Advent Wreath - Reece's Peace's

As we approach the Advent season, let's delve into the rich history behind one of our cherished church traditions: the Advent wreath. This emblem of hope and anticipation has a fascinating origin that dates back thousands of years, rooted in the winter celebrations of North Europe.

Long before Christianity, ancient Germanic people used wreaths and candles during winter festivities. They adorned evergreen trees with candles to celebrate the season and illuminate the darkness. While these traditions featured evergreens and candles, they were quite distinct from our modern Advent celebrations, separated by centuries.

The concept of the Christian Advent wreath began to take shape around the 16th century among German Lutherans, particularly in what is now northern Germany. However, variations in the wreath and its associated celebrations existed during that time.

It wasn't until the 19th century that the Advent wreath evolved into a form similar to what we recognize today. Johann Wichern, a Lutheran Pastor in Germany, developed the tradition as a way for children in his mission school to count down the days until Christmas. He crafted a sizable wreath with candles for each day leading to Christmas, along with a special larger candle for each Sunday. By the 1930s, this tradition had crossed the Atlantic to the USA, carried by German immigrants.

Today's Advent wreath typically features four large candles to be lit on each Sunday of Advent, along with a white candle for Christmas Eve. The act of lighting these candles symbolizes the increasing brightness and anticipation of Christ's imminent arrival, bearing hope, peace, joy, and love into the world.

The Advent wreath remains a central part of our spiritual preparations for Christmas. Families and congregations gather around these wreaths, lighting the candles each Sunday, reflecting on the themes they represent, and growing in anticipation of Jesus' birth.

At Hurstbourne Christian Church, we embrace this beautiful tradition and invite you to join us in lighting the Advent wreath candles every Sunday of Advent. Through this symbolic ritual, we seek to deepen our understanding of the true essence of Christmas and prepare our hearts to welcome Christ into our lives once again.

Let's journey together through this Advent season, guided by the illuminating candles on the wreath, as we eagerly await the birth of our Savior with hope and anticipation.

Christmas Hymns - Marc's Music Notables

It’s all too easy to look up at the end of December and—poof—realize the opportunity for meaningful reflection has passed, vacuumed up or packed away for next year, like another decoration. So this Christmas, how can we truly be present and not just buy presents? We find the answer in the most fundamental (and perhaps surprising) of places—in singing traditional carols together.

Redemption drew a baby breath that first chilly Christmas night, offering hope to a forlorn world dying to be rescued. But even before Jesus lay in the manger, his miraculous story was already being told in song. Mary sang about him in the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–51). Zechariah sang about him in the Benedictus (Luke 1:68–79). And of course, on the night of his birth, the skies over the shepherds’ field became a vertical stage for hosts of choiring angels.

We have each been created, compelled, and commanded to sing. It’s thus no surprise that the oldest Christmas traditions are the masterpieces of the carols. 

1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was penned by Charles Wesley and included in his 1739 Methodist hymnal. This theologically rich classic was later set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. It began as “Hark, How All the Welkin Rings,” but George Whitefield did us all a favor by changing the words to “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” 

2. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus appeared in Charles Wesley’s book of 18 Christmas songs in 1745, and it’s one of my three favorite hymns today. The song captures how centuries of waiting, longing, and weeping find ultimate resolution in Christ: “Israel’s strength and consolation / Hope of all the earth thou art / Dear desire of every nation / Joy of every longing heart.”

3. O Come, All Ye Faithful is a Christmas call to worship, mostly likely written by John Francis Wade, a Catholic artist who created beautiful manuscripts decorated with exquisite floral images. His hymn “Adeste Fidelis” remained a Latin masterpiece for 100 years before being translated into English by Frederick Oakeley. 

4. In the Bleak Midwinter is among our most plaintive carols, partly because of the haunting melody by Gustav Holst. Penned by English poet Christina Rossetti, the lyrics first appeared in 1872. The last stanza says it all: “What can I give him, poor as I am? / If I were a shepherd I would bring him a lamb; / If I were a wise man I would do my part, / Yet what I can I give him? Give my heart.”

5. Joy to the World, with its triumphant cadence and rousing spirit, was written by the man commonly called the “Father of the English Hymn,” Isaac Watts. This hymn was published in 1719 and wasn’t even originally considered a Christmas carol.

6. O Come, O Come Emmanuel is a medieval Latin hymn dating from the 800s. It was one of a series of antiphons sung each December, and it isn’t hard to imagine the mystical beauty of this hymn echoing off the walls of remote monasteries during the Middle Ages. This particular antiphon was discovered by an English minister and musician named John Mason Neale, who rendered it into English and published it in 1851.

7. Angels We Have Heard On High is one of the most joyful and well-written choruses ever composed. The lyrical journey shines a light on the reality of incarnation in a way that refreshes the soul each time you sing it.

8. O Little Town of Bethlehem was inspired by Philadelphia pastor Phillips Brooks’s visit to Bethlehem. Around 1867, Brooks wrote the lyrics and passed them along to the church’s worship leader, Lewis Redner, who composed the melody. It was first sung by a group of six Sunday school teachers and 36 children.

9. Once in Royal David’s City might be the least known of these carols, but we mustn’t lose its message or music. Cecil Frances Alexander was an Irish pastor’s wife who published this carol for children in 1848. Today, many consider her works too deep to sing in adult congregations. 

