In the Christian communities around us and even in ours, political affiliations can divide us. Money can divide us. Education choices can divide us. Race can divide us. Gender can divide us. Fringe theological beliefs can divide us. Hurts and misunderstandings can divide us and that is why Jesus prays for us. In John 17 He says, "Let them be one so that the world may believe that you sent me God and that you love them."

Faith Bjorklund: We are broken. But I think we get a glimpse of what's to come in Revelation 5, the lamb, Jesus has opened the scroll and this is the response. Picture this with me. And they sang a new song saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth." Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."

Faith Bjorklund: Someday when we are united around the throne, looking to the lamb who has redeemed us, we will truly finally be one. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just get a little taste of Heaven here in this community before then? Pray with me.

Faith Bjorklund: Jesus, you are the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and we just long for the day when we will see you face to face and we will fall at your throne in worship. We long for the day and the things that divide us now will be completely irrelevant and we will be one glorious body of people who love you and who are worshiping you. We long to be unified now, Lord, so that the world around us sees you and believes in you. Help us to love each other deeply as you have so deeply loved us. Help us to be instruments of your peace in this world, in this community. We pray all this in your Holy name Jesus. Amen.