December 26th, 2023

     Christmas Day has come to a close. At the Washington, DC Community of Christ we have a Christmas Eve service every year and I find it helps me to leave behind the hustle and bustle of the gift-giving and reset my focus on the real reason for the season. 
    At our Christmas Eve service we used the book “Listen to the Silent Night” by Dandi Daley Mackall, and Lou Fancher. Using beautiful storybook pictures and costumed tableaus, we experienced the birth story of Jesus together.  An innkeeper beckoned us to the stable, then we were with a Shepherd hearing the Angels proclaim Jesus’ birth, and sat in anticipation of the approach of the Wisemen.
    Together we enjoyed the best parts of Christmas by singing the familiar Christmas Carols – Away in the Manger; Hark, the Herald Angel Sing; We Three Kings and Joy to the World. But also, one of the best parts of Christmas is to sing new Christmas songs and add them to our favorites.  For this Christmas Eve we turned to my newest favorite, “No Obvious Angels”.
    This hymn brings us into our modern world and reminds us that today we have no angel singing in the skies, no shepherds following a star. We have the here and now, and how do we herald in Jesus’ birth? Here are the words of “No Obvious Angels”:
    “No obvious angels sing through the night skies,
    no thunderstruck shepherds tell out their surprise,
    for Christmas comes into the here and the now
    through star-sighted people, the watchful and hopeful,
    who wake us to see a new world.
   
     Our angel potential is waiting to start!
    The Spirit will teach us the song of the heart,
    for Christmas comes into the here and the now
    through peacemaker people, the just and the gentle,
    the stars who will light the new world.

    Whoever will take it is given the role:
    the fruitful, the faithful, the joyous of soul,
    for Christmas comes into the here and the now
    when we are the angels who dream and deliver,
    who rise and create this new world!” 1

   Today there are no obvious angels proclaiming Jesus from the skies. But this song reminds us that we are the “angels” in the here and the now. As a star-sighted people, we can visualize what the world should be. As peacemakers we can bring light and hope. “…for Christmas comes into the here and the now when we are the angels who dream and deliver, who rise and create this new world!”   
    As we ended our service, we meditatively reflected on these words, and in proclamation and commitment to be these “angels”, we brought paper angels to the manger and laid them within.
    Together we ask God to help us in this world of no obvious angels to realize our own roles. Are you a star-sighted person, following the teachings of Jesus in the here and the now? Are you a peacemaker, a visionary, a person who gives of their heart and their hands? How can you be an angel today in your community? Together let’s give voice to this message and share where we find our angels in the here and the now, counting ourselves among them.
1 Words: Shirley Erena Murray, 1931–
Music: Carlton R. Young, 1926–
Words and Music © 2000 Hope Publishing Company
License number: 722962
A Community of Christ Sings resource
www.CofChrist.org/hymnal