Undoubtedly, “O Holy Night” remains one of the most popular Christmas hymns. When society has its knee on your neck, you need a God who will deliver souls and bodies.” To quote Mika Edmondson, pastor of Koinonia in Nashville, Tennessee, “Marginalized people don’t have the luxury of separating religion from politics. It rears its head wherever we must remind the church that faith without works is dead. It has manifested itself for decades in pejorative labels applied to those calling on the church to be an advocate and place of refuge that include “uppity,” “agitators,” “social gospel proponents,” “communists,” “Marxists,” “cultural Marxists,” “woke” and “critical race theorists.” Importantly, this stubborn heresy is not limited to Christmas carols. Similarly, acolytes of this argument for God’s indifference towards the present circumstances of the marginalized must set aside the entire book of Exodus, ignoring the explicit way God demonstrated concern for foreigners in captivity, as well as the Gospels in which Jesus taught us to love one another by working for justice. Indeed, there is great hypocrisy at work within congregations preaching a gospel where God grants certain believers prosperity now and paradise in the hereafter, but seems unconcerned for minorities victimized by reckless political rhetoric, police killings and systemic racism in the legal system. In light of this gospel, alternate claims present a frail theology. In that regard, Christians across the world should be singing the good news from the same hymnal – that his law is love and his gospel is peace. In case you only hear this admonition at Christmas, allow me to offer a reminder early into the new year: the gospel heralds Jesus’ arrival as Emmanuel, God with us – here on Earth, caring for, weeping with and distraught over the condition of the marginalized as much with the security of our souls in the world to come.
The logical, unspoken corollary is that followers of Jesus can, therefore, acquit themselves of concern for their neighbor – the marginalized particularly. Jesus’ redemptive work is purely spiritual he has no concern about the corporeal state of humanity in society, according to this perspective. Nothing about Jesus, or the gospel message, reveals God’s interest in the literal physical bondage, or suffering, of the very people God created. A thrill of hope, indeed.Īs online discussions typically do, the debate gave way to “aggressive negotiations” when it became clear that some of the more melanin-deprived siblings-in-Christ viewed the third verse hyperbolically.Ĭhrist is a breaker of spiritual chains in this song, their argument went. There is nothing better than watching the “all lives matter” crowd standing in a worship service digesting this refrain with lemon-puckered lips. The convicting words of that verse are:Ĭhains shall he break for the slave is our brother Īnd in his name all oppression shall cease. The melodic, somber chords beautifully convey an angsty, yet hopeful, melancholy for Advent rivaled only by music from the ’80s band Enigma.Īnother familiar hymn, “O Holy Night,” was my choice because the third verse excavates all the year’s bad theology, revealing the straight, narrow path again. The lead candidate was “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This is understandable.
I participated in a social media debate (yes, I know better) ranking classic Advent and Christmas hymns in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.
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