Oh Holy Night

Oh Holy Night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born
Oh night divine
Oh night divine
Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend.
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

I love the sound of this Christmas Carol. Years ago at the Amerson household for the staff Christmas party I would often stand by the piano when it was being played and would theatrically (and badly) collapse on the ground while singing "fall on your knees." Pretty cheesy.

I was recently with my friend Phil in Evanston and he was telling me that he often had to sing this song as a boy (I think it was a solo in church). I remember noticing what Phil reminded me of -- that this hymn is really a hymn of liberation. It is a song that reminds us that the gift of Christ in the world is the announcement that there is now liberty for the prisoner.

I think of how often we overlook the truly joyful message of Christmas that in the very presence of evil (or the spiritual forces of wickedness if you will) that the good news of God is that those forces no longer have predominance -- that they have in fact been destroyed. Now that seems like a pretty hard thing to argue for in the face of what we see in the world...but it also is a real challenge to remember that it is our calling to live as if this is true. We certainly can live as if it is not true -- we can certainly live as if evil and oppression have the upper hand -- but it would be a denial of our faith. So -- how do we work that out in practice?

What would it mean for me, in this week before Christmas, to show that I believe the prisoner has been set free? Perhaps it would mean something like what you can read about in this article.