Sermon: Above, Beside, and Within (2026)

Delivered at St. Mark United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on May 31, 2026, Trinity Sunday

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Comments are always welcomed.
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Above, Beside, and Within

Audio Version

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

From “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” by Richard Heber

The Disciples have trekked from Jerusalem to Galilee.  A few days earlier, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary visited the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth, who had just been brutally and wrongfully executed by crucifixion.  To their surprise, they watched as an angel descended from heaven and rolled the stone away, revealing the tomb to be empty.  Seated atop the stone, the heavenly messenger told them that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead and then instructed them to tell the Disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.  As the two women ran to tell the Disciples the good news, they encountered the risen Jesus Himself, who repeated the angel's instruction to tell the Disciples to meet Him in Galilee.¹

The Disciples ascend a mountain in Galilee, and they find Jesus alive and well, just as the two Marys had told them.  They fall down and worship Him, though some of them are not quite sure that they can believe what they are seeing.  Jesus says to the Disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”²

In the Gospel of Matthew, the earthly ministry of Jesus is bookended with references to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.  Shortly before Jesus began His public ministry, He went to the Jordan River to be baptized.  As He emerged from the water, the heavens were torn open; the Holy Spirit took the form of a dove and descended upon Him; and a Voice from heaven was heard, proclaiming, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”³  The Son, at His baptism, received the power of the Spirit and the blessing of the Father.  As we just heard, Jesus ends His earthly ministry by commissioning the Disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”⁴

Today, the first Sunday after Pentecost, is Trinity Sunday, a day set aside for remembering that God has been revealed to us in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Though we can read about all three Persons of the Trinity in the Bible, the word trinity is found nowhere in our holy scriptures.  The first recorded use of the word trinity to describe God is in the writings of the second-century theologian Theophilus of Antioch.⁵  A creed was formalized around the Trinity at the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and this creed was revised at the First Council of Constantinople in 381.⁶  The Nicene Creed states, “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.”  The creed continues, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.”  The creed goes on to state, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.”⁷

Something that makes the Trinity particularly difficult to explain is that it is so easy to say something heretical, something contrary to the established teachings of the Church.  For example, one might think that, if the Father is God, and if the Son is God, and if the Spirit is God, then perhaps God takes different forms at different times.  This idea, known as modalism, is generally regarded as a heresy because it denies that the Trinity is three distinct Persons.⁸  With that in mind, one might think that, if the Father is not the Son, and if the Son is not the Spirit, and if the Spirit is not the Father, then maybe we actually worship three distinct Gods.  This idea, called tritheism, is also considered a heresy⁹ because Christianity is a monotheistic religion.  Though we speak of a Triune God, we agree with our Jewish brothers and sisters, who daily proclaim, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad¹⁰ (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”).¹¹

Explaining what the Trinity is not seems to be a lot easier than explaining what the Trinity actually is.  The Trinity is a mystery and a paradox.  God is one, yet somehow, at the same time, God is three.  Perhaps it would be simpler to consider the Triune God's relationship with humanity and to consider the ways humanity has experienced the Triune God.


God Above Us

The Trinity reminds us that God is above us.  The parental title of the first Person of the Trinity, the Father, reminds us that God is our divine, loving Parent and that we are all children under God's authority.  God is our Creator and our Provider: God gave us life and every blessing we enjoy in life.  In the words of one beloved hymn, “All I have needed thy hand hath provided.”¹²  God is also our sovereign Lord and the Ruler over all creation.

When I say that God is above us, I mean not only that God reigns above us but also that God is above our intellect.  God says through one prophet, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, / nor are your ways my ways... / For as the heavens are higher than the earth, / so are my ways higher than your ways / and my thoughts than your thoughts.”¹³  When Job wants to argue with God, God says to him, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? / Tell me, if you have understanding. / Who determined its measurements – surely you know! / Or who stretched the line upon it?”¹⁴  The psalmist David reflects on God's complete knowledge of him and on God's continuous presence with him and says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; / it is so high that I cannot attain it.”  He reflects on how carefully and thoughtfully God knit him together and proclaims, “How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! / How vast is the sum of them! / I try to count them – they are more than the sand...”¹⁵  Indeed, our knowledge of the divine is but a drop in an ocean.

