contact harbor church

 
(this is a part of a blog series called "what's that song about?" Growing up, I never really knew where Christmas carols came from or what they were about.  They often used strange vocabulary I never came across in any other context.  This set of blogs is for those of us that never had the carols explained. Each week from now until Christmas, I will unpack a different popular Christmas carol.  Feel free to comment with any further questions you have on each song.)

When you are singing along to a song, nothing makes it more difficult than when the song is in another language!  Ok, one thing: when it’s the chorus that’s in another language.  One of the most popular Christmas carols, “Angels We Have Heard on High” has a Latin refrain that leaves people like you and me guessing.  Are they singing about a girl named “Gloria?”
    Let me clear it up for you.  That refrain, Gloria in excelsis Deo, means “Glory to God in the highest.”  It’s a phrase that actually goes way back to the beginnings of Christianity and was a part of the liturgy of the Church during the Byzantine Era.  Even before that, the Church got the phrase from the song that the angels sang about Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:14.  That’s why the song’s title refers to the angels: there was a great song sung by a massive group of angels at Jesus’ birth.
    See, Jesus’ parents had traveled to Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant because they were doing a census to try to get a handle on the great numbers in the Roman Empire.  Since everyone was there for the census, there wasn’t room for the family at the inn.  Instead, they stayed in a manger that would have been used by the shepherds that were keeping their flocks in the nearby fields.  When Jesus was born, there was a great jubilee, or celebration, because of the good tidings, or good news, that was brought with the birth of the Jesus.
    So why sing Glory to God in the Highest?  Because it is only in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, that we can see the Glory of God as He gives mercy to all who call on him.  In the birth of Jesus, we see a glimpse of the glorious grace of God, which comes to broken, needy people like me to offer healing, forgiveness and restoration.  At the sight of it, our souls must sing “glory to God in the highest!”


Angels we have heard on high,
Singing sweetly through the night,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.

Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why these songs of happy cheer?
What great brightness did you see?
What glad tiding did you hear?  Refrain

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the new-born King.  Refrain

See him in a manger laid
Whom the angels praise above;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While we raise our hearts in love.

(this is a part of a blog series called "what's that song about?" Growing up, I never really knew where Christmas carols came from or what they were about.  They often used strange vocabulary I never came across in any other context.  This set of blogs is for those of us that never had the carols explained. Each week from now until Christmas, I will unpack a different popular Christmas carol.  Feel free to comment with any further questions you have on each song.)

We don’t have an exact record of what it was like on the night of Jesus birth but we can be sure of a couple things: it wouldn’t have been snowing, Santa’s sleigh wasn’t riding overhead, and he wasn’t born in a 5-star Hotel.  It wouldn’t have been very silent or calm either - this is a no brainer if you know anything about child birth! But, in Josef Mohr’s carol, Silent Night, we do get a picture of a few things that WERE happening at Jesus’ birth.
    The night Jesus was born was an incredibly HOLY night.  Why was it holy?  Because GOD HIMSELF had come and dwelt in his creation.  Born of a virgin mother, Jesus Christ, who the bible says created the world (take a look at the book of the bible called Colossians and go to chapter 1) came and put on human flesh, and came in the most vulnerable form possible: as a baby. Surely this is a holy moment as creation encounters its Creator!
    Why the Shepherds in verse two?  Well, check out the book of Luke, chapter 2, and you’ll see why.  At the birth of Jesus, a whole group of angels appeared not to the rich, nor the powerful, nor the influential, but to some shepherds tending their flock out in the field.  This was a foretaste of Jesus’ upside kingdom - where the lost find a home, the powerful are put to shame and the humble are raised up.  Luke 2.13 says that there was a whole multitude of angels singing the praises of Jesus at his birth.  What a chorus that would have been to hear!
    So this beautiful carol captures the heart of the Christmas message - Jesus has come.  Born of a virgin, heralded by shepherds and angels, the incarnation of the glory of God - Jesus moved into the neighborhood.

Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight,
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing alleluia;
Christ the Saviour, is born!
Christ the Saviour, is born!

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.