The Revd Antony Rees with some thoughts on what we are going to be singing
Christmas without Christmas carols would not be quite the same.
But it would be strange if some chaff did not find its way into the wheat.
We three Kings I’m afraid, comes readily to mind. They were not Kings at all but Magi (astrologers). Ding Dong merrily on high is a favourite and it is in order to wish that ‘steeple bells be swungen’. But if we go on to specify the accompaniment ‘by priest and people sungen’ then the priesthood of all believers (a central Reformation doctrine) is seriously compromised. Even more seriously misleading is that chorus line ‘Man shall live for evermore because of Christmas Day’. Not so. Unconditional love does not mean unconditional salvation.1
Posh services?
Posh carol services like to sing the hymn Adam lay abounden. But the chorus has no biblical sanction whatsoever: ‘All that for an apple, an apple that he took.’ There is no mention of an apple in Genesis. This tree is called ‘the tree of the knowledge of good an evil.’2
When we sing God rest you merry, gentle- men we must make sure to pause in keeping with the comma inserted in the right place. ‘Gentlefolk’ would be better maybe these days than ‘gentlemen’. Far more culpable, however, is that couplet:
‘This holy tide of Christmas
All others should efface’.
Not at all. The ‘Word became flesh’ so that ‘flesh should become sin for us’ at Calvary.³
Babies and children
There are those who object to a line in that charming lullaby Away in a manger where we sing ‘But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.’ Surely that is permissible if we confine this cry-lessness to a particular moment, but we are never to universalise this so that we are left with a baby who never cries at all. That would make baby Jesus a fake baby, not a real one.
In this season of goodwill it might seem inappropriate to find fault with two of our most deservedly popular carols. However, in spite of the consummate simplicity of Once in royal David’s city set to its felicitous tune, the couplet that concludes the third verse resonates with Victorian moralism:
‘Christian children, all must be
mild, obedient, good as he.’
Would it not be more apt to sing, at least under our breath:
‘Christian children, all can live
pardoned in their Saviour’s love’ ?
Did not Christ come into the world to save sinners? 4
I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, as they say. So, having gone so far, I am emboldened to question the veracity of one word in the most biblical of all our carols: Hark the herald angels sing… – ‘Late in time behold him come.’ No, it was ‘when the time had fully come’. 5 Not only was the place right and the purpose right; the time was right too.
Lyrics to savour
Enough of the annoying chaff. It is time to enjoy the nourishing wheat. There are some inspired lines that can stick in the memory. What about:
‘Veiled in flesh the godhead see,
Hail, incarnate deity?’
That would be difficult to surpass, but:
‘Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies’
comes very close. There is also something challenging as well as comforting in:
‘How silently, how silently
the wondrous gift is given!’
But what of our response to such a wondrous gift? Mary leads the way as she:
‘Worshipped her beloved with a kiss.’
For ourselves? This familiar refrain summarises our response exactly:
‘O come let us adore him.’
So much for some snippets, but when it comes to a carol as a whole I have space for only a few outstanding instances.
While shepherds watched … deserves its place in the Premier League because it gets us all singing Scripture unadulterated. If we sing it to the tune of On Ilkley moor bar tat the chorus would get a marvellous dose of ‘oomph’ with: ‘And glory shone around’ repeated three times over in a crescendo of praise.
Upon the midnight
Those two nocturnal carols Silent night and O holy night are in danger of relegation, but Bishop Frank Houghton’s Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour is beautifully constructed and deserves greater popularity. Could I put in a special plea for It came upon the midnight clear?
Contrary to popular assumption, Christmas is not just a children’s festival. Anna and Simeon, for instance, had bidden farewell to childhood decades previously.6 Those who can only come to church provided their zimmer frame is in working order can readily identify with that realistic third verse:
‘O ye, beneath life’s crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow …’
This carol reminds us, in its opening, that in our violent age we need that message of ‘Peace on earth’ as never before. Though Christian disciples know peace with God here and now, yet the final verse cautions us that it is only as the days are hastening on to Christ’s second coming that the world will ever experience universal peace in reality.
O little town of Bethlehem expresses Christian truth memorably as well as simply. The final verse packs a fine evangelistic punch:
‘O holy child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in;
Be born in us today’ 7
Hark the herald… follows this up with:
‘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’
This hymn also balances this vital subjective element with the equally gracious objective:
‘Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled’
It is perplexing that the fourth verse of this latter carol should be so regularly omitted. It is good to be reminded that Jesus came not only to be our substitute, but our representative. The first Adam made all the mess, the second came to clear it all up. Hence we sing with Charles Wesley:
‘Come, desire of nations, come
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, thou woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thy image in its place
O, to all Thyself impart
Formed in each believing heart
Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the new-born king.’ 8
FOOTNOTES
1. John 1.11f. 2. Genesis 2.16f. 3. 2 Corinthians 5.21. 4. 1 Timothy1.15. 5. Galatians 4.4; Titus 1.3. 6. Luke 2. 25-38. 7. John 3.3. 8. e.g. Haggai 2.7; Luke 24.29; John 15.5; Genesis 3.15; Romans 5.12-19; Hebrews 1.3; 1 Corinthians 15.49; 2 Corinthians 5.17.
