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Christmas Hymns Off the Beaten Track
There are some times of year when liturgical creativity is undesirable and Christmas is surely one of them. The faithful who show up for every service no matter how minor or inconveniently timed, as well as the once-a-year folks whose mixture of sentiment, superstition, and longing for the true God brings them in, both want and need "Joy to the World," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "O Come, All Ye Faithful." For that matter, so do I. But that's also why I've always been particularly fond of the First Sunday after Christmas and even more, if we are so lucky, the Second Sunday after Christmas, as a chance to enjoy the fringe of Christmas hymnody. Here are three favorites of mine...
There are some times of year when liturgical creativity is undesirable and Christmas is surely one of them. The faithful who show up for every service no matter how minor or inconveniently timed, as well as the once-a-year folks whose mixture of sentiment, superstition, and longing for the true God brings them in, both want and need "Joy to the World," "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," and "O Come, All Ye Faithful." For that matter, so do I. But that's also why I've always been particularly fond of the First Sunday after Christmas and even more, if we are so lucky, the Second Sunday after Christmas, as a chance to enjoy the fringe of Christmas hymnody. Here are three favorites of mine.
"Let All Together Praise our God" (LBW 47) has a fetching tune that actually appears twice more in the LBW (300 and 351) as well as the most beautiful poetic expression of the joyful exchange, a la Luther's "Freedom of a Christian," that I have ever found in a hymn. To quote two of the verses:
He undertakes a great exchange, Puts on our human frame,
And in return gives us his realm, his glory, and his name.
He is a servant, I a Lord: How great a mystery!
How strong the tender Christchild’s love! No truer friend than he.
The rest of the hymn shines a lively narrative light on christological doctrine. Seven verses never sped by so quickly or delightfully.
What could be called the "second-favorite Slovak Christmas hymn" (after "Come Rejoicing, Praises Voicing," LBW 66) is what I consider the rather lovelier "Let Our Gladness Have No End" (LBW 57) whose Alleluias subtly connect the joy of Christmas to the joy of Easter. It has only three short verses, just sketching the good news of the incarnation instead of going into doctrinal detail as "Let All Together" does, but the refrain says it all: "On this day God gave us, Christ His Son to save us, Christ His Son to save us."
Finally there is yet another set of words to the tune "Wie Schoen Leuchtet" that appears no fewer than five times in the LBW. I first learned it as the Easter hymn "He Is Arisen! Glorious Word!" (LBW 138) and was delighted to find a Christmas counterpart in "Rejoice, Rejoice This Happy Morn" (LBW 43). Its slightly trickier tune fits it better for a substitute liturgical hymn than a free-standing one, besides the fact that it is only one verse:
Rejoice, rejoice this happy morn, A Savior unto us is born,
The Christ, the Lord of glory!
His lowly birth at Bethlehem The angels from on high proclaim
And sing redemption’s story!
My soul, extol God’s great favor, bless Him ever,
For salvation; Give Him praise and adoration!
If you are completely captivated by this slightly trickier tune, you're in luck: a full four-verse Christmas hymn to "Wie Schoen Leuchtet" can be found a few pages later as "All Hail to You, O Blessed Morn" (LBW 73), which lays out the whole work of God and wraps up with our participation in it: "...Now all who will on him believe, Who follow him, he will receive And as his flock will gather. He will guide us, Walk beside us, And uphold us, Till in heaven We shall be like him forever!"
Merry Christmas!
Christmastide Hymnody
For the Gloria, I substitute "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" on Christmas 1 and "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime" on Christmas 2.
"Let our Gladness have No End" is used to bracket the Gospel (verses 1 and 2 as a Gradual Hymn, verse 3 as a response) on Christmas 1. "Of the Father's Love Begotten" plays that role on Christmas 2.
And I have been known to use "Let All Together Praise Our God" in lieu of a spoken Creed on either of those Sundays.
Celebrating St. John the Apostle and Evangelist does not mean abandoning Christmas music: "By All Your Saints in Warfare" lays nicely with the tune of "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear".
German Original
I love those too. On "Let All Together" - what is really amazing is what the German said. Pure theosis:
Er wechselt mit uns wunderlich
Fleisch und Blut nimmt er an
Und gibt uns in sein's Vaters Reich
*Die klare Gottheit dran.*
He gives us the luminous divinity!
Silent Night made less offensive
He was upset, however, that they had this need to rewrite Silent Night so as he said: "it was more about silence and night and less about God." I wish I could quote at length, but it may infringe on copy right laws. His satire was directed to the thought that those who don't have time for what God is up to as sung in our carols, should feel free to write their own Godless carols and simply allow us to sing them as they were written. It is a marvelous piece.