Hymns for the Nativity: VII

Hymn VII of Charles Wesley's 'Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord':

1. All Glory to GOD, and Peace upon Earth

Be publish'd abroad at JESUS's Birth;

The Forfeited Favour of Heaven we find

Restor'd in the Saviour and Friend of Mankind.

2. Then let us behold Messias the Lord,

By Prophets foretold, by Angels ador'd,

Our GOD's Incarnation with Angels proclaim,

And publish Salvation in JESUS's Name.

3. Our newly-born King by Faith we have seen,

And joyfully sing his Goodness to Men,

That all Men may wonder at what we impart,

And thankfully ponder his Love in their Heart.

4. What mov'd the Most High so greatly to stoop,

He comes from the Sky Our Souls to lift up;

That Sinners forgiven, might sinless return

To GOD and to Heaven; their Maker is born.

5. IMMANUEL's Love let Sinners confess,

Who comes from above, to bring us his Peace;

Let every Believer his Mercy adore,

And praise him for ever, when Time is no more.

There is a repetition of "publish" in stanzas 1 & 2. Look at what we are to publish: peace and salvation. How would it revolutionize our speech, our "tweeting," our facebooking, our writing, our worship, even our thinking if we had a single eye toward publishing "peace & salvation" in everything we communicate?

How about this line: "The Forfeited Favour of Heaven we find Restor'd in the Saviour and Friend of Mankind." We've already seen some of these words "Favour...Restor'd," "Friend" in other hymns, and here Charles brings them together. I hadn't really thought about the idea of "forfeiting" our favor with God, but that's a great way to put it. What happens in a "forfeit" in sports? A team doesn't have enough players to show up; a person gives up; rules are broken so badly that it makes it impossible for the rule-breaker to win. Now, there are limits to this analogy, but there is something to the fact that it is impossible for us, once we have forfeited the favor of God to restore it unto ourselves. But in order for there to be restoration, help has to come from God, but God has to become human so that there is real restoration. "What is not assumed cannot be redeemed." Another thing about "forfeiting" that should call us to further holiness...read Jonah 2.8: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." Christ relinquishes the idols' grip on us so that we can grip onto him, thereby restoring us to God's favor.

"And joyfully sing his Goodness to Men." Hmmm..."goodness" is an underused and undervalued biblical word. We want to focus on "best" and "greatness" but "goodness" isn't about being in a lower degree than those. It's a word and concept that communicates God's kind regard and love for fallen humanity. Lest we forget it's also one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5.22). It's God's "goodness" that "moved the Most High So greatly to stoop"...and it's a goodness, further, that "sinners forgiven Might sinless return." As Professor Collins has said well in class: "Forgiveness of sin without freedom from sin's power is merely polish for the chains that bind us." Goodness, therefore, is certainly not legalism, but neither is it a doting forgiveness that just looks past the thing that keeps us enslaved. God's goodness is tender, yet great and powerful!

Hymns for the Nativity: VI

Hymn VI of Charles Wesley's 'Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord':

1. Join all ye joyful Nations

Th' acclaiming Hosts of Heaven!

This happy Morn

A Child is born,

To us a Son is given;

The Messenger and Token

Of GOD's Eternal Favour,

GOD hath sent down

To us his Son,

An Universal Saviour!

2. The wonderful Messias,

The Joy of every Nation,

JESUS his Name,

With GOD the same,

The Lord of all creation.

The Counsellor of Sinners,

Almighty to deliver,

The Prince of Peace,

Whose Love's Increase

Shall reign in Man for ever.

3. Go see the King of Glory,

Discern the Heavenly Stranger,

So poor and mean,

His Court an Inn,

His Cradle is a Manger;

Who from his Father's Bosom

But now for Us descended,

Who built the Skies,

On Earth he lies,

With only Beasts attended.

4. Whom all the Angels worship,

Lies hid in Human Nature;

Incarnate see

The Deity,

The Infinite Creator!

See the Stupendous Blessing

Which GOD to us hath given!

A Child of Man,

In Length of Span,

Who fills both Earth and Heaven.

5. Gaze on that Helpless Object

Of endless Adoration!

Those Infant-Hands

Shall burst our Bands,

And work out our Salvation;

Strangle the crooked Serpent,

Destroy his Works for ever,

And open set

The Heavenly Gate

To ever True Believer.

6. Till then, thou holy JESUS,

We humbly bow before Thee,

Our Treasures bring

To serve our King,

And joyfully adore Thee;

To Thee we gladly render

Whate'er thy Grace hath given,

Till thou appear

In Glory here,

And take us up to Heaven.

