What Child, What World?

Today in the Christmas choir we sang a unique arrangement by Audrey Snyder called The Coventry Child. In it she masterfully weaves a 16th century lament called The Coventry Carol which mourns the babies that a jealous and power-hungry Herod killed, with a more popular 16th century melody, What Child is This?

A haunting, lonely "lullay, lullay," mourns goodbye while notes of wonder ask what child has come--and well we might ask, what world has He come to? The nativity scenes we set up always look so peaceful, but the reality is that Christ was born to a lost and fearfully dark world full of tragedy and evil.

Out of darkness came a glorious light--though He was different than what they expected. They expected a political leader to come overthrow an oppressive government--and that was a serious need. Instead He came to overthrow something even more insidious and harmful, and to create not a temporary kingdom, but an eternal one. He came to save our souls.

Isaac Watts aptly expressed the juxtaposition in his hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross when he wrote, "Sorrow and love flow mingled down..." Jesus carried the evil of the world and the burden of all sin when He gave His life in love. He who suffered through no fault of His own knows intimately the pain of suffering--and when we suffer unjustly, we draw near, we understand a part of what He went through willingly.

Perhaps today Jesus is still different from what we expect. We long and look for the one who will overthrow the oppressive forces in our lives, and sometimes He does. But sometimes He overcomes them silently by strengthening us and enabling us to endure, because His kingdom is not of this world, and His purposes go beyond what we see in the here and now.

Lullay thou little tiny child...
What Child is this who laid to rest...
By by lully, lullay...
This, this is Christ the King...

As the strains of music encircle and interweave, the song reveals the identity of our Savior and ends not in the minor chord of a lament, but the major chord of the hope that has now come. The hope that is ours even now, that beacons, calls to each heart: even in the midst of suffering, now is the time of God's favor, now is peace with God. May His peace reign in your hearts this Christmas.

Merry :-)