One of the Ten Commandments forbids the creation of idols or images of gods to worship.¹⁶  Some would go so far as to say that it also forbids images of the one true God, since such images cannot adequately represent God.  In the Book of Exodus, it could be inferred that the golden calf the Israelites wrongly worshiped in the wilderness was created to represent the God “who brought [them] up out of the land of Egypt.”¹⁷  I wonder if the same commandment might also apply to our mental images of God.  If we finite humans cannot fully comprehend an infinite God, then we would do well to hold our own conceptions of God with humility and with an open hand, lest we become guilty of creating idols in our minds.  The French philosopher Voltaire once observed, “If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.”¹⁸

Ultimately, God is a mystery.  I think that maybe the mystery and otherness of God can be frightening to us.  C.S. Lewis writes that the fear of God is less like the fear of a tiger and more like the fear of a ghost.  If a tiger was in the room, we would be afraid because of what we know about it, but, if a ghost was in the room, we would be afraid because of what we don't know about it.¹⁹  The latter kind of fear is not a totally inappropriate response to God, for we must never let ourselves think that we've figured God out.  That said, I think the conflicting messages we hear about God can be a source of anxiety.  Some people speak only of God's grace, mercy, and love, while others speak primarily of God's anger and judgment, and the two groups often seem to be at odds with each other.  Whom shall we believe?


God Beside Us

What if the infinite God decided to describe God's self in a way that we finite humans can understand – or perhaps I should say, in a Word we can understand.  What if God somehow left behind the glory of Heaven and took on human flesh and blood to walk beside us?²⁰  What if, in the words of Eugene Peterson, God “moved into the neighborhood” with us?²¹  This is essentially what we learn from an ancient Christian hymn found at the beginning of the Gospel of John.  In it, we read,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...  
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth...  
No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made Him known.²²

The Greek term translated into English as word is logos,²³ which could also be translated as reason, logic, or order.²⁴  It is this word logos that John uses to describe second person of the Trinity, the Son, who is made known to us in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God Incarnate – God in the flesh.  Brian Zahnd, one of my favorite preachers, likes to say, “God is like Jesus.  God has always been like Jesus.  There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.  We have not always known what God is like – but now we do.”²⁵  When we are confused and frightened by the conflicting messages we hear about God, we are invited to look to Jesus and see what God is truly like.

The Church teaches us that Christ is fully God and, at the same time, fully human.  In the Gospels, He is called both Son of God and Son of Man.  In Christ, we see that God is fully capable of empathizing with us, for we know that God has actually walked a mile in our shoes.  In Christ, we know that God has experienced the beauty, the messiness, and even the pain of being human.²⁶  To say that Christ is fully human is to say that He entered fully into the human experience, but it is not to say that He is just like us.²⁷  According to the creation poem at the very beginning of the Bible, God created humanity in God's own Image.²⁸  To be human is to bear the Image of God, but the divine Image we bear has been distorted by our sin.²⁹  Christ, who perfectly bears the Image of God, came to Earth as part of a divine plan to save a broken creation, and part of His mission was to show us how to be fully human.  Interestingly, in the Common English Bible, whenever Jesus would refer to Himself as the Son of Man in other translations of the Bible, He calls Himself the Human One, reminding us that He is the one who is truly human.


God Within Us

In the Gospel of John, Jesus said to the Disciples, on the evening before He was arrested, tried, and crucified, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”³⁰  Different translations of the Bible use different words to describe the divine Presence the Father will send on the Son's behalf.  The New Revised Standard Version uses the word advocate; the older King James Version uses the word comforter; and the more recent Common English Bible uses the word companion.  The original Greek word used to describe this Presence is paraklētos, which describes someone “called to one's side.”  Alternately, it could mean “counselor,” “intercessor,” or simply “helper.”³¹  Jesus told the Disciples that this “Paraclete” will dwell within them.³²  He was referring, of course, to the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the Disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of everything He has already taught them and that the Holy Spirit will continue to teach them.³³  He later said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...”³⁴  Jesus, by His own admission, did not teach the Disciples everything they needed to know, but He promised them that the Spirit would continue to teach them after He returned to the Father.