Again, so much to work with here and dwell upon in mystery and awe for Christ who became so small! From stanza 1, I'm struck with the fact that Christ is both "Messenger" and "Token" of our favor with God. The angels had sung that blessed night, "Peace on earth for those on whom His favor rests." And memorably, in Jesus' inaugural sermon/message (Luke 4), Jesus says that the Isaiah passage, which includes "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor," is being fulfilled in him. So he's certainly the messenger of God's favor, but he's also the "token" of God's favor in that his redeeming death restored us to the favor of God. This is synonymous with John Wesley's assessment that the plain meaning of justification is 'pardon.' Jesus heard on more than one occasion, "This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased." Through his Incarnation, death, and resurrection, he has made it possible that we may hear the same!

Stanza 3 strikes me with paradox, once again, in the arrival of a King among the most humble of audiences. "His Court an Inn, His Cradle is a Manger." I almost wanted Charles to have said, "His Throne is a Manger" as a way of completing the analogy of a king's livelihood and place.

But it's stanza 5 that makes me want to shout more than anything in this! In it, Charles picks up on the notion from stanza 2 ("Almighty to deliver") when he uses language of victory, liberation, and destruction of evil to communicate the significance and meaning of Salvation. Several days ago, I wrote a post on John Wesley's sermon "The End of Christ's Coming" and discussed how the sermon was quite fitting to be read during Advent. This stanza of this hymn demonstrates that in poetic form: "Those Infant-Hands Shall burst our Bands, And work out our Salvation; Strangle the crooked Serpent, Destroy his Works for ever..." In Christ, our Victor, we have been given dominion over the power of sin and are promised that death, sin's consequence, is not final! In the general resurrection, Christ will have destroyed the final work of the devil. That's what makes this very fitting for Advent!

What else stands out to you?

Hymns for the Nativity: V

Hymn V of Charles Wesley's 'Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord':

1. Let Earth and Heaven combine,

Angels and Men agree

To praise in Songs divine

Th' Incarnate Deity,

Our GOD contracted to a Span,

Incomprehensibly made Man.

2. He laid his Glory by,

He wrap'd Him in our Clay,

Unmark'd by Human Eye

The latent Godhead lay;

Infant of Days He here became

And bore the lov'd IMMANUEL'S Name.

3. See in that Infant's Face

The Depths of Deity,

And labour while ye gaze

To sound the Mystery:

In vain: ye Angels gaze no more,

But fall, and silently adore.

4. Unsearchable the Love

That hath the Saviour brought,

The Grace is far above

Or Men or Angels Though;

Suffice for Us, that GOD, we know,

Our GOD is manifest below.

5. He deigns in Flesh t' appear,

Widest Extremes to join,

To bring our Vileness near,

And make us All divine;

And we the Life of GOD shall know,

For GOD is manifest below.

6. Made perfect first in Love,

And sanctified by Grace,

We shall from Earth remove,

And see his glorious Face;

His Love shall then be fully shew'd,

And Man shall all be lost in GOD.

Two things primarily strike me in this hymn: 1. the continued appeal to paradox and mystery; and 2. the connection between the first and second comings of Jesus.

Before I get to these, though, I love the language of the first two lines: "Let Heaven and Earth combine, Angels and Men agree." In this age filled with discord and disagreement, sounding a chorus of agreement and harmony sure would go a long way in proclaiming the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that what is meant by "Heaven and Earth combine"? Both John's and Jesus' preaching ministry contain the same content: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." And even stronger, they "combine" in the God-man Jesus.

We return to the mystery of the Incarnation and this is potently seen in stanza 2: "He wrap'd Him in our Clay, Unmark'd by Human Eye The latent Godhead lay." He arrived "under the radar," as it were. "He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him." Jesus is "wrap'd in our clay"...that also agrees with the assessment of the judgment in Matthew 25: "Whatever you have done to the least of these, that you have also done to me."

This brings me to the 2nd point: the connection between the first and second comings of Jesus. And in reality this brings us back to the point made on the combination of Heaven and Earth in stanza 1. This hymn really has striking resonance with the Orthodox emphasis of theosis, especially seen in stanza 5: "To bring our vileness near, and make us all divine." It echoes, in a sense, the affirmation of the early Fathers like St. Irenaeus and St. Athanasius who said, "God became man so that man might become God." Now I won't go on here and say that the Wesleys' concept of sanctification/perfection is the same as theosis. While this was once a popular opinion, it's been pretty well debunked now. However, there may be a closer affinity between the Wesleyan concept of glorification and that of theosis. 'Sanctification' gets so much attention in Wesleyan theology that we almost tend to ignore the fact that sanctification is not the ultimate end. Stanza 6 in this hymn sheds light on this by bringing glorification into view in appealing to the life after the general resurrection in the new heaven and new earth. Wesley further refers to the language of 1 John 3, which says "we shall become like him for we shall see him as he is." And, of course, the final line resonates with all this: We shall "all be lost in God."

