on the 11th day of Christmas - In the Bleak Midwinter

by Christina Rossetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

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.

on the 10th day of Christmas - Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella

Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella

Bring a torch, come swiftly and run.

Christ is born, tell the folk of the village,

Jesus is sleeping in His cradle,

Ah, ah, beautiful is the mother,

Ah, ah, beautiful is her Son.

Hasten now, good folk of the village,

Hasten now, the Christ Child to see.

You will find Him asleep in a manger,

Quietly come and whisper softly,

Hush, hush, peacefully now He slumbers,

Hush, hush, peacefully now He sleeps.

(meant to post this last night, but here it is anyway.) Sufjan does a cover of this song, and while listening to it, I wondered who this Jeannette Isabella girl was - perhaps an obscure saint whom the songwriter imagines to be present at Jesus' birth? - so I thought I'd look into it. It is a French carol dating back to the Renaissance. Jeannette and Isabella are apparently two girls and are not of any notoriety. According to Robert Morgan (link below), the best guess is that this song references a fable in which a couple of milkmaids show up to milk the cows early in the morning after Jesus' birth and discover the Holy Family in the stable. The voice in the song urges them to run and tell the others in their village about the birth of Christ and bring a lantern so that everyone can see the baby Jesus.

At first, I don't think of this song as a theological heavyweight; its main theme is about the peaceful sleep of the baby Jesus, which is an overdone and sentimental theme. However, upon thinking about it more, I think this theme is more substantial than that. The angels tell the shepherds, "Peace on earth"; what more fitting way for that peace to be embodied than in the peaceful rest of the baby whose birth inaugurates this peace? Also this song emphasizes sharing the news with others as the right response to Christ's birth, reminding us that there is a missional dimension not just after Christ's death and resurrection but at the time of his birth as well.

George Le Tours was inspired by this song in his painting (above) of the nativity called "The Newborn" which features a young woman (is it Jeannette or Isabella?) holding a lantern up to cast a dramatic light upon Mary and Jesus. Very Caravaggio.

Robert Morgan has written a wonderful piece about this song at the Donelson Papers:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040124084340/http://www.donelson.org/pocket/pp-031130.html

on the 9th day of Christmas - We Three Kings

(oops, I have missed a lot of days of Christmas on this blog - mostly due to dear friends being here to stay with me!)

This morning at church we sang "We Three Kings." It was written by John Hopkins Jr, who was at the time an ordained deacon in the Episcopal church and later became a priest. He wrote this song in 1857 for a Christmas pageant at General Seminary in New York City.

Verse 1:

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

Chorus:

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

I have long thought that I knew this song pretty well - the first verse is well known, but I also was aware that each wise man gets his own verse to sing about the gift that he brought to Jesus. First gold as a symbol of his kingship:

Verse 2:

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign
O Star of wonder...

Then frankincense as a symbol of Christ's deity, because it was an incense used for prayer:

Verse 3:

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray'r and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

Finally, myrrh, which was used to embalm dead bodies, to foreshadow his sacrificial death:

Verse 4:

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

Those four participles in the 3rd line following one after another so gruesomely and beautifully sum up Christ's passion.

Though I thought I knew this song pretty well, I have never before paid attention to the final verse until this morning:

Verse 5:

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Heaven sings Alleluia
Alleluia, the earth replies

It moves from Christ's death in verse 4 to his resurrection - "now behold him arise" - and then recaps his 3 identities revealed by the 3 gifts - gold for a King, incense for a God, and myrrh for a sacrifice. Heaven and earth, joined by his birth, death, and resurrection, respond in praise - "Alleluia."

This song just gets more beautiful as it unfolds. Too bad so many only have ever heard the first verse and chorus!

May Christ, who by his Incarnation

gathered into one

things earthly and heavenly,

fill you with joy and peace.