Praise Him with a Hymn

At this time of year, as we approach Christmas, I often think about the early Christians, many of whom perhaps never knew the stories of Jesus’ birth. How can this be? Well, some Christians only had the Gospel of Mark or perhaps the Gospel of John to read about the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. Some Christians didn’t have the chance to read the Christmas story in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. It would take over 300 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection before there was a “canon” of scripture that included all four gospels...and all Christians got to read and hear the stories of Jesus’ birth. Imagine what life would be like, as a Christian, if the story of Jesus began at the river Jordan with John the Baptizer. And this means that those Christians would never have heard about the angels, the star, the shepherds, and the wisemen; there wouldn’t have been any gold, frankincense or myrrh, and there certainly wouldn’t have been anybody singing Christmas carols. I think I’d miss those most of all.

One of the earliest Christians to write Christmas hymns, was a man named Ephraim the Syrian. He wrote 19 nativity hymns right in the middle of the fourth century, just as the “Bible” was officially taking shape.

Here are a few lines of one of Ephraim’s hymns:

“The Babe that I carry carries me,” saith Mary, “and He has lowered His wings, and taken and placed me between His pinions, and mounted into the air; and a promise has been given me that height and depth shall be my Son's.”

I love the way that hymn-writers use poetic imagination to proclaim the gospel. Here Mary says that the child she carries within her will one day carry her. The 1700-year-old hymn reminds me of the 30-year-old Christmas pop song, “Mary, Did You Know?” where the lyricists asks, “Mary, did you know that this child that you delivered, would soon deliver you?”

Ephraim lets us all know that we are Christophers, that is, we are all, like Mary, “Christ-bearers.” Because of Christmas, we carry the light of Christ within us, waiting to be birthed every day, in every interaction we have with another.

Ephraim goes on in this hymn to proclaim what the gospel of Jesus’ incarnation means:

“He that has a child, let him come and become a brother to my Well-beloved!  He that has a daughter or a young woman of his race, let her come and become the bride of my Glorious One! He that has a servant, let him set him free, that he may come and serve his Lord.”

At the heart of the Christmas story is the message of salvation which means: rescue, deliverance, and liberation from slavery. Ephraim sings of this Jesus who leaves his heavenly glory to become a servant of all and would one day free all those in captivity, and that in their emancipation they would be servants of the Most High God.

This hymn reminds me of the 19-century Christmas hymn, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” where each person is called to bring who they are to the new-born made as a gift:

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a Shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part,
Yet, what I can, I give Him,
Give my heart. ~ Christina Rossetti

If we didn’t have Christmas, we might miss the chosen vulnerability of the Christ Child, to whom we are called to respond with the opening of our hearts, as we might with any newborn. We are to be undone by his vulnerability, and to be remade in God’s strength.

There is another hymn I read recently. This one isn’t 1700 years old…just 700…and it comes from England. Here are a few lines:

'To thank and bless God we are bound
With all the mirth that man may minne: [make]
For all the world in woe was wound
Until he crept into our kin, -
A lovely girl he lit within,
The worthiest that ever was,
And shed his blood for our sin:
And therefore, Deo Gracias.'

Here the poet’s imagination speaks of the God of heaven “creeping” into the human race to free us all, who are all wound up with woe. Then the poet says something remarkable about Mary. He calls her ‘the worthiest girl that ever was’ and that God “lit her within.

This is the great mystery of our Christmas faith. How is it that God caused a child to be born of a virgin?  Well, just as in the beginning of all things, where God spoke light into being, God speaks Light and illumines Mary from within. Now this is poetry…but what other language can we borrow to express the mystery of faith? Mary becomes the sanctuary in which the Holy Light of God has come to dwell. And when Jesus is born, the light goes forth from the holy temple to shine for all the world to see.

This reminds me of a hymn from the 17th-century:

Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light,
And usher in the morning;
Ye shepherds, shrink not with afright,
But hear the angel's warning.
This Child, now weak in infancy,
Our confidence and joy shall be,
The powers of hell now breaking,
Our peace eternal making. 

If we didn’t have Christmas, we’d miss so much, especially the great hymns and carols that proclaim the gospel. This Christmas I encourage you really to read the carols as you sing them. See how faithful imagination can startle a new appreciation for the gifts we receive and share at Christmas, the gifts of faithful singing.

What’s your favorite Christmas hymn and why?

Rev. Michael Hegeman, Assisting Pastor for Senior Adult Ministries and Education