Christmas Greetings!
It's the Sunday after Christmas, and we're going to let some very special guests share the message for the day. Today we ask Christmas carols from around the world to tell us about our Savior's birth!
Of the Father's Love Begotten
Of the Father's love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
he is Alpha and Omega, he the Source, the Ending he,
of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore!
This is probably the oldest song in our hymnal, dating back at least 17 centuries.
It is plainsong--a form of music so old that it had neither key signature nor time signature. Instead, worshipers would chant the song over and over to form a background for prayer and meditation.
The words of the hymn are mystical--almost magical--but they are written for a very specific purpose. In the early days of the church, our faith was under attack. People were saying Jesus was a good man, but not really God.
This hymn gave people a chance to sing their faith in Jesus as God the Son, eternal, not created. Today, the people called Methodists still believe that the best way to learn good theology is to sing a good song!
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies;
With th'angelic hosts proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Over his lifetime, Charles Wesley wrote around 6,500 hymns. Far and away his number one his is this: Hark the Herald Angels Sing. But if you heard Charles sing it when he first wrote it, you might not recognize it.
Charles wanted his hymn to be slow and solemn. His lyrics were hard to understand as well.
"Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings".
Charles Wesley's good friend, George Whitfield--the Baptist evangelist--thought it ought to be easier to sing. Under his hand, it became Hark the Herald Angels Sing... but the music went on plodding along for over 100 years.
At last, a great British tenor could stand it no longer.
William Hayman Cummings took these great lyrics and set them to Mendelssohn's joyful cantata. Suddenly, the ultimate Christmas carol was LIT!
No wonder Charlie Brown and the gang chose this song to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.
Here's a lovely carol based on an old Irish tune:
Love Came Down at Christmas
Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas; star and angels gave the sign.
Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles.
The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually taking place around 21 December. The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Early Christians took over the solstice celebrations and gave people Christmas songs to sing.
When the serious minded Puritans took over in England, they disapproved of too much celebration.
They even outlawed Christmas carols!
That all changed when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert from Germany. He introduced the English court to the Christmas tree, gift exchanges, and of course, carols!Fortunately, many of the old English and Irish carols were preserved in print.
He is Born
He is born, the divine Christ Child; play the oboe and bagpipes merrily!
He is born, the divine Christ Child; sing we all of the Savior mild.
Through long ages of the past, prophets have foretold His coming;
through long ages of the past, now the time has come at last!
Of course, Christmas carols were handed down wherever there were Christians to sing.
From France comes an ancient song, "He is Born, the Holy Child."
You might be surprised to see that the French children were bringing bagpipes to play for the holy child.
This is because this song comes from the Breton region of France, where the people still speak a type of Gaelic--much like Irish, Scottish, or Welsh--to this day.
Infant Holy
Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed a cattle stall;
oxen lowing, little knowing, Christ the babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging angels singing, noels ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the babe is Lord of all. Christ the babe is Lord of all.
Poland also has an ancient traditions of caroling--first with pagan traditions, then Christian songs. Here is a lovely little carol that was not translated into English until the 20th century. Who knows how many more hidden gems are waiting to be translated in the 21st century? Let's rejoice that we have this Slavic gift to the Christ child as we sing.
Silent Night
Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright
'round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.
Ask the most cold hearted old Scrooge to name the most famous carol of all time, and you are sure to get Silent Night, Holy Night.
On a cold Christmas Eve in 1818, Father Joseph Mohr walked the three miles from his home to visit his friend Franz Gruber.
Mohr brought with him a poem he had written some two years earlier.
He needed a carol for the Christmas Eve midnight Mass that was only a few hours away, and hoped his friend, a school teacher who also served as the church’s choir master and organist, could set his poem to music.
Gruber composed the melody for Mohr's "Stille Nacht" in just a few hours.
The song was sung at Midnight Mass in a simple arrangement for guitar and choir.
Various legends have sprung up over the years concerning the writing of "Silent Night," but the simplest and likeliest explanation seems to have been that Mohr simply wanted an original song that he could play on his favorite instrument, the guitar.
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Go, tell it on the mountain, Over the hills and ev'rywhere;
Go, tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born.
While shepherds kept their watching O'er silent flocks by night,
Behold, throughout the heavens There shone a holy light.
Today we’re celebrating Christmas music around the world! Go Tell It On the Mountain is an African-American spiritual song, compiled by John Wesley Work Jr., dating back to at least 1865. It has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers.
Away in a Manger
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head;
the stars in the heavens looked down where He lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.
Away in a Manger is a Christmas carol first published in the late nineteenth century and used widely throughout the English-speaking world. In Britain, it is one of the most popular carols. Although it was long claimed to be the work of German religious reformer Martin Luther, the carol is now thought to be wholly American in origin.
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by:
yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Many hymns that were written originally for children have captured the imagination of everyone. Such is the case with “O little town of Bethlehem.” Phillips Brooks wrote this beloved Christmas hymn for the Sunday school children at his Philadelphia parish, Holy Trinity Church, following a pilgrimage to Bethlehem in 1865.
The First Noel
The first Noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
in fields where they lay keeping their sheep, on a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, born is the King of Israel.
On the far southwest corner of Great Britain lies the land of Cornwall. The Celtic people there still speak a form of Gaelic to this day, and they have a strong tradition of hymn singing.
“The First Noel” comes to us from that rocky, wind-swept coast. It was first published in the 1823 volume, “Carols Ancient and Modern. The Methodist denomination also helped to spread the song. In the areas of England where Methodism was strongest, music and singing were prominent, especially during Christmas time, and so The First Noël spread throughout the land by way of Methodist churches.
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay,
remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day,
to save us all from Satan's pow'r when we were gone astray;
O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is one of the oldest carols, dated to the 16th century or earlier. The earliest known printed edition of the carol is in a broadsheet dated to c. 1760.
The carol is referred to in Charles Dickens' 1843 A Christmas Carol: "... at the first sound of 'God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!', Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost." The adjective merry in Early Modern English had a wider sense of "pleasant; bountiful, prosperous.”
As you sing, we pray that God will make your heart merry, as well as pleasant, bountiful, and prosperous!