If you look really, really closely, those little nubs on the hood of my car are my windshield wipers that I left standing up last night so they would not freeze to the windshield.  If you look at the lower left hand corner, you will also get a good sense of how high the snow is in my front yard.  Yes, winter arrived at my home today!

I shoveled snow six times before finally calling a halt.  Right now, the snow is light and much more easy to handle for someone who is weak.  Once the sun comes out tomorrow, the snow will grow heavy as it starts to melt a bit and become crusty on top and be altogether far more difficult in removal.  So,  I thought I would start now in the hopes that I might possibly have my car dug out by Monday, when I am quite sure my office will be open.  I have a path on the back deck to the steps and down them and have all of my sidewalk (front and by the street) cleared.  I also cleared a path around the car of one shovel width and then about three feet fore and aft.

Now, clearing my car out will be tricky because the way the snow plows usually turn onto the street running in front of my house leaves a very fat triangle of piled high snow.  Also, any clearing out I do now might just provide an attractive spot for the plowman to put street snow.  Still, given that the snow I did manage to clear out is already piled high in the bit of grass between the sidewalk and street, I am not really sure where what I still need to clear out will go.

I confess that it was too taxing to do the path about the car.  As I was finishing, I realized I was in trouble.  I fell four times between the car and the front steps and then crashed on the floor in the house.  I did not even have the strength to drag myself onto the green chair or the couch.  After a couple of hours, I fell asleep for two more.  When I awoke, I could at least move.  So, not only am I not sure where all the snow will go, I am not sure exactly how I will be able to clear out the street enough to actually get the car out. 

When I was trapped on the floor, I pulled the computer off the TV tray (thankfully catching it) and set it to play all 61 hymn files I have from Pastor.  Such riches!  Truly!  For a while, I wept over having them, having them in that moment.  I couldn't hold the hymnal to follow along, but I did sing the bits here and there that I remembered.

In between the shoveling and before and after the wet noodle episode, I read and sang hymns and studied.  Before I get to Kleinig, I thought I would share what I read and sang.  On Pastor S's website, he posted what he would be doing for Lessons and Carols.  Now I know what a carol is, but I do not know to what he is referring as lessons.  But all the online confessional pastors I read are having such a service, as is my church.  I'd ask Pastor, but right now he has at least a half dozen question emails from my sitting in his inbox, so I am reluctant to add one more.  Several people refer to Kings College when mentioning a Lessons and Carol service, but that doesn't really illuminate things for me.  But in any case, Pastor S posted the following, so I spent some time reading all the "lessons" and trying to sing the carols.  Of course, I really do not know many of them, so I substituted some of Pastor's hymns for the ones I don't know.  I chose ones I have yet to learn as fillers.

The Nativity of Our Lord
Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

Office Hymn
Silent night, holy night (LSB 363)

First Lesson
Genesis 3:8–15 (The promised Seed shall bruise the serpent’s head)

First Carol
Savior of the nations, come (LSB 332)

Second Lesson
Genesis 22:15–18 (The Lord’s gracious promise to Abraham)

Second Carol
Creator of the stars of night (LSB 351)

Third Lesson
Isaiah 7:10–15 (The Virgin shall conceive and bear Emmanuel)

Third Carol
O Jesus so sweet, O Jesus so mild (LSB 546)

Fourth Lesson
St. Luke 1:26–38 (The Annunciation unto the Virgin St. Mary)

Fourth Carol
The angel Gabriel from heaven came (LSB 356)

Fifth Lesson
Isaiah 60:1–6 (The Glory of the Lord has risen upon you)

Fifth Carol
Come, your hearts and voices raising (LSB 375)

Sixth Lesson
Isaiah 62:10–12 (The Lord comes with salvation for you)

Sixth Carol
Lo, how a rose e’er blooming (LSB 359)

Seventh Lesson
St. Matthew 1:18–25 (The Birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior)

Seventh Carol
Away in a manger (LSB 364/365)

Eighth Lesson
1 John 4:7–16 (Let us love one another, for love is from God)

Eighth Carol
Once in royal David’s city (LSB 376)

Ninth Lesson
St. John 1:1–14 (The Word became Flesh and dwells among us)

Ninth Carol
Hark! The herald angels sing (LSB 380)

Processional Out / Hymn of Departure
Joy to the world (LSB 387)

Can you imagine a service filled with so much of the Living Word being poured out over you?  Oh, my, would that I could be there!

Kleinig...

The Lord God has give me

     the tongue of those who are taught,

that I may know how to sustain with a word 

     him who is weary.

Morning by morning He awakes;

     He awakens my ear

     to hear as those who are taught.

The Lord God has opened my ear,

     and I was not rebellious;

     I turned not backward.

I gave my back to those who strike,

     and my cheeks to those who pull out the bear;

I hid not my face

     from disgrace and spitting.

But the Lord God helps me;

     therefore I have not been disgraced;

therefore I have set my face like a flint,

     and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

     He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

     Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

     Let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord God helps me;

     who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them wear out like a garment;

     the mouth will eat them up.

                            ~Isaiah 50:4-9

Our basic spiritual problem is that we have bad hearing.  It is as if our ears are blocked with wax.  God speaks to us constantly, but we can't hear Him.  At best, we hear Him faintly and in a distorted way.  But the man who speaks here in this prophecy was a good listener, a master of meditation, because God had "opened" his ears so that he could hear God's voice clearly.  Every morning, before he got up out of bed, God awakened his ear, his sense of hearing, so that he could hear the voice of God throughout the day, like a whispered conversation.  Since God taught him daily in the school of life, he was able to sustain other weary people with the Word of God.  His ears had been opened in a strange way.  The more the man was ridiculed and abused by his enemies, the more he relied on God for his survival and eventual vindication.  And the more he relied on God in the darkness of persecution and rejection, the more clearly he heard the voice of God who justified and upheld him.  His faith in God and the persecution that came from his faith in God opened his ears to the voice of God.

In this passage, which is the third of the Servant Songs found in Isaiah, we see much more than just the portrait of an ideal sage, a perfect prophet, or a good spiritual director; we have a sketch of Jesus Christ, the Servant of God.  He is the perfect listener to God the Father.  As our heavenly leader, Jesus is not only the master of meditation but also the best teacher of it.  So He teaches us what He has learned; He joins us with Himself so that He can lead us on the way that He has gone. Just as He opened the ears of the deaf people that were brought to Him in His earthly ministry, He also has opened our ears so that we, like Him, can hear the voice of His heavenly Father.  The Father's plan is to use Him to awaken each of us morning by morning, so that we receive His Word each day. (125-127)

I found this bit of Kleinig both encouraging and chastising.  We studied the Servant songs in Pastor's Isaiah bible study a few years ago, but I did not "hear" as I did today.  I did not see that God gave me this portion of His Word for me.

The more the man was ridiculed and abused by his enemies, the more he relied on God for his survival and eventual vindication.  And the more he relied on God in the darkness of persecution and rejection, the more clearly he heard the voice of God who justified and upheld him. 

The trials I face at work are opportunity...for faith...for learning...for ministry.  The pain and weakness I face in my body were born by Him on the cross, leaving me not alone as I walk that path.  The darkness I face in my life is not dark to Him...and therefore not dark to me....

So He teaches us what He has learned; He joins us with Himself so that He can lead us on the way that He has gone.


Lord Jesus, come quickly!  But until You come unstop my ears and help me quit Sinai. Bring me to the magnificent, sustaining gift of Your body and blood that I may be joined with You....