"The First Christmas Carols"
by Tom Goodman
November 30, 2005

One of the things I like best about Christmas is the music.  The “Christmas” playlist on my IPod contains over five hours of songs—from the silly to the sacred.

Many others must love Christmas music, too, because radio stations will convert their entire format to holiday music between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.  The upside: gospel truth gets piped into our culture.  The downside: we have to listen to “Christmas Shoes” three times a day for the next month!  (Now I’m gonna get e-mails from all of you who love that song!)

We believers love to write songs about the Christmas story.  Paul Baloche’s new song, “Offering” is destined to become a favorite in many congregations, while Kathy Mattea’s version of “Mary Did You Know” and Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven” leave me awestruck.  I listen frequently to the City on a Hill CD, “It’s Christmastime” as well as this year’s CD “Come Let Us Adore Him: A Christmas Worship Experience.”  These CDs feature new compositions from the musicians of bands like Third Day, Caedmon’s Call, and Jars of Clay.

These newer songs simply join the musical testimony of Christians throughout two thousand years of church history.  When we sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” or “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” we join hearts with Massachusetts Christians of the 19th century.

We reach back and join John Wesley’s evangelistic vision in the 18th century when we sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!”

Reaching even further back we clasp the hands of 16th-century English Christians as we join together in their favorite tune, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”

In the 13th century, devout Christians would perform nativity plays where they sang carols composed for the performance.  After the plays, the actors would stroll around the community singing their compositions.

Earlier than that, 5th-century priests would stroll around their parishes on Christmas Eve singing long-forgotten carols in Latin.

Even earlier than that, in the 2nd century, the bishop in Rome sent out a letter urging his people to “sing in celebration of the birthday of our Lord.”

But did you know that Christmas songs existed even earlier than that?  The characters in the Bible’s Christmas stories frequently break into song.  Starting this Sunday and running straight to Christmas Sunday morning, we’ll celebrate around these very first Christmas carols.  I begin this Sunday, December 4, with “Mary’s Christmas Carol” as found in Luke 1:46-55.

Send this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to—

     Come and worship
     Come and worship
     Worship Christ the newborn king!

—Tom

P.S.  My newsletter series on Either-Or Christianity will resume after the holidays.


Notes:

Aslan is On the Move!  The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe opens in area theaters next Friday, December 9.  I’ll tell you more about it in next week’s Winning Ways.  To get you ready, our Southern Baptist publisher, Lifeway, has some great resources.  Be sure to view the movie trailer at that site.  You can also find trailers here (click on Trailer #2).