2020.12.27 Hymns & Carols

Luke 2:8–14 NASB

8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Hymns & Carols

Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing o’er the plain.

Why do these songs have a hold on us?

I could tell you some of our accepted origin story for Angels We Have Heard on High… that French shepherds used to sing parts of this across the hillsides to one another as they tended their flocks. Much of the story is unverifiable, except that the tune is a VERY old French tune, and that the French version was first published in 1855, but that the carol was known in England as early as 1816.

Many of our Christmas carols were written in another language. Some of them have even been re-translated differently throughout the years.

In fact, the English translation we sing of this nineteenth-century carol was written in 1916. We don’t know the difference because we’re so far away from 1916, so the version we know is the one we believe to be legitimate, even though the ‘original’ was written a hundred years before this one.

How about Silent Night?

In earlier days of the Western Church, many congregations wouldn’t permit piano in worship. Only organ was deemed acceptable to lead worship.

By the 1980s most had permitted piano, but were now bucking against drums or guitars.

I’ve heard two versions of the Silent Night story. They’re very similar, but in the more widely accepted version, Father Joseph Mohr at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria was in a pickle on Christmas Eve, 1816. The church organ was broken, and the repair person would not be able to repair it before Christmas. So Father Mohr took a walk and wrote the words to Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht, the choir director Franz Gruber wrote a tune for the poem in just a few hours. Without an organ, the song was written to be played on guitar. So, in 1816, St. Nicholas Church first heard Father Mohr sing Silent Night to Gruber’s guitar accompaniment.

When the organ repairman came, he found the music and took a copy with him. Eventually, the song spread and was sung for the king of Prussia in 1834, and by 1836, a traveling singing troupe brought the song to the United States.

Today, our traditions may recoil at Silent Night sung to guitar on Christmas Eve, but that is the actual tradition that began in 1816.

Now, I’m not sharing any of this to say that our traditions are wrong … certainly not!

I’m sharing this to say the Church has had lots of fighting over music in her history. And today, we often defend simply because it’s all we know. Chances are, most of the hymns and carols we sing are not in their original form, and the lyrics have likely shifted over the years.

I share that to say the reason for the song is much more important than how it’s sung or accompanied.

Mohr and Gruber wanted to provide a song that helped their congregation celebrate the birth of the Christ-child. Angels We Have Heard on High was originally just a capturing of shepherds singing to one another across their hillside pastures. And neither was sung in English.

While I love these songs today, and I have preferences about the arrangement options … I’m glad we have those options. I’m glad we’re still singing these 200 year old songs, and the more modern ones.

From shepherds in Israel’s countryside, to French hillside shepherds, to a priest in Austria, to a Methodist pastor in Indiana … the truth of Jesus Christ is worth singing about and proclaiming from the mountaintops - even if it’s not in my preferred key; or arranged a way I like; or accompanied the way I would choose.

The Good News is still the Good News! God himself laid aside his deity, so that he could die a human death and resurrect. All this, so we could be a part of his family.

As C.S. Lewis put it this way in his book Mere Christianity : “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”

So, praise God, indeed. Praise him because he’s made a way for us. So, Merry Christmas. Fröhliche Weihnachten! Feliz Navidad! Joyeux Noël! and as Tiny Tim said in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: “God bless us … every one!”