ADVENT THOUGHTS, CHRISTMAS SONG DEVOTIONALS, AND A RELATED HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE.

 

Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Wesley, co-writers of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.

Merry Christmas!

In my previous blog, I mentioned the devotional "The Christmas We Didn't Expect" by David Mathis. I'd like to share thoughts that were either inspired by that book, confirmed previous thoughts, or made me think of something else.

1. Between the above mentioned book and an episode of CBN's cartoon Superbook I saw Saturday (Dec. 20), I was hit that the first Christmas was just an ordinary day. An ordinary man and an ordinary woman (both godly but still ordinary) came to town and had to find room in the stable to have what probably appeared to be a normal baby. To me, there is no need for the teachings of Mary's perpetual virginity or her immaculate (sinless) conception. The story of the Bible is that in a world where man wants to be a god, God the Son (Jesus) became fully man without ceasing to be fully God in the process.
2. Back to Mathis' devotional. Chapter 9 was titled "Hark, the Long Lost Verses Sing." It happens to be my favorite with words by Charles Wesley (my favorite hymn lyrist) set to the music of Felix  Mendelssohn (my favorite classical composer). Most hymnals only have three of the original five verses; there's one we have which contains a fourth - technically, the first half of the fourth and fifth verses. I learned in this devotional that another of my church history heroes George Whitfield had influence on this song as well, revising the first couplet from Wesley's original to what we sing today, and making it a four verse hymn. 
3. Chapter 10 also has musical allusions, titled "We Three Kings From Orient Aren't." His focus is that this trio (actually, many say three is not the number of the Magi but rather the number of the gifts) weren't kings or political leaders, but pagan sorcerors who normally wouldn't be looking for a Jewish Savior.
4. I'm probably the only person reading Mathis' 11th devotional who would think of a connection to a third song. His focus was on the priests who knew where the Messiah was to be born but no interest in joining the Magi to see him. The song which was probably heard by less than 100 people was part of a musical called Viewpoints, where I asked several of my musician friends to write songs giving viewpoints of people in the Christmas story. One I had in mind were the above mentioned priests, and I wrote the lyrics and the music for the chorus - titled "Do I Really Care?" - while my friend Tod Moses wrote music for the verses. That experience in '93 was one of my highpoints. One of the participants - Barry Kay - included one of the two songs he wrote for that project on what I believe was his first album. If I made a list of my fovorite songs that I wrote, "Do I Really Care?" would be one of the top three. 

Hope this was a blessing, and I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas, or if you guys prefer, a Joseph Christmas.