See this child laid in a manger

See this child laid in a manger, with his father standing by;

Mother resting from her labor gives a warm and weary sigh.

Jesus Christ as infant coming, all creation standing by.

 

See this child brought to the Temple, cradled in his mother's arms.

Hear the cries from nearby strangers to his parents' great alarms.

Prophets name the child as holy, who for us will suffer harms.

 

See this child and family dwelling, knowing not the threat they face.

Sages from the Eastern empires bear him gifts with awe and grace.

Then, by royal rage endangered, must the family find safe space.

 

See this child back in the Temple, asking questions wise and true.

When his parents found him still there, they chastised with much ado,

But he said, "I am my Father's, and his business I must do."

 

See this child back with his family, growing up and growing wise,

Growing in his Father's favor and as well to human eyes.

Let us learn this holy pattern; let his model be our prize.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2023, after passages from Luke 2 and Matthew 2

MUSIC: Tune TRINITY, Peter Cutts, 1983, as found in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990. Copyright 1983 Hope Publishing Company. All rights reserved. (not reproduced here due to copyright)

 

 

I don't know why, when I am normally quite proficient at working with public domain tunes, I keep coming back to this one tune that didn't even make it into Glory to God. (It is in the previous 1990 The Presbyterian Hymnal, which is where I first learned it.) This is the third text of mine that has latched onto this tune and refused to let go. The text was provoked by an online discussion of the sometimes-cloying sentimentality of hymns or carols that try to take up Jesus's infancy/childhood, of which we know little. I tried to stick with those things that we do have in scripture, which mostly comes from Luke 2 (with a dash of Matthew 2 thrown in). 

Look who gathers at Christ's cradle!

Look who gathers at Christ's cradle! Who beholds the Savior-child?

See his mother hovering o'er him, by his newborn charms beguiled.

Joseph too, his earthly father, now beholds the scene with glee; 

Humble peasants, willing servants, these the first this child to see!

 

Now we see not only humans gathered at his cradling place; 

Sheep and oxen, God's creation, now behold the infant's face.

Lowing, bleating, hear their chorus wilder than the loudest horn; 

These the first to sing the praises of the Savior newly born.

 

From afar come lowly shepherds, hastening to the place of rest,

Eyes all full of shock and wonder at this sight so plain and blessed;

Hear them tell of angel chorus singing of this holy one;

These the first to bear their witness to this newborn Savior-son.

 

Kings nor princes found this manger; mighty warriors did not come; 

Yet the birth of this child-Savior was for all, not just for some. 

Will you bring your joyous worship? Will you come adore this Son?

All who seek the Lord are welcome; there is room for everyone.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2023.

MUSIC: Tune COPELAND, Michael Corzine, 2000.

I know exactly to "blame" for this hymn. She posted a curious nativity scene image and labeled it "Look who gathers...", which happens to be the incipit of a hymn the church we both attended at the time (I assume she still does) commissioned for the anniversary of its long-time pastor, many years ago.  Of course my brain started writing immediately, and this is the result. I note from Facebook that the hymn took its final-for-now form on the birthday of the pastor honored by the original hymn (the tune name is his name). [Note: I hope the composer will forgive me for using and sharing the tune llike this...]

Open our eyes

Open our eyes, that we might know
How heaven came to earth below. 
How did you come and what did you show
In Bethlehem so long ago?
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes to see your light,
Filling the skies that holy night.
Show us the way from shepherds’ sad fright
To behold you as all their sight. 
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes to now behold
What to those sages was foretold, 
So that to travel they were enrolled 
With myrrh and frankincense and gold.
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

Open our eyes and let us see
How what we celebrate can be 
What gives our lives both purpose and glee,
This day we call Epiphany. 
Quietly now we wait for you,
Seeking what you would have us do. 
Show us the good, the just, the true,
Spirit of love.

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022, after Clara H. Scott.

MUSIC: Tune OPEN MY EYES, Clara H. Scott, 1895.

The end of the twelve days of Christmas seems to call for going forward, but changed in some way by what we have seen and heard. The excellently simple hymn "Open my eyes, that I might see" provided the unlikely point of departure for a plea for the Spirit to open us to understand what we have seen and heard and to move forward with that understanding infused into our lives.

Light now is born

Light now is born in this one tiny child,
Born from above and by sin undefiled;
Light that will shine through the bleakness of sin,
Guiding us homeward to be God’s own kin.

In the beginning, the story is told;
How God made light in creation of old.
Now in this baby the light is made new,
And all our deepest desires are made true.

In the beginning was one holy Word,
As it is told in the gospel we heard;
In him was light that is life to us all:
This child, that Savior on whom we must call.

