John 1:1-14 BibleGateway.com
When all is said and done, the news of Christmas Day fairly begs to be sung. At Christmas, our best theological constructions, our best arguments for the incarnation, finally melt away; and they can hardly stand up unless we sing them!
So it is that John the gospel-writer wrote this hymn, really. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory … full of grace and truth.” That’s not just theology. That’s music.
How can we not sing at Christmas, or, for that matter, at any season of the year when, whatever your circumstances, you are in touch with some evidence of God’s breathtaking initiative to come and dwell with us? I’m remembering a Seminary trip that my family and I took to Zambia eighteen months ago. We went with a faculty-led study group of students, and were guests of our sister seminary there. One day, the Synod Moderator came to take us to a nearby Presbyterian church for a visit (I thought it was just going to be a low-key tour of the building, a look at some of its mission programs). When we pulled up in front, I was blown away by the sight that awaited us. In the middle of a weekday, more than two hundred people, members of that church, were stretched out across the front of that church and waiting to welcome us! When we got out of the car, they began singing, and they sang us down the center aisle of that church and up into the chancel, and for the next hour and a half it was vibrant, joyous singing. The stout texts of stately European hymns from the missionary period had now been set to their own breathtaking African melodies, and I had never heard such harmonies. These were people with nothing — except a song. It was music that people just naturally make when, in large ways or small, they endeavor to respond to the Good News that God has given us.
And now, at Christmas, One long awaited is here to save us, and to be our companion as we seek to follow Him. He is the Word-made-flesh that is dwelling among us, full of grace and truth. He is the One, as Barbara Taylor has said, “who is made out of the same stuff we are and who is made out of the same stuff God is and who will not let either of us go.” He brings Good News which, by the grace of God and to the glory of God, we can forever applaud, and believe, and (maybe most importantly) sing.
All glory to you, great God, for the gift of your Son, whom you sent to save us. With singing angels, we will praise your name, and tell the earth his story! Amen
When all is said and done, the news of Christmas Day fairly begs to be sung. At Christmas, our best theological constructions, our best arguments for the incarnation, finally melt away; and they can hardly stand up unless we sing them!
So it is that John the gospel-writer wrote this hymn, really. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory … full of grace and truth.” That’s not just theology. That’s music.
How can we not sing at Christmas, or, for that matter, at any season of the year when, whatever your circumstances, you are in touch with some evidence of God’s breathtaking initiative to come and dwell with us? I’m remembering a Seminary trip that my family and I took to Zambia eighteen months ago. We went with a faculty-led study group of students, and were guests of our sister seminary there. One day, the Synod Moderator came to take us to a nearby Presbyterian church for a visit (I thought it was just going to be a low-key tour of the building, a look at some of its mission programs). When we pulled up in front, I was blown away by the sight that awaited us. In the middle of a weekday, more than two hundred people, members of that church, were stretched out across the front of that church and waiting to welcome us! When we got out of the car, they began singing, and they sang us down the center aisle of that church and up into the chancel, and for the next hour and a half it was vibrant, joyous singing. The stout texts of stately European hymns from the missionary period had now been set to their own breathtaking African melodies, and I had never heard such harmonies. These were people with nothing — except a song. It was music that people just naturally make when, in large ways or small, they endeavor to respond to the Good News that God has given us.
And now, at Christmas, One long awaited is here to save us, and to be our companion as we seek to follow Him. He is the Word-made-flesh that is dwelling among us, full of grace and truth. He is the One, as Barbara Taylor has said, “who is made out of the same stuff we are and who is made out of the same stuff God is and who will not let either of us go.” He brings Good News which, by the grace of God and to the glory of God, we can forever applaud, and believe, and (maybe most importantly) sing.
All glory to you, great God, for the gift of your Son, whom you sent to save us. With singing angels, we will praise your name, and tell the earth his story! Amen
Theodore J. Wardlaw, President and Seminary Ambassador
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.CLICK HERE to learn how you can support the mission of Austin Seminary
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