The Holy Spirit will empower the Disciples to do what Jesus commissions them to do.  In the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus says to the Disciples just before He ascends to Heaven, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”³⁵  Ten days later, while the Disciples are gathered together in their meeting place, they hear the sound of a mighty wind.  Suddenly tongues of fire appear in the room and land upon each of them.  The Disciples then run into the street, speaking languages they did not previously know, and a crowd of people from many different nations gathers around them to hear their message.³⁶  That day of Pentecost, which we commemorated last Sunday, is sometimes called the “birthday of the Church,” and the same Holy Fire that appeared that day has mobilized the Church ever since.


The Image of God

If human beings do indeed bear the Image of God, then perhaps the Trinity teaches us not only who God is, but also who we are.  When Jesus taught the Disciples to pray, He taught them to address God as “our Father in heaven.”³⁷  We are all beloved children of the Father; the Son provides us the definitive example of what it means to live into our identities as children of God; and the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so.  Perhaps the Trinity also reveals something about who we are collectively.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus prayed that those who follow Him may be one with each other as He and the Father are one.³⁸  The Trinity is three Persons yet one God.  Similarly the Church is many individuals yet one “body.”

St. Paul uses some fascinating metaphors in his letters to describe the Church.  He writes that the Church is the Body of Christ, meaning that individual followers of Christ work together like parts of a body, of which Christ is the head.³⁹  In the words attributed to St. Teresa of Avila,

Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world.  Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good.  Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

Paul also writes that the Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit of God dwells within us and among us.⁴⁰  As the Church, we are commissioned by Christ to carry on His work by making disciples and passing along His teachings, and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do what we have been commissioned to do.


The Trinity teaches us that, though God is ultimately beyond human comprehension, God is, by no means, distant from humanity.  As Jesus says to the Disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”⁴¹  God reigns above us as our Creator, Lord, and Parent in ways we cannot even begin to understand.  God came to walk beside us, stepping into our experience and showing us how to live.  God dwells within us, guiding us, empowering us, and sustaining us day by day.  The Trinity also teaches us who we are.  We are children of the Father who are empowered by the Spirit to become more like the Son and to carry on His work in the world.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Matthew 28:1-10
2. Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)
5. Wikipedia: “Trinity”
6. Wikipedia: “Nicene Creed”
7. Quotes were taken from the Nicene Creed as printed in The United Methodist Hymnal.  no. 880
8. Wikipedia: “Sabellianism”
9. Wikipedia: “Tritheism”
10. Wikipedia: “Shema”
11. Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV)
12. From “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisholm
13. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NRSV)
14. Job 38:4-5 (NRSV)
15. Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (NRSV)
16. Exodus 20:4-6
17. Exodus 32:1-5
18. Wikiquote: “Voltaire”
19. C.S. Lewis.  The Problem of Pain.  ch. 1
20. Philippians 2:5-7
21. John 1:14 (The Message)
22. John 1:1, 14, 18 (NRSV)
23. Blue Letter Bible: “Logos”
24. Wikipedia: “Logos”
25. Brian Zahnd.  “God Is Like Jesus.”  BrianZahnd.com, 08/11/2011.
26. Hebrews 4:15
27. Peter Rollins.  “Salvation for Zombies.”
28. Genesis 1:27
29. Kenneth L. Carder.  Living Our Beliefs: The United Methodist Way.  2009, Discipleship Resources.  ch. 4-5
30. John 14:15-16 (NRSV)
31. Blue Letter Bible: “paraklētos”
32. John 14:17
33. John 14:25-26
34. John 16:12-13a (NRSV)
35. Acts 1:8 (NRSV)
36. Acts 2:1-11
37. Matthew 6:9 (NRSV)
38. John 17:20-23
39. 1 Corinthians 12:27-28, Colossians 1:18
40. 1 Corinthians 3:16
41. Matthew 28:20 (NRSV)

The image featured in this sermon is public domain.

