Notes on the Notes – December 29, 2024
First Sunday after Christmas
This week’s music:
“Good Christian Friends, Rejoice” (VU #35)
“Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice!
Give ye heed to what we say: News! News! Jesus Christ is born today.
Ox and ass before him bow, and he is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!
Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice!
Now ye hear of endless bliss: Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!
He hath opened heaven’s door, and we are blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!
Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice!
Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all to gain his everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!”
This hymn was translated by John Mason Neale from a 14th-century carol, written in German and Latin, and was included in his Carols for Christmas-tide (1853). The text has been revised to make it more inclusive and thus more useable in contemporary worship, although the original translation remains more popular outside of the church.
Check out this blog post on Beyond Common Sense about the carol by Wanda MacAvoy at: https://wandamacavoy.com/2012/11/27/523/
“Gloria” (VU #37)
“Gloria, gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, gloria, alleluia, alleluia.
Glory to God, glory to God, glory in the highest!
Glory to God, glory to God, hallelujah, hallelujah!”
This music was written by Jacques Berthier for the Taize Community. The English text by R. Gerald Hobbs and the music arrangement by Darryl Nixon were prepared for Songs for a Gospel People (1987). We will be using it as a response to the Words of Assurance.
“like a child” (VU #366)
like a child love would send to reveal and to mend
like a child and a friend Jesus comes
like a child we may find claiming heart soul and mind
like a child strong and kind Jesus comes
like a child we will meet ragged clothes dirty feet
like a child on the street Jesus comes
like a child we once knew coming back into view
like a child born anew Jesus comes
like a child born to pray and to show us the way
like a child here to stay Jesus comes
like a child we receive all that love can conceive
like a child we believe Jesus comes
The lack of punctuation and capitalization, except for the name of Jesus, is a deliberate choice by Daniel Charles Damon, the composer of this hymn (1992). In what way does this change how you read the words of the hymn?
Dr. Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology, writes,
“Traditionally many Christmas hymns have explored the birth of Jesus as the coming of a monarch.
For example, Charles Wesley wrote, “Hark! the herald angels sing, / ‘Glory to the new-born King!’” The refrain of another traditional English carol echoes this: “Noel, born is the King of Israel.” Isaac Watts wrote, “Let earth receive her King.”
Others have explored the images of Jesus, born in humble surroundings. The lovely Polish carol begins, “Infant holy, / infant lowly, / for his bed a cattle stall.” Cecil Frances Alexander began her famous carol, “Once in royal David’s city / stood a lowly cattle shed.”
Poets are always searching for metaphors to express the nature of the Incarnation. The Rev. Daniel Charles Damon (b. 1955) is among the more recent hymn writers that explore the coming of infant Jesus in fresh ways. Mr. Damon, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Point Richmond, Calif., also plays jazz piano and teaches a church music course at Pacific School of Religion. His work has appeared in several recent hymnals, and five collections of his hymns have been published.
Reminiscent of e.e. cummings’ poetic style, Mr. Damon wrote his original poem with no capital letters or punctuation. Presented as a poem rather than interlined with the music, the indented lines of the text provide a visual symbol of the Christ child descending to earth. Mr. Damon, also an excellent hymn tune writer, composed a child-like melody to accompany this new carol.
Rather than comparing the Christ-child to royalty or detailing the humble surroundings of the manger scene, Mr. Damon looks at children in the world and sees Christ-like qualities in them. Look at the children around you, Mr. Damon tells us in this carol, and you will see glimpses of the infant Jesus. He uses the poetic device of a simile to capture a picture of Jesus. The phrase “like a child” returns 12 times in three stanzas.
Stanza two reminds us that Jesus was “like a child on the street” with “ragged clothes, dirty feet.” This is a picture of a most vulnerable and humble God who took a human form (Philippians 2:5-11). The third stanza reminds us that “a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6, NIV): “like a child born to pray and to show us the way. . . Jesus comes.”
