christmas carol theology

Christmas carols are more than a welcome (or unwelcome) addition to the radio come December every year. It can be easy to take them at face value, but go a little deeper into the words and remember the verses that are cut out of many recordings, and you can find truths that go beyond the usual Christmas card platitudes.

(All links to the recordings are from the church I attend, Veritas Community Church)

Mild he lays his glory by.
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King.

That is Christmas. That is the Gospel. The words of that familiar Christmas carol echo Paul’s words in his letter to the Philippians about the attitude of the Christ

“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11)

The rightful king of creation makes his earthly debut as a baby born, most likely in a cave with only his mother and father in attendance. Those who came and visited the makeshift delivery room are shepherds, outcasts of society. The ruler of the time wanted to kill this threat to his reign, this blameless child he saw as a usurper of the throne. It is a very humble beginning of a savior, a very humble beginning for a child who becomes the focal point of all of history.

And so what is our response?

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

(It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, from the verses you've most likely skipped over. And this arrangement is way better than anything else you've heard)

People are at war with each other. We are at war with ourselves. We are too busy, too skeptical, too proud, or perhaps simply too deaf to hear a great heavenly host singing a song of glory and praise about the one true God. The shepherds were simply minding their own business, tending their flock, perhaps trying just to stay warm and find some food so they can survive another day, to continue a boring existence, when the host of angels broke into the night and changed their lives. There are angels singing the glories of God today. Men and women can now join with them.

Christmas will come and go. The songs on the radio will disappear for 10 or 11 months. The lights will gradually come of the houses and trees, the decorations will go back into storage. The church pews will empty, breaks and vacations will end, and back to school and work people will go. The spirit of goodwill and cheer will slowly fade away.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee oh Israel

Perhaps feelings of goodwill and cheer go away, but God does not. Emannuel, God with us, is more than Hebrew trivia. It is a reality.

In Isaiah 9, the famous prophecy of a savior, the prophet writes that on the people who walked in darkness, “a great light has shone”

The Gospel of John is the only one of the four Gospel accounts that does not tell the story of the birth of Christ, at least not in the traditional sense. But it does open with this:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:1-5, 9-13)

That is Immanuel. He has come into the world as the light, and the darkness has not overcome it. Life will resume like normal on December 26th, but to walk in darkness is no longer necessary. A mighty God has laid his glory by, the angels and now the world can testify to this, and he is now with us.

This is why we sing. This is why we celebrate. Merry Christmas.