Perspective: Believing and Praying

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Believing and Praying

My future is in your hands.
Don't hand me over to my enemies,
to all who are out to get me!
Shine your face on your servant;
save me by your faithful love!

Psalm 31:15-16 (CEB)

God, You know where I've been
You were there with me then
You were faithful before
You'll be faithful again
I'm holding Your hand

From "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR

One of the classes I had to complete in order to be certified as a Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church was a class on leading public prayer.  In this class, I learned about a particular type of prayer called the collect.  In such a prayer, a petition to God is preceded by a statement about God and followed by a reason for the petition.¹

Consider the following collect written for the third Sunday in Eastertide:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.²

In this prayer, the petition is made to God that the presence of the risen Christ be made known to the gathered congregation.  The rationale for the petition is that God resurrected Christ from the dead and that seeing the resurrected Christ gave His first disciples hope and joy.  The reason for the petition is that experiencing the presence of the risen Christ will provide the congregation the spiritual strength and sustenance they need to better serve God.

The collect shows us that what we ask of God is directly connected to our theology.  Generally speaking, when we pay close attention to a prayer, we can learn something important about the person who is praying, specifically what the person believes about God.


Many of the psalms in the Bible are attributed to David, the shepherd who became a military leader and then later became the most beloved king of Israel.  Like a number of the psalms associated with David, the thirty-first psalm is a prayer for help in a perilous time.  Evidently, David has found himself in dire straits.  The psalm begins,

I take refuge in you, Lord.
Please never let me be put to shame.
Rescue me by your righteousness!³

When I encountered this psalm recently, I observed that the psalmist apparently believes at least four things about God.


First, David believes that God is protective of God's children.  He prays,

Listen closely to me!
Deliver me quickly;
be a rock that protects me;
be a strong fortress that saves me!
You are definitely my rock and my fortress.
Guide me and lead me for the sake of your good name!
Get me out of this net that's been set for me
because you are my protective fortress.⁴

To David, God is like a rock behind which he can take cover and a fortress in which he can take refuge.  Such imagery can be found throughout the Psalms.⁵  David goes on to pray,

How great is the goodness
that you've reserved for those who honor you,
that you commit to those who take refuge in you -
in the sight of everyone!
You hide them in the shelter of your wings,
safe from human scheming.
You conceal them in a shelter,
safe from accusing tongues.⁶

According to David, God shelters God's children in the same way that a mother bird shelters her young with her wings.


Second, David believes that God is faithful to God's children.  He prays,

I entrust my spirit into your hands;
you, Lord, God of faithfulness -
you have saved me.⁷

David's use of the past tense might lead us to believe that the occasion that inspires this prayer is not the first time David has asked God for help in a perilous time.  He later prays,

Bless the Lord,
because he has wondrously revealed
his faithful love to me
when I was like a city under siege!⁸

Trusting that God is faithful involves remembering what God has done in the past.  Scholar John Goldingay notes in his commentary on this psalm that remembering God's previous acts "keeps those events in the awareness of the people praying and thus makes it more possible for them to hold on as the waters rise."⁹  David evidently sought help from God in the past and received it, so he trusts that God will help him again in the present.


Third, David believes that God is attentive to God's children; otherwise, he might not bother asking God for help.  James L. Mays writes in his commentary on this psalm, "The psalm has been called a model of a prayer that is confident of being heard.  This confidence informs the prayer from start to finish; to pray this psalm is to be led into and instructed in this confidence."¹⁰  David prays,

I rejoice and celebrate in your faithful love
because you saw my suffering -
you were intimately acquainted with my deep distress.
You didn't hand me over to the enemy,
but set my feet in wide-open spaces.¹¹

David goes on to pray,

When I was panicked, I said,
"I'm cut off from your eyes!"
But you heard my request for mercy
when I cried out to you for help.¹²

Goldingay suggests, "People praying are invited to believe and declare that God has heard their prayer even when there is yet no evidence, to urge one another to believe that this is so, and to take courage accordingly."¹³  The defining story of David's people is the Exodus, in which God hears the cries of the long-oppressed people of Israel and sends Moses to liberate them.  David trusts that God hears his cries in the same way that God heard the cries of his oppressed ancestors.


