Just before bringing this news-letter to press, I was driving along listening to the radio and heard the announcer tell the story of the bishop in England who was anxious to change some of the words of Christmas carols. And example given was "O Come All Ye Faithless".
This was because the bishop was dismayed at the fact that so many of us seem to have lost the original meaning of Christmas. He had asked some Sunday school children in his jurisdiction what was at the center of the Christmas celebration. They had responded variously, "Santa Claus", "gifts" and "reindeer". Not even angels, a baby or magi!
I would have been shocked as well, but my response to this seeming lack of knowledge of the real meaning of Christmas is to ask us to turn again to the carols which all tell the story — the real reason for Christmas.
My neighbor across the street knows what’s at the center of Christmas. A Congregationalist, on the same day I was listening to the story of the bishop on the radio, she offered me a button which had been distributed at her church "Christ is the reason for Christmas", it said. She then told me of delighting to give one of them to a store clerk, who inquired about the one she was wearing. What a great non-obtrusive way to evangelize and to remind us of the reason for the celebration!
Of all the associations with the word Christmas, singing is one of the most widespread. Singing because Christmas is a joyous celebration and when we are joyful we tend to break into smiles and song.
Since the Christmas (originally the mass of the Christ) celebration began in the early church, the type of songs initially associated with the season are those that feature the events and personalities surrounding the birth of the child, Jesus.
My favorite carol is "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", one of the more modern carols, relatively speaking, written in the 1800’s by Edmund Sears. This beautiful carol refers to the angels’ message on that first Christmas – "Peace on earth goodwill to all" found in Luke chapter 2 and to the message of peace that continues to come to us today through everyday angels. It calls to us who "toil along life’s climbing way with painful steps and slow" and bids us look forward to the time when "peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling and the whole world give back the song which now the angels sing." My hope is for a world just like that.
There are other beautiful carols as well, several of which are found in our United Methodist Hymnal. We know the popular ones – Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Joy to The World, Away in a Manger, O Come All Ye Faithful. (The one the bishop wants to change!)
I like to look at those less well known hymns and it seems as though my favorites all feature angels. UMH # 220 is Angels from the Realms of Glory, written by James Montgomery in 1816. It invites us to "Come and Worship, Worship Christ the Newborn King;" and #238 is Angels we have heard on High, which speaks of the shepherds who heard the angels’ song and invites us to "Come to Bethlehem and see" the wonder of the baby’s birth as we sing with the angels "Gloria In Excelsis Deo." (Glory to God in the Highest)
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Hark, The Herald Angels Sing (UMH # 240) was written by Charles Wesley, one of Methodism’s most prolific hymn writers, in 1734. I am particularly drawn to the final stanza of the hymn that summarizes the reason for the celebration and points to Christ’s mission: "Mild, he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die. Born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth." I can think of no better reason to sing these hymns and all the others, even the unfamiliar ones, with gusto and spirit as they remind us of the real reason for the season, the real reason for the celebration.
So as you sing these carols this season, look at the words, enjoy the tunes and remember the real reason for the season as you give thanks. Have a Blessed, joyful Christmas!