Thoughts on Christmas Music

The day after Thanksgiving I purchased Sufjan Stevens's "Songs for Christmas", a five cd box set of amazing Christmas music. As these tracks have been rolling off my Itunes and Ipod the past few days, I've been thinking on the lyrics to many familiar Christmas songs, and the sort of theology they represent. Here are some of my thoughts on a few of these songs:

Away in a Manger

Written in 1855, Away in a Manger presents the 'Little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay." We the singers are brought peace as we sing of this peaceful scene at the birth of Jesus:

The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes

I have to ask, though, if the birth of Jesus was nearly as neat as this. I'm sure baby Jesus spent much of his time crying, as do all babies, especially if cattle were nearby making noises. What would inspire a songwriter to create a baby Jesus who doesn't cry? One of the most beautiful, and central, aspects of Christianity is that God joins us in all our messiness, becoming like us in all respects, except without sin. Here is the final verse of the song:

Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And take us to heaven
To live with Thee there

As in most hymns, the final verse turns eschatological, speaking of things to come. This verse, however, presents us with a thoroughly sub-biblical hope of the future: going to heaven when we die, or sometime in the future when Christ returns. While heaven is a lovely place (or state of existence, or being, or whatever), our Christian hope is the renewal of heaven and earth together. As Paul says in Colossians 1:19-20, "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." (ESV)

Of course, the song redeems itself with this beautiful verse:

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray

I love this prayer.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

This eight verse majestic hymn has some fantastic lyrics.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

After reading N.T. Wright's "Christian Origins and the Question of God" series and learning of the theological exile in which Israel found herself in the first century, this first stanza took on whole new meaning for me. The Jews prayed for God to send them a Messiah, one who would overthrow the foreign oppressors. This Messiah performed rather differently than expected, dying at the hands of those whom he was meant to overthrow. But as Jesus said on the road to Emmaus, "This is how it had to be."

And now we as Christians, a people belonging to the world to come and yet living in this world, pray for God to send his Christ once more and release us from this exile , this wandering in the wilderness until we enter the promised Land of a new heaven and earth.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Once again, this verse takes a double reference: Christ's first advent, in which by his resurrection he put death's dark shadows to flight, and also to his final advent, when through the raising of the dead to a glorious life like his, death's dark shadows will be put to flight - permanently.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

This final verse speaks poignantly to the crisis in the Anglican communion at the moment. We sing and pray earnestly that Christ will come and bind our hearts together as Christians, and dispel our divisions through His peace. We long for the day when Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalans, Anglicans, Catholics, the Orthodox and all other believers in Christ will sit at the same table and partake in the One Lord, in the One faith, by virtue of our One Baptism.

Joy to the World

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

This verse speaks of a triumphant Christ, whose death and resurrection inaugurated the Kingdom of God and placed Him as the Lord of the universe. This sort of theology does not square well with much dispensationalist thought, however, which refuses to acknowledge Christ's present lordship and attempts to displace it to some future millennial kingdom. But as we sing this verse, let us truly praise the Savior who reigns now, as Paul proclaimed in Acts 17:7, going "against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus."

You might ask, "Why all this fuss about the lyrics in our hymns? They're just songs, after all." Just songs, indeed, but song sung year after year until they are truly at home within us, shaping our thought of Jesus, his kingdom and his mission. So as we sing to Christ this Christmastide, and remember the amazing incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Christ and anticipate his future Advent, let us think of what we're actually saying to God.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His Blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Amen!

*Picture from here

Christ the King

I find it fascinating that the readings for Christ the King Sunday have Jesus hanging on a cross being ridiculed and mocked by the leaders and the soldiers, and even by one of the criminals being crucified with him. Not a very majestic image. But it does show us something about the man we call our King. We really shouldn't be surprised to find him crucified among criminals. He was always going out of his way - but we can't really say that it was out of his way since it was precisely his way - to include the outcast and the forgotten. Of course, he will be there with the criminals in that shameful place of agony and humiliation. Of course, he will, because that's what he's been doing all along. It's not surprising to find him among criminals, but it is surprising to find the criminals being crucified along with the King of Heaven and Earth. Can you imagine being sentenced to death and as you go, carrying your instrument of torture on your back, you look over and there is the King of kings and Lord of lords, joining you there? What an amazing thing! What an amazing King!

Our King is not some high and exalted overlord who rules with power and force, rather, he is a King who cares so deeply about his world and the people who inhabit it that he will join us where ever we are, even if we are on a cross, to make salvation available to us.

When everything seems to collapse around us, when life is at its worst, when it seems like we are totally abandoned and isolated and alone, the King of Heaven and Earth is with us every step of the way. He meets us - down in the depths of our need - when we feel like we are being crucified by this world, mocked and ridiculed, when we are at the very bottom and there is no way out, when we feel like we have no hope left. There he is. He's joined us. He's on a cross too.

When we feel like everyone has abandoned us. When we feel like even God isn't there and we find ourselves crying out like the psalmist so many years ago, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” You know what? He joins us there too, he joins us in those very words – crying out with the rest of us.

Our King is not like other kings. Our King comes and rescues us by joining us, by standing with us, on our side, by joining us in our most cursed place - our place of deepest despair - and he transforms that place into a place of salvation.

The cross, that cruel instrument of humiliation and death, is no longer a symbol of shame, it is now a victorious sign that the King of Heaven will stop at nothing to make you his own - to make us his own - and to save us from our enemies.

What an awesome thing it is to be in relationship with this King. What an awesome thing to have him join us where we are. What an awesome thing to know that there is nothing we can do that will put us beyond his willingness to be there when we need him.

Over the next few weeks of Advent we will turn our hearts toward the coming King. As we begin to make our preparations for his arrival, for the advent of our Lord, let's make it a point to open ourselves to him fully, to open our hearts and our hurts to him. So that when he does come, he finds us ready to receive him - and to receive the salvation that he brings.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Let us not forget, even in our festivities with families and friends, that the thing for which we ought to be most thankful is the gift of God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. His life, His love, His Precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist: This is our Great Thanksgiving.