Finally, David believes that God is sovereign.  He prays,

My future is in your hands.
Don't hand me over to my enemies,
to all who are out to get me!
Shine your face on your servant;
save me by your faithful love!¹⁴

To trust that God is sovereign is to trust that God has the final word in all matters.  For David, trusting that God is sovereign means trusting that God is the one who truly determines his future and not the people who are seeking his life.  He ends his prayer,

All you who are faithful, love the Lord!
The Lord protects those who are loyal,
but he pays the proud back to the fullest degree.
All you who wait for the Lord,
be strong and let your heart take courage.¹⁵

To trust that God is sovereign is also to trust that God will eventually set all things right.  David trusts that people's faithfulness to God will not go unnoticed by God and that wrongdoers will inevitably have to face the consequences of their wrongdoings.


What we believe about God determines how we pray, and, at the same time, how we pray reveals what we believe about God.  David believes that God is protective, faithful, attentive, and sovereign, so he turns to God for protection in perilous times.  What does the way you pray reveal about your beliefs about God?


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: "Collect"
2. "Collects and Suggested Canticles and Refrains (Daily Prayer)."  The Church of England Website.
3. Psalm 31:1 (CEB)
4. Psalm 31:2-4 (CEB)
5. Joel B. Green, William H. Willimon, et al.  The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 672
6. Psalm 31:19-20 (CEB)
7. Psalm 31:5 (CEB)
8. Psalm 31:21 (CEB)
9. John Goldingay.  The Old Testament for Everyone (Kindle Edition).  2020, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 2835
10. James L. Mays.  Psalms (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching) (Kindle Edition). 2011, John Knox Press.  loc. 2914-5
11. Psalm 31:7-8 (CEB)
12. Psalm 31:22 (CEB)
13. Goldingay, p. 2836
14. Psalm 31:15-16 (CEB)
15. Psalm 31:23-24 (CEB)

The photograph of the desert boulders was taken by Ken Kistler and has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Christmas Perspective: Hark!

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Hark!

The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord."

Luke 2:10-11 (NRSV)

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"

From "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing"
by Charles Wesley and George Whitefield

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that late one night, in a field not far from the city of Bethlehem, some shepherds are watching over their sheep.  Suddenly, a heavenly messenger appears to them, scaring them half to death.  The angel says to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."  Then an angelic choir appears with the messenger, singing, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"¹

At the beginning the beloved Christmas carol "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" is a retelling of this very scene.

Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King;
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"²

The song commonly titled "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" was written in the mid 1700s by Charles Wesley, a prolific hymnist who, along with his brother John Wesley, started the Methodist movement.  The lyrics of the song have been adapted by a number of people over the years, including the Wesley brothers' friend and fellow evangelist George Whitefield.  In the mid 1800s, William H. Cummings first set the song to a tune by composer Felix Mendelssohn, by which it is commonly sung today.³

Speaking as a lifelong member of the United Methodist Church, I would like to suggest that "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" is probably the most Methodist Christmas carol in existence.  Not only was it written by one of the founders of the Methodist movement, it also serves a purpose of early Methodist hymnody.  The Methodist movement was started to spark revival within the Church of England.  Since the very beginning, Charles Wesley's hymns have been a means by which Methodists have taught doctrine and theology.  Naturally "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" is a theologically rich Christmas carol.

As I already noted, the first half of the first verse is a retelling of the Annunciation to the Shepherds.  The lyrics reflect both the heavenly messenger's announcement of the birth of a Savior and also the angelic choir's glorifying God and announcing God's peace and favor to humanity.  Wesley makes it a point to highlight the truth that God's sending God's Son to the Earth was an act meant to reconcile humanity to God.

In the rest of the first verse, people around the globe are called to join the heavenly chorus in announcing the birth of Christ.

