He Just Keeps Rising

He Just Keeps Rising

Advent brings us face to face with the fact that Jesus, our Emmanuel, came to this planet when darkness and hopelessness pervaded everything.  Society was so debauched that "every man did what was right in his own eyes."  Pain, corruption, scandal, deprivation, degradation and godlessness prevailed, but then He came.  His coming changed everything.  His coming changed hearts, lives, societies--He brought hope to a dying world.

Two thousand years later we find ourselves enshrouded in pain, corruption, scandal, deprivation, degradation and godlessness once again.  Western societies in particular seem bent on writing Him out of the script.  Every week there's a new assault on Christ's values and principles.  We seem to be rapidly moving toward a society which sidelines and minimizes all things Christian.  To many, He is simply irrelevant and probably unnecessary.

But there's something irrepressible about our Emmanuel.  The one who came to be with us and to live in us will not be shunted away quite so easily.  About the time we think He can be erased out of our lives, this Emmanuel shows up.  He just keeps rising.  He's there in the most interesting places.  He intersects our lives when we don't even expect it and perhaps don't want it.  There He is, breaking down barriers, showing love and hope, joy and peace.  Most of all He brings forgiveness and new life.  

Tonight my wife, LaWanda and I, were enjoying a PBS special concert from New York City.  One of our favorite singers, Andrea Bocelli, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and  Westminster Choir, was thrilling over 50,000 people braving the rain and chill in Central Park.  Millions more around the world were watching as this man with an incredible voice sang opera classics and pop favorites.  Beautiful, almost beyond description.

Suddenly, the conductor's baton dropped and the orchestra began the opening bars of a song known to believers the world over.  It has been sung in the smallest, most primitive churches and in the great cathedrals of the world.  When Andrea Bocelli began to sing "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see," my heart leaped right up in my throat.  I thought, you can't banish our Emmanuel.  He just keeps rising.

As the camera panned the thousands of urban dwellers, many weighed down with the problems of sin and woe, Bocelli sang the second verse, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved, how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed." People all over the huge crowd were singing with him and when the final chorus ended the applause was the most thunderous of the evening.  There He was and John Newton's words were emblazoned on millions of hearts.

What a great time to embrace our Emmanuel and bring Him into the core of our lives.  Don't try to marginalize Him or emasculate His power and glory.  You'll find that He just keeps rising.