So the last stanza is all about sanctification and glorification. What has this to do with the Nativity? The Incarnation is what has made it all possible. The Ancient and "Infant" of Days.

Hymns for the Nativity: IV

Continuing in my reflections upon Charles Wesley's 'Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord'...Hymn IV:

1. GLORY be to GOD on high,
And Peace on Earth descend;
GOD comes down: He bows the Sky:
He shews himself our Friend!
GOD th' Invisible appears,
GOD the Blest, the Great I AM
Sojourns in this Vale of Tears,
And JESUS is his Name.

2. Him the Angels all ador'd
Their Maker and their King:
Tidings of their Humbled LORD
They now to Mortals bring:
Emptied of his Majesty,
Of His dazling Glories shorn,
Being's Source begins to Be,
And GOD himself is BORN!

3. See th' Eternal Son of GOD
A Mortal Son of Man,
Dwelling in an Earthy Clod
Whom Heaven cannot contain!
Stand amaz'd ye Heavens at This!
Humbled to the Dust He is,
And in a Manger lies!

4. We the Sons of Men rejoice,
The Prince of Peace proclaim,
With Heaven's Host lift up our Voice,
And shout Immanuel's Name;
Knees and Hearts to Him we bow;
Of our Flesh, and of our Bone
JESUS is our Brother now,
And GOD is All our own!

I haven't mentioned it in this thread on the Nativity Hymns, but I love Charles' use of the paradox and mystery of the Incarnation in these hymns. It is perhaps seen more vividly in this collection than anywhere else in the writings of Charles and John Wesley. Paradox is seen most potently in this hymn in the phrases: "GOD th' Invisible appears," "Being's Source begins to Be, and GOD himself is BORN!" and "Dwelling in an Earthy Clod Whom Heaven cannot contain!...See the LORD of Earth and Skies Humbled to the Dust..."

The first time I was exposed to this hymn was in 2003, when I took a class taught by Lester Ruth on Sacramental Theology. He admitted his favor of this hymn over the others in the collection and drew our attention especially to the middle of the first stanza: "God comes down; he bows the Sky: He shews himself our Friend!" The end of the stanza elaborates on this identity when Jesus is proclaimed to sojourn "in this Vale of Tears." What is the Incarnation if it is not God empathizing with us? The 2nd verse of "What a Friend we have in Jesus" assists here: "Can we find a Friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer." Abraham was called a Friend of God (James 2.23). Moses was said to have spoken face to face with God "as a man speaks to his Friend" (Exodus 33.11). Proverbs remarkably claims, "Faithful are the wounds of a Friend" (27.6). And of course we have these words of Jesus spoken on the night he was betrayed: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15.13-15). Laying down his life for friends...I'm trying to reconcile that with Paul's words in Romans 5 which declares that God demonstrates his love for us in that "while we were still sinners (enemies?), Christ died for us." So God, in Christ, befriends the enemy? Is that how to bring these together? It seems so. His befriending began in Bethlehem. And as his friends, he lets us in on the secret plan and mission of God of rescuing the world. He "Sojourns in this Vale of Tears" for us and with us.

Charles begins the hymn with the declaration that God shows himself our Friend. He ends it with the affirmation that "Jesus is our Brother"; another beautiful relational truth. Returning to Proverbs (17.17) brings these titles of Friend and Brother together: "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." But more importantly, in the Incarnation Jesus shows himself our Brother in that he reconciles us to God and one another, bringing us into the family life of the Triune God! In the midst of a dark, evil, and hurting world, we can take comfort and hope in knowing that God has entered this 'Vale of Tears' and in Jesus has revealed himself to be our Friend and Brother!

Hymns for the Nativity: III

1. Angels speak, let Man give Ear,

Sent from high,

They are nigh,

And forbid our Fear.

2. News they bring us of Salvation,

Sounds of Joy

To employ

Every Tongue and Nation.

3. Welcome Tidings! to retrieve us

From our Fall,

Born for All,

CHRIST is born to save us.

4. Born his Creatures to restore,

Abject Earth

Sees His Birth,

Whom the Heavens adore.

5. Wrapt in Swaths th' Immortal Stranger

Man with Men

We have seen,

Lying in a Manger.

6. All to GOD's Free Grace is owing;

We are his

Witnesses,

Poor, and nothing knowing.

7. Simple Shepherds Us he raises,

Bids us sing

CHRIST the King,

And shew forth his Praises.

8. We have seen the King of Glory,

We proclaim

CHRIST his Name,

And record his Story.