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th'angelic hosts proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

The first part of the second verse calls to mind another part of the Nativity story.

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a virgin's womb.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, around nine months before the angels appear to the shepherds, a messenger of God named Gabriel appears to a young woman named Mary.  The messenger says, "Greetings, favored one!  The Lord is with you."⁴  Seeing that he has confused the young woman, he continues,

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.⁵

Wesley echoes Gabriel's words, reminding us that Jesus, the "offspring of a virgin's womb," is the "everlasting Lord."

When Mary asks Gabriel how she can possibly give birth to a child when she is still a virgin, Gabriel says to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God...  For nothing will be impossible with God."⁶

Mary then says to Gabriel, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."⁷

The rest of the second verse tells us more about the nature of Christ.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th'incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.

This part of the song reminds us that Jesus is God Incarnate, echoing the hymnody of the early church.  A number of early Christian hymns which are quoted in the New Testament emphasize Christ's divinity.  One hymn included in the Letter to the Colossians tells us that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and "the firstborn of all creation."  It goes on to tell us that "in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" and that "through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things."⁸  Another hymn included at the beginning of the Gospel of John describes Jesus as the Word of God.  It begins, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  It goes on to tell us that "the Word became flesh and lived among us."⁹

The very end of the second verse calls to mind yet another part of the Nativity story.  In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, when Joseph learns that his fiancée Mary is pregnant with a child he knows is not his, he considers breaking off his engagement to her.  That night, a messenger of God appears to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  Joseph decides to wed Mary and to raise her child with her as if He was his own.¹⁰

St. Matthew writes,

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us."¹¹

In the person known as Jesus of Nazareth, God took on human flesh to dwell among us.

The third verse of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" reminds us of who Jesus is and what He did for us.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.

This part of the song echoes a prophecy from the Book of Malachi.  Speaking of "the day of the Lord," the day when God will set all things right, the prophet proclaims, "For you who revere [God's] name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings."¹²  Jesus' followers see a fulfillment of this prophecy in Jesus' moral teachings and healing miracles.

The song ends with another reminder of the Incarnation and its implications for us.

Mild he lays his glory by,
born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth.

Wesley reminds us that Christ "lays his glory by," divesting Himself of the power and glory of divinity to walk among us in frail human flesh.  It echoes an early Christian hymn included in the Letter to the Philippians, which reads,

Though [Christ Jesus] was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.¹³

Furthermore, Wesley reminds us that Christ was born into this world for a purpose.  In the Gospel of John, we read that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."¹⁴  After Christ was crucified, He was resurrected from the dead.  St. Paul, in his first Letter to the Corinthians, speaks of Jesus as "the first fruits of those who have died," suggesting that Jesus’ resurrection is only the first of many resurrections.¹⁵  The life Christ came to bring us is not just eternal in duration but also eternal in depth.  Speaking of those who follow Him, He says, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."¹⁶  

In the days ahead, dear reader, as you sing Christmas carols and listen to them on the radio, may you take some time to consider what they say about Jesus, the One whose birth we celebrate this season.

And may you have a very merry Christmas!


Notes:

1. Luke 2:8-14 (NRSV)
2. Lyrics from “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” are presented in this perspective as they appear in The United Methodist Hymnal, published in 1989 by The United Methodist Publishing House.
3. Wikipedia: “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”
4. Luke 1:26-29 (NRSV)
5. Luke 1:30-33 (NRSV)
6. Luke 1:34-35, 37 (NRSV)
7. Luke 1:38 (NRSV)
8. Colossians 1:15, 19-20 (NRSV)
9. John 1:1, 14 (NRSV)
10. Matthew 1:18-25 (NRSV)
11. Matthew 1:22-23 (NRSV)
12. Malachi 4:2 (NRSV)
13. Philippians 2:6-8 (CEB)
14. John 3:16 (NRSV)
15. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 (NRSV)
16. John 10:10 (NRSV)

The Annunciation to the Shepherds was painted by Benjamin Gerritsz Cuyp in the 1600s.