TRISTAN SHERWIN

Seek not in courts or palaces;

Nor royal curtains draw;

But search the stable,

See your God extended on the straw.

Then learn from hence, ye rural swains,

The meekness of your God,

Who left the boundless realms of joy,

To ransom you with blood.

Day 8….

These are the 4th and 5th stanzas of a Carol that may be unfamiliar. It’s the opening piece (No. 1) of American composer William Billings’, ‘The Suffolk Harmony’, entitled ’Shiloh’.

When sung by a good vocal group, it’s got a great folk style to it. This is not the high sound of royal palaces, but the vocal chords of the streets—the normal, humdrum everyday places.

The carol’s name, ‘Shiloh’, a place name from the Old Testament, may seem odd, though, considering it’s a song about the nativity which took place in Bethlehem. However, this is no accident.

In the OT, Shiloh, for a time, was where the Tabernacle could be found; the Tent of Meeting, where God could be heard and where God dwelled with his people. God didn’t dwell in a palace, but a tent, alongside the everyday Israelite, in the midst of the humdrum.

In the opening chapter of John’s gospel, John declares that, in Jesus, the Word became flesh and dwelled (tabernacled, to use his term) among us. God, in the incarnation, was not born into a palace or some lofty social strata. But, in this new Shiloh, in Bethlehem, God is stretched out in a manger.

God walked the streets, rubbing shoulders with the humdrum of the world. God dwelled with us, not above us.

How marvellous!

As you enter 2024, know that God is not aloof or apathetic. There is a name that can be called upon, wherever and whenever.

‘All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).”’

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭22-23‬ ‭NIV‬‬