9. Sing we with the Host of Heaven,

Reconcil'd

By a Child

Who to Us is given.

10. Glory be to GOD the Giver,

Peace and Love

From above

Reign on Earth for ever.

There is so much in this hymn! Though the stanzas are short, it is one of the longer hymns in the Nativity collection. I love the chiastic structure with he B and B' communicating such profound truths in short phrases: "From our Fall, Born for All," "Reconcil'd By a Child"...Amen!

Again, I am struck by the notion that Christ is "born" to save us. We hear all the time (especially during Holy Week, and rightly so) that Christ died (& rose again) to save us. But here, we see the important assertion that Christ was born to save us, affirming Christ's recapitulating "every stage of human life" in order to redeem it. This "born to save us" is not in the "BORN TO DIE!" sense that wants to move straight from the Manger to the Cross while ignoring Jesus' maturing, learning through obedience, teaching, healing, eluding, feeding, cleansing, and so on.

Stanza 8 resounds an important note: Christ is the King of Glory. Reminds me of Psalm 24:

1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

2 for he founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?

Who may stand in his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear by what is false.

5 He will receive blessing from the LORD

and vindication from God his Savior.

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,

who seek your face, O God of Jacob. (Selah)

7 Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

8 Who is this King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

9 Lift up your heads, O you gates;

lift them up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in.

10 Who is he, this King of glory?

The LORD Almighty---

he is the King of glory.

There is a command given before the entrance of the King. What a message for Advent!! Prepare the way! Make straight paths for him! Clean your hands and purify your hearts! Do not be afraid! For I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY!!! On THIS DAY in the city of Bethlehem, a KING IS BORN, who is CHRIST THE LORD!! Go and see Him! Run! Lift up your heads and bow down! The King of Glory is coming! He is Mighty to Save...even as an Infant lying lowly in a Manger! There you will behold the face of the God of Jacob and you will receive blessing from the LORD!

Hymns for the Nativity: II

1. Ye Heavenly Choir,

Assist me to sing,

And strike the soft Lyre,

And honour our King;

His mighty Salvation

Demands all our Praise,

Our blest Adoration,

And loftiest Lays.

2. All Glory to GOD,

Who ruleth on high,

And now hath bestow'd,

And sent from the Sky

CHRIST JESUS, the Saviour,

Poor Mortals to bless;

The Pledge of his Favour,

The Seal of their Peace.

Psalm 19:1 says "The heavens declare the Glory of God!" Think of how this was fulfilled on that "beautiful scandalous night" when the Heavenly choir broke out in this chorus. God & sinners now reconciled in the Son, who restores us to the favor of God, and establishing his reign of peace (peace = the Presence of Christ).

I'm constantly reminded of the common description of God's salvation as "mighty". The atonement wrought in Christ is both a demonstration and act of the tender love of God towards humanity and requires a divine strength to rescue and rip us from the grip of evil in our lives. Yes, God's salvation is indeed Mighty!

Hymns for the Nativity: I

Charles Wesley composed many hymns and collected them according to topic, season, etc. One such collection is his "Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord." There are 18 in the collection so I thought it might be fitting to share about one per day along with some reflections upon them over the course of Advent. So, Hymn 1 goes like this:

1. Ye simple Men of Heart sincere,
Shepherds who watch your Flocks by Night,
Start not to see an Angel near,
Nor tremble at this glorious Light.

2. An Herald from the Heavenly King
I come, your every Fear to chase;
Good Tidings of Great Joy I bring,
Great Joy to all the Fallen Race!

3. To you is born on this glad Day,
A Saviour by our Host ador'd,
Our GOD in Bethlehem survey,
Make Haste to worship CHRIST the LORD.

4. By this the Saviour of Mankind,
Th' Incarnate GOD shall be display'd,
The Babe ye wrapp'd in Swaths shall find,
And humbly in a Manger laid.

I love stanza 2. I can't get my mind off of it: "I come, your every Fear to chase...Great Joy to all the Fallen Race!" There's no fear in the mind and heart of a newborn. Christ came to recapitulate all stages of human life. And that means he redeems us from our fear by starting as we all have: born in the midst of a troubled, alienated, and ailing world that is out to get us. The Babe of the Manger has come to set us free from any and every fear. It reminds me of that great passage in 1 John 4 where we are told that "perfect love casts out fear." That's certainly a Wesleyan emphasis, too, and by being united to Christ, who came and "humbly in a Manger laid" we can know that perfect love and let it overtake us.

This season, may we let the fears that so easily ensnare us be "chased away" by the Good Tidings of Great Joy wrought in the proclamation that God has become Incarnate and dwells among us.