I love songs that tell stories. Even better when they tread the fine line between reality and metaphor. Today's carol is one that does so using a motif we don't usually think about for Christmas; a dark night. We really don't know whether Jesus was born in the morning, noon, evening, or in the middle of the night. We assumed that he was born in the evening because it was during that night when the shepherds were summoned, but really, he could have been born anytime during the previous day, but regardless, Christmas night, as in, Christmas Eve, is traditionally the time we celebrate the birth of Christ.
I discovered this song only this year, and I believe it was written only last year so I feel as though I've come full circle with you all, sharing ancient carols from nearly 1000 years ago, as well as ones that have been out for barely a year, but just savour these beautiful verses by Chris Anderson with me for a moment.
How dark the night in Bethlehem
Where trav'lers sought for rest;
How crud the cave they sheltered in
While sheep and oxen slept.
Yet light burst forth into the world,
Dispelling sin and strife.
The Child born to a virgin girl
Was Christ, the light of life.
How dark the night o'er pastures bleak
Where shepherds kept their watch;
How cold the wind which stole their sleep
And stung their weary flock.
But glory pierced the midnight sky
And turned fatigue to fright;
"The King is born!" the angel cried
To hail the birth of light.
How dark the night of fallen souls,
By sin and guilt oppressed;
How hopeless our unspoken woe--
Of God and good bereft;
'Till Jesus breaks our moral night
And melts the heart of stone;
"All praise to God in heaven's height,
And peace to men below."
How dark the night that shrouds the world
Where war and anguish reign;
How fierce our swords, how sharp our words,
How piercing is our pain.
O Christ, return like blazing dawn--
The Morning Star of Light!
The Lord Himself will be our Sun,
And day eclipse the night!
Aren't those glorious words? I love how the darkness and light are pitted against each other throughout the course of the song and how it switches from talking about the dark night in Bethlehem to the darkness within our own hearts and souls before Christ, the Light comes to dwell within. Friends this is the heart of Christmas. It's not the manger, or the shepherds, or the star or magi, or any of that. It all points to one thing: We were dead in our trespasses and sins, we were the people who walked in darkness, until we saw a great light, the life of all men who came to us and brought us the salvation we could never bring to ourselves.
Remember that the great salvation came only because there was such great sin that we needed saving from. Remember that Christ's birth, though full of light and joy, came to dispel a great darkness within our very selves.
I don't want to turn this into a somber post, but I do think that Christmas time, like Easter with good Friday, begs a certain degree of sober reflection regarding why the incarnation happened in the first place. However, let's not stay there. Let our sorrow over sin prod us to repentance and then joy, but let us remember that we cannot truly have the latter without the former, or it is not of much worth.
Let me know how you like this lovely setting with music by Greg Habegger and arranged by Molly Ijames.
I think my favourite point in Handel's Messiah is the part where the bass sings, "For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon them. And the nations shall come to its light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. ... The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined."
It's all straight out of Isaiah, but this song explains, in part, why I love it so.
Until Tonight,
~ Christianna
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1 comments:
Bridgette
said...
"It all points to one thing: We were dead in our trespasses and sins, we were the people who walked in darkness, until we saw a great light, the life of all men who came to us and brought us the salvation we could never bring to ourselves. Remember that the great salvation came only because there was such great sin that we needed saving from. Remember that Christ's birth, though full of light and joy, came to dispel a great darkness within our very selves."
Amen! BTW, The mountain town picture is really beautiful!
1 comments:
"It all points to one thing: We were dead in our trespasses and sins, we were the people who walked in darkness, until we saw a great light, the life of all men who came to us and brought us the salvation we could never bring to ourselves. Remember that the great salvation came only because there was such great sin that we needed saving from. Remember that Christ's birth, though full of light and joy, came to dispel a great darkness within our very selves."
Amen! BTW, The mountain town picture is really beautiful!
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