Holy the light once created of old. 
Holy the light in the gospel retold.
Holy the light that cannot be undone.
Holy the light in this new life begun.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2023, after John 1.

MUSIC: Suggested tune SLANE, Irish ballad. (Various harmonizations that may be under copyright)

 

 

A prior edition of my denomination's Book of Common Worship once contained this sentence (in red no less) describing the importance of John's prologue being preached during the season of Christmas: "If these readings are not used on Christmas Day, they should be used at some service during the Christmas cycle because of the significance of John’s prologue." This is far from preaching, but John's prologue, in a rather mashed-up form interacting with things from other gospels,  is now somewhat represented in this "twelve hymns of Christmas" series of reflections set to music.

 

See this child

See this child on father’s knee,
Baby’s laugh and gurgling smile.
Yet in scripture we foresee
Punishment both cruel and vile,
For this child is God’s own Son;
This is Jesus, Holy One.

See this child in mother’s arms,
Nursing most contentedly, 
Who will face most grievous harms
For the witness he must be.
See, this baby is God’s own;
Through him God’s full love is shown.

See this child now sleeping fast, 
Tightly closed his little eyes, 
He who on the cross at last
Suffers for us all and dies.
Jesus, Savior, Lord is he,
Born for us, for you, for me.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune REDHEAD 76, Richard Redhead, 1853.

 

 

I suppose if you contemplate the Christmas event long enough, it becomes impossible not to reflect on the Good Friday that eventually comes for the newborn child.

In moonlight's peaceful glow

In moonlight's peaceful glow we hear a sound; 

See, the young mother lulls her child to sleep.

Calm is the night, no other soul around;

Snow falling soft and deep.

 

Once, long ago, the mother Mary's child,

Wrapped up in cloths, is cuddled to his rest.

See, humankind and God are reconciled!

God gives to us his best. 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2023 (after a poem probably by George W. Chadwick, mid-1890s).

MUSIC: Tune PEACE, George W. Chadwick, 1890.

In his Symphonic Sketches from the mid-1890s, the composer George Chadwick appended brief bits of poetry at the beginning of each movement. The poem before movement 2, "Noël," described a contemporary scene of a mother putting her child to sleep, and moved from there to an imagined scene of the Nativity. Once that poem (after another listen to the orchestral movement) provided the impetus for a sung text, it seemed only fair to choose one of Chadwick's handful of hymn tunes for setting.

 

 

All On the Eighth Day Done

A symbol of belonging, a sign of promise made;
To show the child’s true nation, this mark on flesh was made. 
So Joseph and young Mary brought forth their firstborn son
For rite of circumcision, all on the eighth day done.

Across the generations, preserved like holy flame, 
This sacred rite of passage gave this small child his name:
A name not from his father, but from the Holy One - 
They named this infant Jesus, all on the eighth day done.

This name his earthly father received in holy dream
Meant more than earthly favor or family esteem:
It marked this child as holy, a new thing now begun, 
God’s holy self revealing, all on the eighth day done.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2023, after Luke 2:21.

MUSIC: Tune SALLEY GARDENS, Irish folk melody.

 

 

 

Today (1/1/23) I learned that the eighth day of Christmas also marks the Feast of the Holy Name, marking the infant Jesus's circumcision and ritual naming. That provided a workable theme for musical mediation and meditation for day eight of twelve.

 

 

A page is turned

A page is turned, and with the turn another year is gone, 
And whether for the good or ill our lives are moving on.

The humble birth of God’s own son falls further in the past;
Now, in such days of hate and fear our hopes can fade so fast. 

Our eyes did not behold the sight of child in manger laid, 
Nor did our ears first hear the song the angel chorus made.

In times of educated doubt it can defy our will
To hold the hope that this low birth would in our hearts instill. 

Lord, in this year approaching fast be born in us anew,
And place on us your holy charge to do the good and true.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022. 

MUSIC: Tune ST. FLAVIAN, Day's Psalter, 1562. 

The twelve hymns of Christmas continue with a New Year's Eve reflection on holding on to the hope manifested in the Nativity amidst hard and doubtful times. 

Star-watchers on the road

Star-watchers on the road, out from their Eastern lands,

Are following a special star 'cross rivers, rocks, and sands.

What do they hope to see? What means this stellar sign

To scholars who are traveling far because these stars align?

 

They travel so because they take this star as news

That one now born has come to be a new King of the Jews. 

Their homage they will pay, and gifts they will bestow;

And then, their work complete and done, with gladness they will go.

 

So surely they must seek a palace grand and fair,

For where else might a newborn king be housed and fed but there?

This wondrous guiding star must lead them to a place

Of grandeur fine, and not a town of humble peasant grace.

 

And so they journey on, this special child to find.

They travel with this single goal and regal place in mind.

