The Other Verses

How many Christmas carols do you know? Just off the top of your head? Not Christmas songs, like “Frosty the Snowman” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but honest to goodness, sing ‘em in church, carols? Probably over a dozen off the top of your head, and at least twenty if you really thought about it, and if you start throwing in tunes like “In the Bleak Mid-Winter,” who knows?!

But how many second verses of Christmas carols do you know? Or third verses? I was looking the other day, and it turns out there’s some great stuff in a lot of those second verses. A sampling of my favorites:

“Oh Holy Night” – 3rd verse
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Oh praise His name forever!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

“Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” - 3rd verse
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” – 3rd and 4th verse
And in despair, I bow'd my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song,
Of Peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep;
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With Peace on earth, good will to men."

“Joy to the World” – 2nd and 3rd verse
Joy to the earth! the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
while fields and floods,
rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.

And my all-time favorite 2nd and 3rd verses:

“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell;
Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! The herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!

Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
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,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King!

The Christmas Cave

We’ve gotten very attached to some ideas about the birth of Jesus that are suppositions. One is that Jesus was born in a stable. In fact, Luke says Mary laid in him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Where that manger was is not mentioned. The oldest Christian tradition portrays the nativity has occurring in a cave. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the supposed site of Jesus’ birth, is mostly underground. And caves are still used to keep animals in Israel today. To be born in a stable is interesting enough. G.K. Chesterton finds something more in the idea of the Son of God being born in a cave.

"It was a cave used as a stable by the mountaineers of the uplands about Bethlehem; who still drive their cattle into such holes and caverns at night. Nevertheless it is true that the cave has not been so commonly or so clearly used as a symbol as the other realities that surrounded the first Christmas. It was here that a homeless couple had crept underground with the cattle when the doors of the crowded caravanserai had been shut in their faces; and it was here beneath the very feet of the passers-by, in a cellar under the very floor of the world, that Jesus Christ was born.

Whether as a myth or a mystery, Christ was obviously conceived as born in a hole in the rocks primarily because it marked the position of one outcast and homeless. Christ was not only born on the level of the world, but even lower than the world. The first act of the divine drama was enacted, not only on no stage set up above the sight-seer, but on a dark and curtained stage sunken out of sight. In the riddle of Bethlehem, it was heaven that was under the earth.

There is in that alone the touch of a revolution, as of the world turned upside down. It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like an outcast or even an outlaw had upon the whole conception of law and its duties to the poor and outcast. It is profoundly true to say that after that moment there could be no slaves."

Various Threads, Tied Together...

This year I got a little behind on my National Geographic reading, so I've been slowly catching up. Last month I read the December 2007 issue, which had a story about Bethlehem. Israel has built a massive wall around three sides of it, strictly guarded to protect Jerusalem from terrorist attack. The Christians inside Bethlehem have been systematically moving away, as they no longer feel safe. And just outside the city where Jesus was born, refugees find that there is no room for them - but these refugees are Muslim. Hatred breeds in the Holy Land on top of the cave where Love was born incarnate.

A few months later, someone responded to this article in the letter section of the magazine with: "Perhaps it is not money, but religion that is the root of all evil. Thank God I am an atheist!"

The snarky part of me wants to point out to this person that atheistic societies and governments tend to be at least as oppressive, corrupt, and violent as religiously led nations, and the same is likely true for individuals.

Then, I thought, perhaps this person is on to something - with a caveat. The letter-writer makes a common misquote of 1 Timothy 6:10, which says "the love of money is the root of all evil." Money itself is spiritually neutral - how you feel about it is not.

So with the correct phrasing in hand, is the love of religion the root of all evil? What's the difference between the love of religion and the love of God? That's the question that the Old Testament prophets sought to answer. It's a question the apostle Paul apparently spent some time sorting out. And it's the question at the heart of death of Christ.

One of the most revealing passages about the enemies of Jesus is John 11:4-50: "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, 'What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let him go one like this, all men will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place (i.e. the temple) and our nation.' But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, 'You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."

Brennan Manning comments on this passage in The Ragamuffin Gospel: "A terrible thing has happened to Caiaphas. Religion has left the realm of respect for person. For Caiaphas sacredness has become institutions, structures, and abstractions. He is dedicated to the people, so individual flesh and blood men are expendable. Caiaphas is dedicated to the nation. But the nation does not bleed like Jesus. Caiaphas is dedicated to the Temple - impersonal brick and mortar. Caiaphas became impersonal himself, no longer a warm human being but a robot, as fixed and rigid as his unchanging world.

The choice usually presented to Christians is not between Jesus and Barabbas. No one wants to appear an obvious murderer. The choice to be careful about is between Jesus and Caiaphas. And Caiaphas can fool us. He is a very 'religious' man.

The way we are with each other is the truest test of our faith. How I treat a brother and sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the antiabortion sticker on the bumper of my car."