I know I have been woefully absent on this forum in recent months, but I still want to wish you and the whole world a very merry Christmas!
For this year's carol, I chose one from a whole suite. Who doesn't love Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols, which was written in 1942 as Britten crossed the Atlantic during WWII? (For more of the music sung beautifully by the Westminster Cathedral Choir and an interesting description of the suite's history, go here.) But probably one of the most famous and beloved (if not THE most famous and beloved) out of that suite is This Little Babe. It's challenging to sing (and play) and it's quickly over, but it packs a great punch both in lyrics and sound. Here are the words, which were written by Robert Southwell in the 1500s:
This little Babe so few days old,
Is come to rifle Satan's fold;
All hell doth at his presence quake,
Though he himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmèd wise
The gates of hell he will surprise.
With tears he fights and wins the field,
His naked breast stands for a shield;
His battering shot are babish cries,
His arrows looks of weeping eyes,
His martial ensigns Cold and Need,
And feeble Flesh his warrior's steed.
His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
His bulwark but a broken wall;
The crib his trench, haystalks his stakes;
Of shepherds he his muster makes;
And thus, as sure his foe to wound,
The angels' trumps alarum sound.
My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;
Stick to the tents that he hath pight.
Within his crib is surest ward:
This little Babe will be thy guard.
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly Boy.
A lot of people expected the Savior to come in on a great horse with his armies and defeat the enemy then and there, but instead, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…and he started out as a baby, just like the rest of us. The way God works is not the way we would naturally do things:
"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:3-11 (ESV)
And how God has written history and our salvation plan is a cause for rejoicing. Merry Christmas!
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