Hark! The Hollow Songs We Sing
It’s a scientific fact that Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is the greatest hymn of all time.
I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules.
It’s science.
It has superb theology and as we all know the objective standard for great music is precise theology.
But there are other great hymns out there too with wonderful theology of their own, hymns like O Holy Night, Joy to the World, or the OG Christmas hymn, Mary’s Magnificat.
I love good theology, but even if a song has great theology and that great theology is put to great music, what does it matter if we don’t actually practice what we sing?
Maybe you never stopped to think about that dynamic before.
If not, welcome to club. Christmas hymns have long been something I’ve enjoyed singing, but never put much thought or reflection into and I certainly never considered them to be any sort of personal challenge. So let’s give it a try together. Take a moment and let’s both do some of that thinking and reflecting about the words we sing.
Now, if you’re not Roman Catholic, Mary’s Magnificat may not be in your regular Christmas rotation. If you’re super evangelical or were raised fundamentalist it may not be something you’re even familiar with because us Protestants are terrified of any Mary related because we were all taught at a very young age that Catholicism was just the devil trying to trick us into believing in Jesus in a slightly different way. We’re ok with Mary giving birth to Jesus, but that’s were her job ends. We’re not interested in hearing what the mother of God has to say.
But let’s pretend for a minute that we do care.
Consider the words of the mother of our Lord…
God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
God has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
Mary knew exactly who she gave birth to and exactly why she gave birth to him.
Mary wasn’t forced to give birth to Jesus. It was an invitation of the Holy Spirit which she chose to accept. But she recognized that there was more to the invitation than just giving birth. It was an invitation to a new way of living in and for the world.
The followers of Jesus don’t just believe he existed. We don’t just believe he is Lord. And we don’t just have a personal relationship with him.
We have a calling.
A calling to humility, to bringing down powerful oppressors, to stand with and empower the oppressed, feed the hungry, and welcome the poor while sending the rich away empty.
Mary wasn’t just singing a song.
She was calling for revolution.
She may have been the first, but she certainly wasn’t the last. In fact, a least one Christmas hymn writer seems to have been directly inspired by Mary’s words.
That song, O Holy Night, is definitely in my Christmas rotation and probably yours too. Scientifically speaking if you hear Celine Dion sing it your heart will grow 3 sizes. It’s just science. But it also sounds like plagiarism.
I don’t mean to cast aspersions on Adolphe Adam, but is sounds almost as if he was just putting Mary’s words to music when he wrote O Holy Night…
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
I don’t know who’s responsible for making it happen, but Mary deserves some residuals.
In Adam’s defense, they’re beautiful words that deserve to be put to music. But they should also be convicting.
Holding candles in a dark sanctuary is a beautiful, almost vigil like moment, but we if don’t take that light out into the darkness of the world with concrete, godbreathed, world changing action, then our words ring hollow.
Then there’s my favorite Christmas hymn of all time, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
I’m willing to admit that maybe, just maybe it’s the theology nerd in me from which the wellspring of my love for this song springs.
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
I mean come on. Kenosis? Incarnation? Salvation? Resurrection? All in one stanza?
That’s some elegant theology.
But if systematic theology put to music isn’t your thing, consider the possibility this song isn’t just about the feels. Don’t get me wrong. This song is a guaranteed dopamine rush for me. But…
Glory to the new-born king
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
We sing about peace while doing nothing about the plague of gun violence in our country or worse, we work to stop reform from happening altogether.
We sing about peace while cheering on the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Gaza because far too many of us think it will somehow bring Jesus back sooner.
We sing about peace while hoping for that Rambo-like Jesus to return and destroy the enemies we can’t bring ourselves to love.
Light and life to all He brings
Risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
What light are we bringing into the world? What new life?
How can we sing about healing while denying healthcare to the poor, the marginalized, and women writ large?
How can we sing about a humble savior while priding ourselves for always being right as we lust after political power?
Let me ruin one more Christmas hymn for you: Joy to the World.
Even a seemingly mundane Christmas hymn like Joy to the World takes on new meaning when we put it in its proper context amidst a call to revolution. Not because it has the same revolutionary language of Mary’s Magnificat or O Holy Night, but because it unapologetically declares good news and when we’re not proclaiming, or more importantly living out good news, then the moments we sing as if we were proclaiming good news become all the more hollow as they shine a direct light on just how little good news is actually coming out of the church these days.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let Earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing
What good news does the world have to be joyful about?
Sure, you and I are excited about the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus, but if that birth doesn’t spark new life in our own lives and if, in turn, there is no new life spilling out of the church and our own lives into the world, then what is there to sing about?
Or more to the point, what does it even matter if Jesus was born if nothing changed?
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders, of His love
How exactly is the world witnessing the wonders of God’s love through the church when all the world hears coming out of the church are words of hate and anger and oppression and marginalization and all it sanctified in the name of Jesus?
Look, we’re all hypocrites from time to time and some of us a lot of the time.
This isn’t about inconsistency, but our collective willful, intentional, fear-filled rejection of the very words we sing in favor of power and control and exclusion and a whole host of other things that are fundamentally anti-Christ.
Christmas should be joyful and exciting and full of warm fuzzy feelings and more chocolate than is safe to eat, but if it’s not also convicting, then we’ve missed the real reason for the season.
If the songs we sing at Christmas don’t at the very least inspire us in some small way to put them into action, the Christmas is literally more than a free pass to ignore our complicity and hit reset on a new year while pretending the work of heavenly revolution has already done.
You may have a Christmas cantata or concert coming up at your church soon. I know we did every year growing up. They’re a wonderful time of soul stirring music and singing by candle light.
But if we don’t take that light out with us into the world, then the hymns we sing are just songs.
Hollow words sung by resounding gongs and clanging cymbals.