Joy and peace are yours in the Incarnation of Christ! At Christmas we celebrate a great mystery: the Son of God, who is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, has become true man, born of the Virgin Mary. The Son did not cast off his divine nature in favor of a human nature, but joined a human nature to his divine nature, such that he is now both fully God and fully man. His divine nature did not suffer because of this union, yet his human nature can do things because of its union with the divine nature that our human nature cannot do. Jesus could touch people with his human hand and make them rise from the dead. He could cure blindness with his human spit. And most gloriously: “the blood of Jesus his [the Father’s] Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7). Our human hands and spit and blood can’t do these things, but Jesus’ can.
The Church has long found poetry—whether spoken or sung—to be the best means for speaking of and celebrating this great mystery of the two natures of Christ. Here are some selections from great English Christmas poems. Click the titles to see the full poems.
from On the Nativity of Christ
by William Dunbar, 1460-1520
Sing, hevin imperial, most of hicht!
Regions of air mak armony!
All fish in flud and fowl of flicht
Be mirthful and mak melody!
All Gloria in excelsis cry!
Heaven, erd, se, man, bird, and best,—
He that is crownit abone the sky
Pro nobis Puer natus est!
Modern English:
Sing, heaven imperial, most of height!
Regions of air make harmony!
All fish in flood and fowl of flight
Be mirthful and make melody!
All [Glory in the highest] cry!
Heaven, earth, sea, man, bird, and beast,—
He that is crowned above the sky
[For us a child is born]!
A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior
by Ben Jonson, 1572-1637
I sing the birth was born tonight,
The Author both of life and light;
The angels so did sound it,
And like the ravished shepherds said,
Who saw the light, and were afraid,
Yet searched, and true they found it.
The Son of God, the eternal King,
That did us all salvation bring,
And freed the soul from danger;
He whom the whole world could not take,
The Word, which heaven and earth did make,
Was now laid in a manger.
The Father’s wisdom willed it so,
The Son’s obedience knew no “No,”
Both wills were in one stature;
And as that wisdom had decreed,
The Word was now made Flesh indeed,
And took on Him our nature.
What comfort by Him do we win?
Who made Himself the Prince of sin,
To make us heirs of glory?
To see this Babe, all innocence,
A Martyr born in our defense,
Can man forget this story?
from On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity
by John Milton, 1608-1674
This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heav’n’s eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,
Wherewith he wont at Heav’n’s high council-table,
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside, and here with us to be,
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.
from In the Holy Nativity of Our Lord
by Richard Crashaw, 1612-1649
Welcome, all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span;
Summer in winter; day in night;
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little one, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heav’n to earth.
Merry Christmas!
In Christ,
Pastor Richard
