O Holy Night - ou est-il?

O Holy Night is one of the best loved Christmas carols of the last 150 years. I currently have a beautiful version by Kerrie Roberts on my iTunes, and it has been covered by everyone from Mariah Carey to Andrea Bocelli.

The song was originally written in French as Cantique de Noel, with music by Adolphe Adam, and words from a poem by wine merchant Placide Cappeau, in 1847.

What is fascinating about the song is the richness of Biblical imagery and ideas in the French version, that gets sadly lost in the English version. I suppose it wouldn't have attained it's great popularity if the lyrics had retained their hard-hitting talk of original sin and the wrath of God!

To compare the French, literal English and popular English texts, go to Wikipedia.com. Just to give you a taster, have a look at this line from the third verse:

French:

Le Rédempteur a brisé toute entrave :

La terre est libre, et le ciel est ouvert.

Il voit un frère où n'était qu'un esclave,

L'amour unit ceux qu'enchaînait le fer.

Popular English:

Truly he taught us to love one another,

His law is love and his gospel is peace;

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,

And in his name, all oppression shall cease.

Literal English:

The Redeemer has overcome every obstacle:

The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.

He sees a brother where there was only a slave,

Love unites those that iron had chained.

Seems like Placide Cappeau was onto something! In verse 3's talk of liberation from slavery and oppression, which has become so political in our time, we have lost a Christmas reminder of our slavery to sin (Romans 6v17-18), Christ's destruction of the power of sin and death (Colossians 2v13-15), and Jesus Christ gladly considering us his brothers and sisters! (Hebrews 2v10-13).

So, who's going to have a crack at singing the literal words this Christmas?

Chillout Worship? Do you want fries with that?

This morning in my inbox I received an email about two "chillout worship" albums on sale. Now this got me thinking, "Why on earth do we need to chill out whilst we worship?

This actually follows on from a previous email I received about worship albums that are designed for runners and walkers - the songs are selected and/or remixed to match the approximate tempo of a walking or running cadence so you can stick it on your iPod and 'worship whilst you walk' - you'll never miss a step!

It's great for us to use music to encourage us spiritually in our everyday lives. God's gift of music allows us to call to mind spiritual truths and express ourselves emotionally as we respond to God in worship.

But I believe that there are two fundamental problems with the market for these types of CD's: firstly, it is a symptom of a consumer based culture amongst Christians, and secondly, it is a symptom of faith which holds music as the primary expression of worship. (Perhaps a third issue could be the money that we waste on such things, and even a fourth issue could be the Christian subculture created by such things, but those are perhaps for another post). Both of these are evidence that we have our Christian faith upside-down and inside-out.

In Ezekiel 36 (click here to read it, it's great!), God says to Ezekiel that he is going to deliver Israel from exile and renew and restore their faith and obedience to Him in spite of them and their inability to give him the worship and honour He commands. His reason for this is that 

he wants to glorify His name, and rightly so, because He is God. We must never, ever buy into the myth of the song, "He took the fall and thought of me above all." God's concern is for His holy name, and he shows that by saving people who cannot save themselves. Jesus went to the cross for God's glory, not for our happiness.

Firstly, we must be very careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that 'my Christianity revolves around me'. We should run screaming from anything that supposes to allow us to 'worship' whilst we go on serving ourselves as we chill out or exercise. Let me not be misunderstood, it is great to keep our minds focused on God and the truth of his Word at all times, and to continually praise God (Heb 13v15) - this is the Christian life; but that shouldn't ever fit around other things, other things should fit around our lives of worship.

Secondly, music is not the primary mode of worship. If I could worship God by having 'worship music' on my iPod 24/7 then I'd do it, because it's really easy. Biblical worship is hard. It's hearing God speak through His Word, and then responding appropriately. When God says, "Love one-another" our worship is to put those around us first and put ourselves to one side, with no promise of any return, but only for God's glory. But that has lasting value. It is building with costly materials that won't burn up (1 Cor 3v11-13) when it is tested. I have feeling that a 3min praise tune with the drum-loop at 132bpm will go 'woof' like a can of gasoline.

Listen to Christian music. Do whatever it takes to focus your mind on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Worship God by respond seriously to His Word. Just don't think it's all about you, 'kay?