1. Let Angels and Archangels sing
The wonderful Immanuel's Name,
Adore with us our new-born King,
And still the joyful News proclaim,
All Earth and Heaven be ever join'd
To praise the Saviour of Mankind.
2. The everlasting GOD comes down
To sojourn with the Sons of Men;
Without his Majesty or Crown,
The great INVISIBLE is seen:
Of all his dazzling Glories shorn
The everlasting GOD is born!
3. Angels, behold that Infant's Face,
With rapt'rous Awe the Godhead own:
'Tis all your Heaven on Him to gaze,
And cast your Crowns before his Throne;
Tho' now He on his Footstool lies,
Ye know he built both Earth and Skies.
4. By Him into Existence brought,
Ye sang the All-creating Word;
Ye heard him call our World from nought;
Again, in Honour of your Lord,
Ye Morning-Stars your Hymns employ,
And shout, ye Sons of GOD, for Joy.
Two brief comments and then I'll go into an important implication from the first stanza. The first observation comes in relation to a conversation I had with a good friend, Isaac Hopper, who is working on a Ph.D. thesis on the Wesleys' Christology. Upon reading some of my thoughts on this hymn collection, he made a great observation that these hymns are among the richest storehouses of good Christology not only for the Wesleys but for all of the Christian tradition.
The other observation comes in relation to the command in stanza 3 for angels to "behold" the Infant's Face. I will copy a comment made by JD Walt over at leVite camp on another hymn I posted a few days ago: "I think the most important word for Advent-- and for all seasons-- is BEHOLD. It's about the place where seeing and hearing converge and create an opening into the heart where Revelation and Wisdom can be perceived." I thought this comment was very insightful not only for these hymns but also, as he said, "for all seasons."
Finally, for my thoughts, and forgive the perhaps overly theological analaysis: In stanza 1, there is an important implication in the phrase "All Earth and Heaven be ever join'd." Jesus IS the God-man. Not was...he IS. The purpose of the Incarnation was not just for God to become a human so that a perfect sacrifice could be made to bring forgiveness and then Jesus leave his flesh on earth. If that's all that was needed, we really may not need anything in the narrative after the crucifixion of Jesus. But the BODILY resurrection and BODILY ascension means he still is Incarnated and eternally will be in human flesh, though now resurrected. That bears significance for us in that there is something eternally transformative about the nature of what we humans are to become. It's more than just a return to the favor of God. 1 John 3 says "We shall be LIKE him"...Jesus is the first of a type. He is the only begotten Son of God, but the promise we have is more than just about being in the presence of the Triune God. Something about us changes. We change from being mere creatures to becoming "sons (& daughters) of God." In C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, he has a great chapter about this entitled 'Making and Begetting': "One of the creeds says that Christ is the Son of God 'begotten, not created'...To beget is to become the father of; to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself." So, Christ is the Son of God, "begotten not made." We, though 'created,' through Christ have now been made able to become children of God. Can we say, in other words, that we are no longer merely "made" but now also "begotten"? In Christ being "not created" we are eternally unlike him. But in Christ's Incarnation he has made his "begotten-ness" something to share with us, so in that sense we are to be like him, and eternally so. That's why he's the first of a "type." And that is, once again, why this is yet another valuable contribution to Advent theology, connecting the first coming of Christ with the eschaton (End Times).
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