Handel's Messiah with Humbug

Moli had to wait until Wednesday for her birthday present - a trip with mum to London to see Handel's Messiah in Kings Place, with plenty of sightseeing and 'quality time' thrown in for good measure. Sadly, Moli's delight at the performance overflowed too much for the boorish man next to her who shattered her bliss and reduced her to tears with a furiously growled, 'SHUT UP!' According to the  programme blurb, the orchestra's stated aim is to:

'serve communities by promoting concerts of unrivalled artistic excellence, and to make the emotion, drama and culture of live classical music available to everyone'.

 John Lubbock, the director, has:

'tireless enthusiasm and life-long commitment to making music accessible to those who might otherwise have had little or no musical experience... He has gathered around him a group of distinguished musicians who are not only outstanding performers but share his ethos for making music of the highest quality accessible to people of all ages, from all walks of life'. 

It seems that Mr Lubbock needs to channel some of that enthusiasm and generosity towards the more experienced concert-goers in his audience.
The incident nicely illustrates the difference between a merely aesthetic appreciation of the best that music can offer, and one that produces an appreciative response from a heart ripe to burst with exalted thoughts of the deeper spiritual realities, of which the music is a dim, even clumsy reflection.
Along the same lines, with Christmas on a Sunday this year, it means that we get to celebrate the birth as well as the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. I understand that everyone who marks the festival will find their own reason for celebrating Christmas... however, whatever reason that is, it pales compared to the real reason: the astonishing intervention by God to redeem us. Some poke fun at Christians by asserting that, if there is a God, when they meet him after death, they'll accuse him of not making himself more plain. But we have God's Son in the flesh, and God's word in the Bible. But, as Paul says, 'they did not like to retain God in their knowledge' (Rom 1:28)
After some 'vintage' chill-out time at Rhys and Ruth's on Thursday (including hot tub), Pads has had two quiet days, barely moving out of his room. Hopefully this has reserved enough energy to enable him to join us downstairs for a while tomorrow.
Now please excuse me, I'm off to join the others watching 'Elf' (Muppet's Christmas Carol is off the menu this year).

Happy Christmas from us all!

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:1-3)