The Theology of Christmas Carols... III

Oh, come all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant
Oh, come ye, Oh, come ye to Bethlehem

Come and Behold Him,
Born; the King of Angels

Oh, come let us adore Him
Oh, come let us adore Him
Oh, come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Sing choirs of angels,
Sing in exaltation
Oh, sing all ye citizens of heaven above.


A girl in my U.S. history class, this morning, said that she was sick of hearing how Christmas isn’t about presents and trees. “I’ve heard it enough” she said, “I think we get it now.”

To be honest; I’m sick of hearing about how holiday trees are evil and how with Jesus we can’t celebrate Christmas. People boycotting and picketing and so on and so forth totally misses the whole point. When we’re so concerned with how other people celebrate Christmas are we really allowing ourselves to celebrate?

This song is about celebrating Christmas. It’s a call for all those who are faithful and joyful and triumphant because of Jesus to celebrate, to come and behold Him. It seems, at times, that we have to force ourselves to see Christmas as something to behold. The faithful spend less time beholding Christmas, I’m afraid, than they do criticizing others for celebrating it the “wrong” way. They even have tee shirts out now that say “no Jesus no Christmas” which is true, of course, if your talking historically.

“Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful, and triumphant… come and behold Him… the King…”

What if the faithful just stopped their bickering and arguing, turned the other cheek, and just celebrated Jesus? Jesus coming is truly something that is true in a very… thick way, it’s as true to us as it was to Mary and Joseph. Jesus coming is something to behold and to celebrate and all our words and proclamations about what Christmas is really about pales in comparison to the profundity of our celebration.

What word is truer than the word that remains unspoken but ever celebrated? “Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”

Comments

Kim said…
I'm with you on this one, too. Merry Christmas.
Kim said…
BTW -- I'm enjoying all the Christmas Carol theology here :)
wellis68 said…
thanks Kim. I was wondering if anybody was even reading these.

Merry Christmas! Shalom

-Wes