How can they comprehend what they are yet to see?

And will they come to understand this holy mystery?

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022.

MUSIC: Tune TERRA BEATA, Franklin L. Sheppard, 1915.

 

 

 

Apparently the "twelve hymns of Christmas" are going to continue, and at this point (being halfway there) why not? What about those Magi traveling so far to see this "king of the Jews"? What are they expecting to see at this stage of their journey?

 

O little town

O little town we saw before, so precious in our sight,

How have you passed those days and hours since that most holy night?

What of those restless travelers, bound here by law of Rome

To register and give account in their ancestral home?

 

What of that child born in this town, laid in a manger stall,

Whose birth drew shepherds to this place who heard an angel's call? 

What of his mother Mary dear, and father Joseph too, 

Those homeless migrants stranded in your town; what did you do?

 

O little town we call our own, or city great or small,

Or rural route, or mountainside, wherever home may fall: 

How do we welcome strangers who vainly seek a place?

May we yet learn to show them all God's mercy and God's grace.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022.

MUSIC: Tune FOREST GREEN, English folk melody; arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906.

            Alternate tune ST. LOUIS, Lewis Henry Redner, 1868.

 

 

Since this potential "twelve hymns of Christmas" thing hasn't let go yet, what was it like in Bethlehem after that night had passed? And what did become of all those folks who had to come in for that census, or to Mary and Joseph and the child Jesus, after that night? And what would happen in our town in such a circumstance?

How did those shepherds

How did those shepherds spend that lonely night,

Unlike that glorious night that came before?

No angels singing, no more holy light,

Only their sheep to watch, and nothing more.

 

Oh, how that night brought fear and then great joy!

Heavenly the song of God's own love did shine!

Into the town to see an infant boy,

Small child, and yet the Son of God divine!

 

Now nights have passed, none like that night before.

Bound to their flock until the break of day,

Still they kept watch, for sheep and yet for more, 

Watching for hope, for love, for God's new way.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022.

MUSIC: Tune EVENTIDE, William Henry Monk, 1861.

 

 

What *did* those shepherds do when keeping watch over their flocks by night, after *that* night?

On the third day of this Christmas

On the third day of this Christmas,

How our faith is feeling worn!

The Nativity is past us; 

Our attention is now torn.

What we saw and felt and wondered

Threatens now to fade away; 

Help our faith, O God our Maker,

As we mark another day.

 

On the third day of this Christmas,

How our hope is wearing thin!

Moving toward a looming new year,

There is not much left within.

What we face ahead is daunting; 

Can we possibly endure?

Lift our hope, O Holy Spirit,

And our confidence assure. 

 

On the third day of this Christmas,

How our love is fraying fast! 

Stress and strain drive us to wonder

If our good can ever last.

In a world demanding of us

What we don't know how to give,

Keep our love, O Christ our Savior,

Shining forth in how we live.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022.

MUSIC: Tune NETTLETON, Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813.

 

 

It is not my intention to come up with some kind of "Twelve Hymns of Christmas" marathon, but this particular sequence of days is, so far, provoking reflections that end up attaching themselves to tunes. Make of it what you will.  

In the time of Christmas present

In the time of Christmas present,

We, to mark Your work begun,

Celebrate the birth of Jesus,

Son of God, the Holy One.

We sing songs of praise and wonder

For the thing that You have done:

"Christ the Savior is born."

 

In our joyous celebrations

Children sing and organs play.

Candles flicker in the darkness

As the night o'ertakes the day.

Still, we long for holy quiet

As we journey on Your way:

"Come, let us adore him."

 

For we wait this holy coming

In a world of blinding noise,

One that in its boisterous clamor

Settles for such lesser toys.

How can we, amidst such furor,

Hear Your word and all its joys?

"Christ the Savior is born."

 

Help us, Lord, in such confusion,

Keep our hearts affixed on You; 

Teach us how to bear Your word in

All we say and all we do.

Train our thoughts on Jesus only,

Who is holy, good, and true:

"Come, let us adore him."

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2022.

Music: Tune DIVINUM MYSTERIUM, Plainsong, Mode V 

I can only guess that folks who are heavily invovled in a church's observances of the seasons of Advent and Christmas (and maybe even Epiphany) can get thoroughly overwhelmed by the work at times and lose the thread that makes those seasons matter (raises hand). I also wonder if for everybody - ministers, musicians, congregations - it can be sorely challenging to keep that thread amidst the ferocious drumbeat of "the holidays" (a name that in some forms truly respects none of the observances that happen in this time). This text tries to sort through all that. A couple of phrases from familiar carols of the season do pop in, and the use of a chant tune is deliberate in a way I am not certain I can explain, as is the old-fashioned use of capitalized second-person pronouns in addressing God. 

Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing (new tune!)

Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing;

            Come, you seekers of our God!

See the wondrous incarnation;

            Come, be joyful and be awed!

See this infant and behold

            God in human flesh enrolled!

See the wonder of salvation

            Come to us and every nation.

 

With the shepherds watch and wonder

            At this unexpected sight:

See the child with mother Mary,

            Wrapped against the chill of night.

Yet this infant that you see

            Son of God has come to be.

Let your praise be now unceasing

            And with love your joy increasing!

 

Celebrate the child Messiah!

            Celebrate the newborn Lord!

Celebrate with songs of gladness!

            Celebrate with one accord!

Let the good news spread abroad

            Of our incarnated God!

For this saving love endeavor

            Glory to our God forever!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022.

MUSIC: Tune NEWBORN LORD, Dreama Lovitt, November 2022. Used by permission.

The most exciting thing! This Christmas text from last year has a rollicking fun new tune! (Hopefully I don't sabotage it at our Christmas Eve service with my attempts to play the tambourine part...)

Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing

Come, you faithful ones, rejoicing;

            Come, you seekers of our God!

See the wondrous incarnation;

            Come, be joyful and be awed!

See this infant and behold

            God in human flesh enrolled!

See the wonder of salvation

            Come to us and every nation.

 

With the shepherds watch and wonder

            At this unexpected sight:

See the child with mother Mary,

            Wrapped against the chill of night.

Yet this infant that you see

            Son of God has come to be.

Let your praise be now unceasing

            And with love your joy increasing!

 

Celebrate the child Messiah!

            Celebrate the newborn Lord!

Celebrate with songs of gladness!

            Celebrate with one accord!

Let the good news spread abroad

            Of our incarnated God!

For this saving love endeavor

            Glory to our God forever!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, January 2022.

MUSIC: Suggested tune GENEVAN 42, Genevan Psalter, 1551.

 

 

A hymn for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, which I fully expect never to be sung, but it does complete a collection for Advent, Christmas, and the Epiphany event.

 

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.

In the beginning was the Word (alternate tune)

In the beginning was the Word; 

The Word was from the first with God.

In the beginning this same Word,

This Word was God and only God. 

 

All things became then through this Word; 

No thing became, apart from God.

Life came to be all through this Word;

This life, this light that comes from God.

 

Into the world then came this Word,

But yet the world did not know God.

So many welcomed not the Word,

But some became children of God.

 

And in the flesh did come this Word,

With glory, grace, and truth of God.

Receive the fullness of the Word,

And grace upon grace from our God.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, after verses from John 1:1-18.

Music: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, Mode IV, 9^th cent. Alternate tune O WALY WALY, English folk melody

 

 

The Revised Common Lectionary insists upon thrusting John 1 into every Christmas season, so might as well have a hymn that sums it up. As to the suggested tune, this scripture (or its opening line at least) has always seemed like something that needs to be chanted. For those churches for whom that's not readily doable, here is an alternative that should be accessible to most.

Child in the Temple

Child in the Temple, hearing and learning,

Asking his questions, living his call;

All there who heard him found him discerning, 

Thoughtful, amazing; so said they all.

 

Joseph and Mary, busy with travel,

Saw their son missing, not to be found!

Searching, their minds began to unravel

Till they found Jesus there safe and sound. 

 

“How could you do this? What were you thinking?

We were so worried, fearful for you?” 

But then his answer left their hearts sinking:

“This is my Father’s business I do.”

 

Babe in the manger, child in the Temple,

God on the cross, our Savior is he; 

Let us behold and joyously tremble

And show his greatness for all to see.

 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2021, after Luke 2:41-52

MUSIC: Tune BUNESSAN, Gaelic melody.

 

 

Following after an older hymn, “Child in the manger,” this one takes up the twelve-year-old Jesus’s experience staying behind in Jerusalem as his family returned home. The final stanza offers a reminder of who this child was and will be.

In the beginning was the Word

In the beginning was the Word; 

The Word was from the first with God.

In the beginning this same Word,

This Word was God and only God. 

 

All things became then through this Word; 

No thing became, apart from God.

Life came to be all through this Word;

This life, this light that comes from God.

 

Into the world then came this Word,

But yet the world did not know God.

So many welcomed not the Word,

But some became children of God.

 

And in the flesh did come this Word,

With glory, grace, and truth of God.

Receive the fullness of the Word,

And grace upon grace from our God.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, after verses from John 1:1-18.

Music: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, Mode IV, 9^th cent.

 

 

The Revised Common Lectionary insists upon thrusting John 1 into every Christmas season, so might as well have a hymn that sums it up. As to the suggested tune, this scripture (or its opening line at least) has always seemed like something that needs to be chanted.