Gospel | Luke 3:7-18 (with Tom Gastil)

Opening Song:
Hark, original music and words by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Charles Wesley, additional words and music by Joth Hunt

Lyrics:
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic hosts proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King

Hark the herald angels sing

Christ by highest heaven adored
Christ the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of the Virgin’s womb
Hail the flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus our Emmanuel
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King

Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King

Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace
Hail the Son of righteousness
Light and life to all He brings
Risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King

Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the new born King

Passage:
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people.
(Luke 3:7–18 ESV)

Musical Reflection:
Angels We Have Heard on High (GLORIA), French carol

Reflection Notes:
This joyful French carol describes the scene found in Luke 2:8-15. Angels surprise shepherds in the Bethlehem fields and share the good news of the Savior’s birth. The famous chorus of cascading “glorias” emulates the angels’ song from that special night.

Prayer:
Come, true light.
Come, life eternal.
Come, hidden mystery.
Come, light that knows no evening. Come, for your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips;
yet who you are and what your nature is, we cannot say or know. Come, Alone to the alone. Come, for you are yourself the desire that is within me.
Come, my breath and life. Come, the consolation of my humble soul.
Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight.
-A prayer of Symeon of Chrysopolis (present-day Üsküdar, Turkey), adapted from The Oxford Book of Prayer