"Who Is He?"

The last of my favorite Scottish Christmas carols isn't a Christmas carol at all. It starts out like one, but it is also a Good Friday and Easter hymn. In fact, we sang it year round.

Benjamin Russell Hanby wrote both the words and the music (tune, Lowliness) to "Who Is He?" In the verses below, I've printed the chorus each time for easier reading.

Who is He, in yonder stall,
At whose feet the shepherds fall?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He, in yonder cot,*
Bending to His toilsome lot?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He, in deep distress,
Fasting in the wilderness?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He that stands and weeps
At the grave where Lazarus sleeps?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Lo! at midnight, who is He
Prays in dark Gethsemane?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He, in Calvary's throes,
Asks for blessings on His foes?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He that from the grave
Comes to heal and help and save?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

Who is He that on yon throne
Rules the world of light alone?
'Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!
'Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
At His feet we humbly fall;
Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.**
 

The three children you see standing in front of the largest church on Tiree were sad when they had to leave the Isle, but they were also excited about returning to Edinburgh at the beginning of a new year.

In the same way, I'm sad to be leaving this series on Scottish Christmas carols, but I'm excited about writing new posts for 2013. Come along and see how I do.

Have a Christ-filled year.

__________
* "Cot" can mean either a narrow bed, such as one where a child might sleep, or a small house, such as one where a carpenter might live and work.

** As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927). This source identifies the tune as "Lowliness." In other sources, the same tune is called "Who Is He."

"Child in the Manger"

Another carol I learned in Scotland is "Child in the Manger," written in Gaelic by Mary Macdonald and translated into English by Lachlan Macbean. It is sung to a Gaelic melody now called Bunessan.

This carol needs no introduction and no explanation. Here it is.

Child in the manger,
Infant of Mary;
Outcast and stranger,
Lord of all!
Child who inherits
All our trangressions,
All our demerits
On Him fall. 

Once the most holy
Child of salvation
Gently and lowly
Lived below;
Now, as our glorious
Mightly Redeemer,
See Him victorious
O'er each foe. 

Prophets foretold Him,
Infant of wonder;
Angels behold Him
On His throne;
Worthy our Savior
Of all their praises;
Happy forever
Are His own.*
 

 Have a blessed Christmas.

__________
* As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927).

"In the Bleak Midwinter"

The year my family lived in Scotland, we spent our Christmas holiday on the Isle of Tiree, where my father earned a small stipend by preaching at the churches scattered around the island. Tiree was sparsely populated and the congregations were small, but the people were warm and friendly.

The picture shows the house we rented for our brief stay.

Before we even left for Tiree, I discovered several new Christmas carols. Three became favorites, and I'm going to spend the next few weeks talking about them.

Two carols are very strong theologically, so I'll save them for the two Mondays surrounding Christmas. I'll start with the weakest of the three.

"In the Bleak Midwinter" has plenty of faults. First, the winter that Christina Rossetti wrote about resembles the ones she knew in England, not the kind they have in Bethlehem. Second, nobody knows what month Jesus was born in, but chances are it wasn't during the winter. Still, something in the song spoke to me.

Maybe it was because it is so singable, or it could have been the melody (Cranham, by Gustav Holst). Then again, it could have been that, as a ten-year-old who had grown up in church, I was surprised to find a popular Christmas carol I didn't know.

Or maybe it was because the Sunday School I often attended used the last verse as its offertory. And that is the best verse of the carol from a theological standpoint.

Here are the words. Enjoy the first three stanzas, but focus on the fourth.

In the bleak midwinter,
Frosty winds 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. 

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air--
But His mother only,
In her maiden bliss,
Worshiped 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.*
 

 And your heart is enough.

__________
* As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927).

Preparing for (Next) Christmas

I've already started working on my Christmas cards for next year. No, I don't have obsessive-compulsive disorder. I won't address the envelopes until Thanksgiving rolls around again, and I never start my Christmas shopping before January.

But I do like to be prepared. I make my own Christmas cards, and I need a new photograph to grace the cover for 2013. If I wait until next year's decorations are up, it'll be too late. So I drove around the neighborhood Saturday taking pictures of nativity scenes, and I'll be on the lookout for other subjects all month.

Advent is the season for preparation, anyway. As we prepare to celebrate Christ's birth, we also get ready for his second coming.

Besides, I'm only starting a year in advance. God prepared his plan for our salvation before the beginning of time as we know it. Then he waited for just the right moment.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5, ESV)

Are you prepared?

It's Coming!

Well, Christmas is coming. Advent is already here.

My church usually holds its Christmas concert on the first Sunday in Advent, and this year was no exception. Yesterday afternoon was the first concert under our new choir director, and it went well.

The day before that, the women's ministry held its bi-annual Advent Tea. Volunteers decorate the tables, and the variety is both interesting and fun. That's my contribution in the foreground of the picture.

A lighthouse theme? What do lighthouses have to do with Advent or Christmas? A lot. Advent looks forward to, and Christmas celebrates, the coming of the Light of the World. I wanted the women at my table to make the connection, so I gave them each a laminated copy of my poem, "The Lighthouse," which starts with these words:

A light has come to save the world,
A lowly baby born,
It shines its beam on rocky shoals
From evening until morn.

For the rest of the poem, see my December 26, 2011 post.

Actually, Advent celebrates two separate comings by the same person. The most obvious is the one that happened 2000 years ago when Jesus came in his humility, born in a manger to be our Savior. The other looks forward to the last day when Christ will come again in his glory. Except it won't really be the last day for those who worship him. Instead of the end, it will be the beginning of something so much better than I can imagine.

That's why I say:

Come, Lord Jesus.