I am having a lot of fun with this year's Advent sermon series. I chosen to take a Christmas Carol every Sunday and talk about how it came to be as well as what it actually says. This morning, I talked about "Joy to the World" - the carol that seems to capture the sheer joy of Christmas.
To the dismay of the congregation, I told them that "Joy to the World" was never intended to be a Christmas carol. It says nothing of Christmas. In fact, there is no way it could have been a Christmas carol, since it was written by a puritan in 1719, when Christmas was not celebrated by puritans. They didn't celebrate Christmas for two reasons: first, they saw how the Church of England celebrated Christmas with all its pomp and pageantry and it turned their stomach. It was this church which they were trying to "purify" and as a result, they were being persecuted.
Second, they saw many in the community celebrate Christmas with such revelry and downright drunkenness that offended their deep faith. The believed Christmas was to be a truly "Holy Day." Take the popular custom of "wassailing" through town. Basically, a bunch of folks would get drunk on the contents of the wassail bowl, go around to houses, and if they didn't get more alcohol for their bowl, they would vandalize that person's property. This is not too far from the problems we have surrounding the secular celebrating of Christmas. Generation after generation has said that Christmas is too commercialized, that we should bring Christ back into Christmas. Is that too far from what the puritans believed? I know they went too far, but I think they did have a point.
Anyway, I digress. Isaac Watts based "Joy to the World" on Psalm 98. But he recast the Psalm in light of the New Testament, "as if David (the supposed writer of the psalm) was a Christian." He recast Psalm 98 not in light of Christmas, but in terms of Christ's second coming at the end of time. The joy he wrote about was when Christ comes to ultimately and finally redeem the whole world from sin, suffering and death. The end of Revelation does not talk about the end of the world, but the transformation of the world through Christ. When he comes there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Mourning and crying and pain will be no more. Death will be no more. God will dwell with humans. Indeed, the earth will be transformed back to its original state: the Garden of Eden. The curse put on humanity and creation will be reversed.
In the meantime, we live between the two comings of Christ: the first on Christmas, 2,000 years ago, and this second coming. The powers of sin, suffering and death are still with us, even though Jesus came to earth in order to redeem us from these powers. Jesus himself said things are going to get much worse before they get better.
Throughout history, Christians have used the season of Advent to prepare for Christ's second coming as much as remembering his first. In Advent, these two comings meet. "Joy to the World" works so well as a Christmas Carol because of the profound relationship between these two comings. It stands as a carol that points us from the initial joy of the first coming, to the overwhelming joy at the second coming.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Dear Pastor John
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog by accident, but having read this entry I feel I ought to correct your understanding of the Wassail tradition.
The word 'wassail' is thought to have derived from old english and to carry the meaning 'be of good health. Therefore the word was used as a blessing (in some cases still is)for example to bless pepole, animals, crops etc. The door to door custom wassail custom you mention above was a Christmas activity where individual households were blessed by all those in residence being invited to take a sip from the wassail bowl. It is also likley that money changed hands as this form can also be known as a begging custom.
It is likely that the wassailers got drunk in the process, however, having academically researched this custom for many years I have not come across any examples where harm or ill intent was suggested or acted upon if drink was not offered to the wassail party. I would go as far as to suggest that such behaviour was most strongly in contrary to the spirit of intent amongst those involved. For the custom to take place it had to be recipricated by the household.
Kindest regards or should I say 'Wassail'