Reflection:

I am a sucker for televised talent shows. X-Factor, Australia’s Got Talent, The Voice, The Masked Singer … they are all so good! Recently, the world of talent TV has experienced a renewal in choral music. Our screens and our ears have had the opportunity to delight in the shared experience of voices in harmony, the power of unified voice and the beauty of story. Often, these choirs will have formed in response to a need in a declining community or a desire to find friendship at a lonely time in society. These stories set the platform, and then our televisions are filled with a moment of transcendent joy. We feel it in the deepest parts of our hearts and souls. We know that something very special is happening.

When the choir of angels filled the sky that first Christmas evening, performing their heavenly anthem for the shepherds and their flocks, their announcement would be one that would touch the hearts and souls of every pilgrim for the last two millennia. The Good News was being proclaimed, and the promised experience was ‘great joy.’ Something transcendent was unfolding. Heaven was touching Earth. A story of renewal, of connection, of hope was breaking out, and to the hearers, joy had come.

This Christmas season, we join with the choir of the Christian Church throughout the ages and across the nations, and we raise a heavenly anthem of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”. As we raise that shout, let us remember the promise of God, to the hearers of the Good News, the promise of GREAT JOY!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you that the joy of the Lord is our promise, our strength and our experience. Let great joy break out in my heart today and make me a carrier of joy to the world around me. Amen.