These carols—among many others—are treasures that remind us of the gospel joy we’re to share with the world in the bleak midwinter. They remind us that hope has dawned in the little town of Bethlehem, in royal David’s city, and that we should all join the triumph of the skies.

O come, let us adore him—Christ the Lord!

Come, Ye Thankful People - Marc's Music Notables

November is a time for being thankful. The story behind one of the most well-known and joyful hymns ever written on the subject of thankfulness is “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come'' is an inspirational one.

“I do this day in the presence of God, and my own soul renew my covenant with God and solemnly determine henceforth to become his and to do his work as far as in me lies.”

These astounding words of determination came from a lad only 16 years of age, in England, in 1826. His name was Henry Alford. He came from a long line of clergymen.

His father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather were all ministers of the Church of England before him. He, too, became an Anglican vicar.

Henry Alford was born in London in 1810 and was reared in that great city. His first charge, after graduation from Trinity College, Cambridge, was in Wymeswold, Leicestershire. His gentle disposition, cheerful attitude and sheer genius catapulted him to fame and high honor.

He reached the top of his profession in 1857 when he became the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.

He was a versatile man: an artist, an organist and singer, composer of verses and a very talented speaker. His literary ability was climaxed with the completion of The Greek Testament, a commentary of four volumes, which required 20 years of hard labor.

It is reported that he loved to mingle with the common man. He never seemed to lose his vision of the pit from which he, too, had been lifted. He was thankful.

In the fall of 1844, while he was at Wymeswold, his first charge, the people of this hamlet decided to have a festival, rejoicing in the abundant harvest already gathered into their barns.

For this particular occasion Alford wrote a song which has been sung, perhaps millions of times during Thanksgiving celebrations.

“Come, ye thankful people, come,

Raise the song of harvest-home.

All is safely gathered in,

Ere the winter storms begin;

God, our Maker, doth provide

For our wants to be supplied:

Come to God’s own temple, come,

Raise the song of harvest-home.”

After you sing this inspiring song, rededicate yourself to a life of thankfulness. Learn to see and appreciate the little things that we so often overlook. Try this: Talk to God for 15 minutes, thanking him, and refraining from asking anything for yourself.

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:21

Killer Lady Bugs - Reece's Peace's

Today, I found myself gently escorting a ladybug out of my office, triggering a flashback to my time as a youth minister in Nashville. Particularly a memory of vacuuming thousands of thousands of ladybugs from our youth room. It may sound like an exaggeration, but it was a reality that unfolded over two days when these little invaders found their way in through a minuscule crack in a window and decided to make our room their new home. What was once a cozy space now became the epicenter of an infestation, with ladybugs stretching from wall to wall.

However, the room's inadequate heating, compounded by the cold, had taken its toll on these tiny creatures, leaving me to confront thousands of lifeless ladybugs strewn across the floor. These weren’t your garden– variety ladybugs, though; they were Asian lady beetles, introduced to the United States with the intention of combating aphid populations. Back in 1916, farmers believed these Asian lady beetles could be North America’s salvation from aphid woes. However, it wasn’t until 1988 that a wild population of these ladybugs firmly

established itself in North America, initially near New Orleans. From there, they rapidly spread, blanketing regions from the northeast, from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Those large gathering of ladybugs seeking shelter indoors, particularly in autumn, are indeed

Asian lady beetles. It’s striking how an initiative aimed at controlling one pest led to the emergence of a new problem. The very creatures introduced to combat aphids had now become a pest themselves.

To the point where a youth minister, armed with a vacuum cleaner, had to tackle an entire room overflowing with them emptying the vacuum canister multiple times. This experience serves as a reminder of how, in life, our best intentions can sometimes yield unexpected outcomes.

In our pursuit of control, we often find ourselves grappling with something far beyond our grasp. It’s in these moments that we can find solace in faith, just as we now find ladybugs infiltrating churches, offices, and homes in the autumn. Despite their unintended intrusion, these beautiful creatures still serve their purpose by devouring aphids, enabling us to enjoy more abundant gardens and harvest.

In the end, it’s a testament to the paradox of perspective-what one person considers a pest may be another’s blessing, and vice versa.

Take My Life and Let it Be - Marc's Music Notables

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) was an unusually gifted and passionate saint. The daughter of a church rector, she was raised in Worcester, England and attended schools in England and Germany. In her love of learning, she grew to become an able scholar (even becoming proficient in both Hebrew and Greek) and a talented singer and pianist.

The deepest desire of her heart, however, was in “personal spiritual influence upon others” (Benson). This led her to value most of all her ability to write; for that reason she expended the majority of her life’s labors in writing prose and poetry that would be spiritually beneficial to the saints.

Havergal suffered poor health and was taken by the Lord at just 42 years of age. But the Lord prospered her ministry; her writings had a large impact in her own day, and several continue to be read and sung today.

The story of “Take My Life” gives a good picture of the kind of passion and joy she had in ministering to others. She once recounted the story behind it: Perhaps you will be interested to know the origin of the consecration hymn, “Take my life.” I went for a little visit of five days. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, “Lord, give me all in this house!” And He just did! Before I left the house every one had got a blessing. The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another, till they finished with, “Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!”

In her own words, the hymn is a “consecration hymn” in which the singer commits all of her possessions and being to the Lord for his purposes. It expresses what each of us ought to feel and long for, even if at times we see so much disparity between the words and our actual state that we have to sing most of it in hope and faith.