By PAUL KRAUSE
Christmas is the time for joyful singing. While we may often grow tired of the commercialized songs that sweep into our lives during the Christmas season, such songs and their longevity nevertheless speak to a truth that we should embrace about the Christmas season. Singing is an expression of joy and an essential component of Christianity; after all, the Psalms are replete with joyful expressions to the Lord.
“Sing to the Lord, O ye His saints.”
As a pilgrim people our hearts ought to be set to the good things the heavens hold in store for us. The want to sing is an expression of thanksgiving, a manifestation of the happiness and love in our lives thanks to God. A people who do not sing, who do not give thanks, are a people lost in the shadow of doubt and darkness.
Thanksgiving, or gratitude, is a virtue that is sorely needed in our world today. It is easy to get angry. It is easy to become a self-righteous sanctimonious keyboard warrior. It is easy to castigate and blame others. It is easy to be resentful.
If we listen to the media, and social media especially, you would think that the world was ending. There is an intense myopia that has infected so many people. Yet if we look around us, if we have the eyes to see and ears to hear, we will find a beautiful world and a world that is very much worth living in.
Christmas offers us the opportunity to return to the beauty and wonder of the world that we inhabit, the beauty and wonder of the world that we take for granted and do not give enough thanks for.
It is for this reason I enjoy Christmas hymns (and I hope you do too). Some of the best hymns call us to remember the good things the heavens hold and the wonder of God all around us. Their lyrics don’t bring our attention to the muck and mud, they don’t call us to self-righteous tweeting or social media posting, but call our attention to all that is good, true, and beautiful which make our lives meaningful and joyful.
Let us take John Wesley’s famous hymn we all know: Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
The opening lyrics which abound with the angelic host singing to the newborn King who brought about the reconciliation of God and sinners ties Heaven and Earth, God and man, together in a waltz of regeneration dependent upon the Grace and mercy of God to us, poor sinners.
Through the work of God, we are called to join the triumph of the cosmos singing to goodness of God. We find in the words of this remarkable hymn the essence of the Gospel and the reminder that we are never alone and that we live in a cosmos imbued with the spirit of love and joy from the heavenly host to the creatures of the Earth united giving praise and thanks to God.
The lyrics also call us away from sin and direct our attention to God and the heavens. It is the heavenly host that begin singing, this opening calls us to consider Heaven rather than Earth.
Moreover, the glory recognized to the Newborn King calls us to the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, as the redeemer who brought reconciliation and new life to the world. Furthermore, Heaven and Earth come together in unison to give praise to the good God who created the world and wrought salvation to the Earth and fallen sinners. We sing, then, not in isolation but in a harmonious choir that touches every inch of creation.
If Wesley’s famous hymn calls us to rejoice for the good work of God, so too does O Come Emmanuel.
O Come Emmanuel captures the real meaning of Advent: The Second Coming of Christ. While the imagery of Christmas invokes the Incarnation, the focus of Advent is actually on the Second Coming, the hopeful wait for the return of the Lord to ransom us from our captivity and usher us into the New Jerusalem.
By calling for Emmanuel to come and ransom us captive sinners who wait for the return of the Lord, we are witnesses to the hope and perseverance of the Christian life. Despite our captivity, we have hope for the return of Christ who will show us the path of knowledge and through that wisdom and deliverance we will have victory over the grave and be able to sing joyfully as we are (re)united with Him who created us for Himself. Even when things seem bleak, we are called to hope and rejoicing.
So while we look around us and things seem bleak, it is imperative for us to be reminded that this time for song is one of thanksgiving and joy. The world which seems so harsh and fallen is, in fact, redeemed for those with the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The songs that we will soon hear and sing call our hearts and souls to the true beauty and goodness which we are journeying to and hope to encounter.
The songs we sing this Christmas remind us that we are not alone. They reveal to us that the cosmos we inhabit is not dark and alienated but filled with brilliance and life and love. Sing to the Lord for He is good. Sing for the beauty and joy that is all around us and the hope that has inspired generations in the past and will inspire generations into the future. The Incarnation was also a beautiful and joyful moment in history, as will be the Second Coming.
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