Drawn Out of Hiding by a Hymn
I have been the lame blogger of the month for November. I was finishing up my Microbiology class, which has been killer-hard. And then it was a year ago that my mother was declining rapidly and ultimately passed away on December 6th, so I have had lots to occupy my mind and my time in what is also known as the “real world.”
Yesterday I arrived at church feeling a bit less than prepared for worship, but hoping to meet God in a real way during the service. We opened with the Christmas hymn, “Once in Royal David’s City.” Not one of the more common hymns, but one I have sung quite a bit. This time I guess I really paid attention to the lyrics. And I got mad. Here is the third verse:
And, through all His wondrous childhood, He would honor and obey,
Love and watch the lowly maiden, in whose gentle arms He lay:
Christian children all must be, mild, obedient, good as He.
Um, ok…where’s the gospel in that?? It sounds like something straight out of Gary Ezzo’s Growing Kids God’s Way (or On Becoming Childwise or whatever the latest version is called). Why do we bury our children under the weight of this garbage? Our children do not have to be as good as Jesus! Unless we want to teach them that they do not need Jesus–that Jesus was just a nice man that we ought to imitate. That’s all wrapped up in a neat little package, and it makes life easier for Mom and Dad…”Just be a good as Jesus, dear!” But it is NOT the gospel.
The gospel says you are not as good as Jesus. Life is hard, and you will struggle. You want your own way and to do your own thing. Life hurts you, you lash out. Here’s the good news. Jesus knows all about that. His friends betrayed him. He got punished when he did nothing wrong. He gets it. And he also knows the Heavenly Father’s perfect love. He offers that to you, in your weakness and flesh. He came to give you life! Do not worry that you are not perfect–you cannot be. Don’t straighten your life out first–come straight to him, as you are, and lay your cares upon him. He is good!
And thankfully, that was the sermon message that countered the anti-gospel that was presented in the hymn.
Now I’m off to rip hymn #225 straight out of my Trinity Hymnal….Not really, but I’m tempted to pull out a Sharpie and fix the words or mark out that verse, at least.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:19 am
I’m with you - rip it out! Running the jumbotron, I felt like skipping over that set of verses…
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Yeah, we’ve always kind of rolled our eyes at that one. There’s so many other great Christmas hymns that really do present the gospel (especially in the later less often sung verses), we should just skip this one.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Oh and welcome back. I’m a long-time lurker. Is that rude that I lurk and never comment?
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Who would choose such a Christmas Eve-y hymn for Advent Sunday?” I’d be so distracted by that, I’d have trouble focusing on ANY of the words.
In all seriousness, I’d say don’t rip it out. I know it is easy to make the inference you made from Mrs. (Cecil Frances) Alexander’s choice of words there, but I doubt that she meant to imply that children are to be as obedient as Christ was obedient. And I say this as one who is 100% with you on the subject of grace in parenting. I believe what Mrs. Alexander was trying to get across is explained in another of the hymn’s stanzas:
For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.
I’m pretty sure all she meant was that, as Jesus is our pattern or example, we are to be obedient to our parents as he has given the example of being obedient to parents, but this does not mean that Mrs. Alexander believed that anyone could, or should, be obedient to the extent that Jesus was obedient, or even close to that. I say that because of what she writes in the hymn “There is a Green Hill Far Away,” a hymn which Paul Zahl quotes in his book _Grace in Practice_ (which you will absolutely love, if you don’t have it already):
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in.
She knows that only Christ could pay the price. Only he could unlock the gate of heaven. Only he was good enough. Jesus as our Savior takes great precedence over Jesus as our example (which is why I was always a little uncomfortable with those W.W.J.D. bracelets), but the fact that we need Jesus as our substitute does not negate the fact that the Bible does also teach that Jesus came to be our pattern and guide. He is our substitute because “there was no other good enough,” yet at the same time he is still “our childhood’s pattern” (and our adulthood’s pattern, for that matter).
Cecil Frances Alexander’s other hymns, such as “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and “Jesus Calls Us O’er the Tumult” also show us that she was a woman who well understood, and shared, God’s amazing grace. Don’t let one line in one stanza of one hymn alter that witness.
So I say don’t “skip this one.” But for goodness’ sake, don’t sing it on the First Sunday of Advent!
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:38 pm
We sang that song at our church on Sunday. I was so distracted by my little children who were being neither mild nor obedient that I didn’t even notice the line. My pastor, however, made a point to mention the song during his sermon. He said the Trinity hymnal is good, but not perfect and that is one song that probably should have been left out or edited.
December 4th, 2007 at 8:14 am
That one has made me cringe as well.
Last year, our former pastor got up to do something in the service (the confession of sin, etc.) right after we sang “Away in a Manger” and looked visibly perplexed. He said, “I just have to take a moment and say I’ve sung that hymn many many times but it’s never bothered me like today. “No crying he makes”? JESUS CRIED as an infant and babies, it’s okay for you to cry, too.”
December 4th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Oh BTW welcome back! Nice to have some Chewy posts again!
December 6th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Great post, Chewy. Count me as another one who hates the, “No crying He makes,” in Away in a Manger. Blaaaaargh!
Isn’t the point of Him coming that God joined with man? Uh, Emmanuel?
But then, to make incarnational all pretty and “spiritual”, they have to try and take out the poop and crying and zest of life.
Sheesh!
December 11th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Hi,
I came across your blog through the reformed bloggers ring.
I am one to appreciate challenging the “this is just the way
it’s always been; don’t question it” mentality. Way to go!
December 11th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Sorry - I knew that website I submitted didn’t
sound right! My brain is fried (Finals Week)-
Sounds like you know all about that!
December 19th, 2007 at 9:53 am
We sang this the other day — I am a pastor of a mainline church with a liberal hymnal — and I was getting irritated AGAIN that one of the old hymns had been altered AGAIN by our hymnal committee. Then I heard the original third verse and thought this was, perhaps, one of their better decisions.
(However, when they changed All Glory Laud and Honor to “you are a child of Israel” from “thou art the King of Israel”, I was ticked. If Jesus can’t be King on Palm Sunday when the heck can he be?)
Great blog. I came over from Molly’s. VERY glad to discover you!