What child is this, year A verses

What child is this, whose family dear is now to Egypt fleeing? 

What brings this haste? What vision drear is Joseph now receiving?

This, this is Christ the King, to whom those Magi gifts did bring; 

“Flee! Flee!” is God’s command for this, the son of Mary.

 

Why does this king, in his raging, give such a fearful order?

Why shed such blood while one small child is crossing o’er the border?

Fear, fear is Herod’s role; it grips his mind and floods his soul. 

Why, why so fearful of this child, the son of Mary?

 

Now see this family coming home, no longer Herod fearing;

Yet where to go, and where to live? What call is Joseph hearing?

Now, now does Joseph see that Nazareth his home will be,

There, there in peace to raise this child, the son of Mary.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022, after Matthew 2:13-22.

MUSIC: Tune GREENSLEEVES, English ballad, 16^th cent.; arr. Christmas Carols New and Old, 1871.

 

 

Three verses appropriate for the account in Matthew 2:13-22, the Flight Into Egypt/Slaughter of the Innocents, featured in the RCL for the Sunday after Christmas, year A.