The Rev. Noah Van Niel

The Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC

December 24^th, 2018 at 9pm

Christmas I: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-20

We have a tradition in our house of going to cut down our own Christmas tree ourselves from a tree farm the weekend after Thanksgiving. It is a tradition we kept this year, even though we soon learned the types of trees you can cut down yourself in this part of NC aren’t quite the same as we were used from up north. This year we ended up with a spindly cedar rather than a robust balsam fir, but it has worked out just fine even if it took a little getting used to.

Now I can see some of you Advent purists out there shaking your heads at me for putting up the tree and lights so far before Christmas Day but I make no apologies, especially now that I have kids. And not because I don’t want to instruct my kids in the value of Advent and virtues of patience and hope and expectation. We’re working on those things too. But because this way, for a whole month, our house is filled with wonder. And call me an Advent sell-out, but in my opinion, there could be no better way to prepare for Christmas than that. Continue reading →

The Rev. Noah Van Niel

December 23^rd, 2018

Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill, NC

Advent IV (C): Micah 5:2-5a; Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-55

People get ready there’s a train comin’

You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board

All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin’

You don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.

                That’s an opening I learned in a Gospel choir I was in in college which led into an a capella version of the 1965 song “People Get Ready” by Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, which is arguably one of the most famous songs of the civil rights era, and unarguably one of the most covered songs of the past 50 years. I even noticed it serves as the title to a current contemporary art exhibit at the Nasher Museum over at Duke—I know, “booooo Duke,” but the exhibit sounds pretty interesting. I often find myself humming this song this time of year because I think it’s a pretty good summation of the Advent season: “People get ready there’s a train coming…[and] All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin.” They are words of change and challenge; of preparation and expectation. Sounds like an Advent anthem to me. So I like this song except for one thing: it makes faith sound a little too easy. He’s not wrong exactly—all you need is faith to get on board with God, as St. Paul says, we are justified by faith—and yet the way Mayfield puts it, and the way Paul often talks about it, makes faith sound a little too simple, like just stepping onto a train. Continue reading →