A Christmas Message from President Castleberry
"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”—Luke 2:14
Christmas and music are inseparable. We all know that the angel chorus sang the announcement of the Birth of the Messiah to Galilean shepherds, even though the Biblical text does not say that they sang.
It doesn’t need to. From our own reception of the Christmas tidings we know instinctively that they sang. We ourselves want to burst out singing when we think of Christmas. Like we see in musical theatre, the dialogue moves along in prose, but there are high moments when the play has to break out in song. The human story puttered along in prose for centuries awaiting the Begetting of God’s Son and Our Savior, but when the baby came, singing had to break out—just as in our own lives we dragged through years of lost wandering in prose until the Good News broke into our hearts and set them singing.
Thanks to everyone who made their way to Benaroya Hall this year in Seattle to join Northwest University in festive singing to worship our Savior and celebrate his birthday. Because of you, our hearts sang in more joyous community. I believe the Lord rejoiced with us, and those angels that sang in Galilee long ago probably joined in with us as well.
Please enjoy this music from the evening.
And from all of us at Northwest University, Merry Christmas!
Dr. Joseph Castleberry