HEAR THE ANGELS SING

Details

Dr Newton

Monday, 24 December 2012 02:30

By Dr. Isaac Newton

If you are unfazed by the pangs of poverty, broken political promises, the tragic loss of innocent lives, tall disappointments, the untimely death of love ones, fatal diseases, violence at home, raging crimes in your neighborhood, the disappearance of public civility, incompetent politicians, joblessness, unfriendly grades in school, disrespectful children, unkind parents, homegrown betrayals, religious farce, brute bad mindedness, and love gone south and sour, perhaps you are not quite listening to angels sing.

It could be that wickedness in high places and the vile consequences of evil have clogged your ears and slaughtered your joy. Yet, there are limits to bad things. There are boundaries around torment. In one sense, we cannot speak of darkness without light or drought outside of rain. The coffin won’t delete the cradle.

Perhaps we have misconceived angels singing. Faith does not manipulate. Hope does not exploit. Our sense of wonder does not have to decline. Perhaps angels’ songs are locked in the paradoxes of nature. They are expressed in hurricanes and indescribable sunsets. They pinpoint God’s marvelous love in finding things noble in the ruins and ravages.

Angels’ songs don’t save us from wanting to quit or ignoring dark valleys. They reveal love in a manger wrapped both in justice and mercy, reverence and restraint, power and empowerment, always ready to exchange the terrible for the terrific. In his edifying and impassioned insight Pastor David Wilkerson Newton declares solemnly, “Christmas captures both a tradition we have long taken for granted and a transformation that we so urgently need. It forces us to hear again not merely the sounds of the season, but the eternal melodies of the universe as expressed in the majestic anthems being sung by Angels everyday and in every way all about us. It is fitting if we pause to listen carefully, we hark the herald angels sing”

What Professor William Sloane Coffin writes persuasively in Credo contains the cadences of an angelic song: “But if Jesus never allowed his soul be cornered into despair, and if it was to those farthest from the seat of power that he said, ‘You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world’—who then are you to quit ‘fighting the good fight of faith.’ ”

If you believe that the Caribbean is still an awesome place to thrive, and if you affirm that justice is worth protecting, that nationalism must give way to productive regionalism, and if you think that a spiritually engaged faith inspires an awakening that renews democracy and cleanses the church, then your response to every threat against the dignity of the poor, and your outrage at those discriminated against could lead you straight to the image of God reflected in Christmas. Ah, Christmas means that angels have sung “Gloria in excelsis Deo” and will keep on singing: “Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”

In angels’ song you will hear melodies of our shared humanity hidden in distinct differences. There are tunes that underwrite our lethal joy. There are chords that hold the center of our moral ideals together. Listen to the carols. They do not boil down to meaningful lessons gathered from our massive mistakes. They do not bring peace to the world. They convey instead peace with God. Angels’ songs expose the necessity of a cruel cross. But they promise what we did not ask for-- eternal life squatted against sacrificial but victorious love.

To think that we can escape wrestling with the madness, meanness and mess all around us is to take a holiday from reality. Angels sing not just about our freedom but about our obligations to God and to each other. These songs give our lives meaning and keep us humble, open and wise.  To love God with all our might and soul, we will have to give up a puny vision that cripples our spirit.

Angels’ songs beacons us to make room for God. But you and I will have to widen our hearts and expand our aspirations.  What this implies for Caribbean peoples is that we cannot look exclusively to foreign gifts and givers to solve our problems. Yet that sin of self-rejection, which offers us only disaster requires that we accept the pearl of great price--surrender to homegrown wisdom and indigenous values.

Lest we neglect to feed our soul, there are angelic lyrics to keep in mind:

God’s mercies are a blessed challenge—forgive those that are unkind to you.

Help someone become who they were meant to be not merely who they are.

Hope is better than all the gold and silver in the world.

Bake a black cake and share it.

Don’t let the precipice stop you from climbing the mountain.

Poor grades are traitors. They make you ignore the mind of Christ within you.

Narrow party politics guarantees that mediocrity will blossom.

If you limp on the spiritual level church is a great crutch.

Become a powerful voice for conscience and change.

Far from backing down from your insecurities and collective risks, faith in God turns defeat into an occasion for victory.

Be a permanent gift to your child rather than merely buying a temporary toy.

Drop that relationship that isn’t working. Love demands discernment as well as happiness.

God will afflict the comfortable before He comforts the afflicted.



Exchange certainty for truth and limited faults for boundless sympathies.

Coach the next generation!

Stay in a loving marriage. Get out of an empty intimacy.

Care for the elderly and respect the aged.

Smile!

Protect the children. Stop lying. Stay away from prostitution.

Politeness does not offset cowardice and courage does not surrender ethical consistency.

Between the “First Noel” and “All I want for Christmas:” Laugh, cry, sing, dance, exercise, kiss, hug, scream and love!

Listen! Angels are singing that Jesus did not remain in the confines of a manger. This was too small for his mission. He did not stay on a brutal cross. He had a universal movement to lead. He did not linger in a dark grave. There was a new heaven and a new earth to make. As oppose to a jarring combination of notes, angelic songs are stimulating our minds and penetrating our souls with calm assurance. Here’s a startling revelation:  These rhythmic sounds express what we have missed in our heartbeat and pulse, in the rain and the thunder, and in the silence and the whistle. That is we are not alone, and none of us will be left to drift unnoticed and unloved!

Dr. Isaac Newton is an International Leadership and Change Management Consultant and Political Adviser. He specializes in Government and Business Relations, and Sustainable Development Projects. Dr. Newton works extensively, in West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and is a graduate of Oakwood College, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. He has published several books on personal development and written many articles on economics, education, leadership, political, social, and faith based issues.

• < Prev
• Next >