The hymn challenges our consumer-driven notions of the Christmas season. Somewhere between the 19th and 21st centuries we have domesticated the setting of Christ’s birth to the point that it appears more like a bed & breakfast that we see on some greeting cards. Sweet smelling hay replaces the dank aroma of a stable. Cooing doves and mooing cows, humming in harmony, supplant restless animals in their stalls. An idyllic manger bed takes the place of a feeding trough. The first visitors were the humblest of the poor, closer in social station to street people than to many of us.
By domesticating the birth of Christ, we may make ourselves more comfortable, but risk losing the sense of mystery that comes from pondering the presence of the Creator of the Universe dwelling among the poorest of the poor.
This is not a call to forsake the rich legacy of Christmas carols that celebrate the coming of the King of kings. It is a reality check to remember that when we see a “child on the street” with “ragged clothes, dirty feet,” we may see the face of Christ. As the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:40 reminds us, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (NIV)
(Source: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-like-a-child#:~:text=The%20phrase%20%E2%80%9Clike%20a%20child,2%3A5%2D11).
Hear the hymn at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9MekAX0A4
“I am the Light of the World” (VU #87)
I am the light of the world! You people come and follow me!”
If you follow and love you’ll learn the mystery of what you were meant to do and be.
When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and the shepherds have found their way home, the work of Christmas is begun…
To find the lost and lonely one, to heal the broken soul with love,
to feed the hungry children with warmth and good food, to feel the earth below, the sky above!…
To free the prisoner from all chains, to make the powerful care,
to rebuild the nations with strength of good will, to see God’s children everywhere!…
To bring hope to every task you do, to dance at a baby’s new birth,
to make music in an old person’s heart, and sing to the colours of the earth!…”
Jim Strathdee is an American composer and performer of religious music. The text of this song is based on a Christmas poem by Howard Thurman, a prolific 20th-century writer, theologian, and teacher. The song grew out of Strathdee’s music ministry at an intercultural, bilingual congregation in Los Angeles. It was written in 1967.
Hear the hymn at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2raH2XxEqU
“In the Bleak Midwinter” (VU #55 v. 4)
“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.“
In 1872, poet Christina Rossetti imaginatively placed the holy birth not in warm Bethlehem, but in her chillier and snow-bound native England. Her poem first appeared as a hymn with Gustav Holst’s setting in 1906. We will be using the fourth verse of the carol as our Offering response.
See Quire Cleveland perform the carol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE0aIQp9V4s
“Joy is Now in Every Place” (VU #45)
“Joy is now in every place,
Christmas lightens every face;
Now be with us, in your grace,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.
May the star that shone that night,
Making your poor stable bright,
Fill our hearts with love and light,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.
Through the New Year let it stay,
Leading us upon your way,
Making Christmas every day,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.
Now and ever may we find
Your good news to fill our mind:
Peace and love to humankind,
O hear us, bless us, holy Jesus.”
According to the Canadian Youth Hymnal (1939), the source of this carol was Child Education, December 1929, although the author of the words is unknown. The lyrics bridge the time between Christmas and the New Year, encouraging us to keep the good news of Jesus’ birth in our minds and actions. The German carol tune has been in use since the 1500s, when it was used in medieval mystery plays about the nativity. It is the tune for the German carol “Joseph lieber, Joseph mein.”
“May the God of Hope” (VU #424)
“May the God of hope go with us every day,
Filling all our lives with love and joy and peace.
May the God of justice speed us on our way,
Bringing light and hope to every land and race.
Praying, let us work for peace,
Singing, share our joy with all,
Working for a world that’s new,
Faithful when we hear Christ’s call.”
This week, we will be using the first verse of this hymn as our benediction response. It was written in 1984 by Alvin Schutmaat, an American Presbyterian musician, theologian, and educator who taught in South America and Mexico. An educator, theologian and administrator, he used the arts to communicate the gospel. “May the God of Hope” is a song of blessing, justice and peace. The tune is an Argentine folk melody chosen by Alvin Schutmaat for his text.
