For me, second perhaps only to food, music is something that defines this time leading up to Christmas. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. Later today, I’ll be sitting in the Center for Faith & Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, surrounded by plenty of Norwegian sweater-clad audience members eagerly awaiting the opening performance of “Christmas at Luther.” The combined student choirs and symphony orchestra will take their places and begin to fill the hall with an amazingly glorious sound, fitting of the majesty required for announcing God’s arrival into the world.
This year’s performance is entitled, “The Gifts They Gave Emmanuel.” Luther College President Jennifer K. Ward offers this reflection,
“Christmas at Luther in 2022 focuses on the humble circumstances surrounding Jesus’s birth and the simple gifts shared by the animals in the stable. With no disrespect meant to those who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh, it was the animals whose gifts and sacrifices provided for the most urgent physical and emotional needs of the new Christ child and his mother–sacrifices that were, quite literally, given of the animals’ bodies: from the donkey who carried Mary on its back to Bethlehem, to the cow who shared its hay and the sheep who gave its wool, to the doves who cooed gently for comfort in that dark night.”
President Ward goes on to encourage our own reflection, “What, then, is ours to give, for Christians to live out the Christian gospel and for those from other religious and ethical traditions to follow the moral compass that points to love of neighbor and justice for all?”
As we enter into this season, filled with plenty of wonderful things to eat and entertained by the variety of musical delights, may the simple gifts offered to the incarnate divine inspire us to comparable action.
May God’s hope embrace you this day. -Pastor Peter
Let us pray… God of the stable, we eagerly anticipate your arrival, announced by swelling orchestral themes and choirs of angels. May we be inspired to respond to the simple joy of your presence, offering comfort to those in need. Help us bring your light into a darkened world. Amen.
Bonus devotion: Enjoy the opening of last year’s “Christmas at Luther”