"O Holy Child, Still Let Thy Birth Bring Peace ..."

It's the second day of Christmastide, and for many people, things have gone back to the way they were before.  There is work to be done, wrapping paper to be recycled, dishes to be washed, and so forth.  The radio stations have stopped playing their version of Christmas tunes 24/7, and for most of the world, the holiday is over.  Yet the Church has seen this holy time differently for centuries, celebrating the nativity of Christ for 12 or 13 days (depending on how you count.)  December 25 rolls around every year, marking the day the Western Church calls to mind the birth of Jesus, but what difference does it really make in our daily lives?  Many great thinkers have pondered that question, including the 13th century German mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart.  Using birth imagery he reflected: 

We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us. 

You already know that Charles Wesley crafted dozens of hymns expressing the wonder of the incarnation, the mystery of the virgin birth, and the change wrought in the human heart as a result, so it comes as no surprise that I am showcasing another one. In this particular hymn, like Eckhart, he calls for God to appear in him -- "In my weak sinful flesh appear, O God, be manifested here."  Wesley rejoices that in Jesus Christ the divine and the human are joined so that we, too might be one with God, crying out for the Word to be incarnate in him, in his flesh, in his heart.  Charles Wesley paints no sentimental picture of the sweetly sleeping infant; he instead creates a theological act of praise that seeks nothing less than the very fullness of God to come to him and to all people because of that child's life and eventual death and resurrection.  

He concludes his hymn with a plea for Christ to come quickly so that he can be a true witness to the Lord, made holy and perfect in love, in order that he may cry aloud with joy,  'Come in my flesh is Christ, the Word, And I can sin no more!'  And so my Christmas prayer for you is that your post-Christmas Day life is not simply a return to the same old, same old.  I hope that you may be so filled with longing for the life divine to enter into your heart that Christ will be born there again and again.  I pray that you, too will be a witness to the Lord whose kingdom is set up in our hearts, bringing peace to all people upon the earth.  This is what it is to be filled with grace, even as Mary was filled with grace.  This is what it is to be filled with the fullness of the life of Christ.  This is the gift of Christmas.

All-wise, all-good, Almighty Lord,

Jesus, by highest heaven ador’d,
Ere time its course began,
How did thy glorious mercy stoop
To take the fallen nature up,
When thou thyself wert man?

Th’ eternal God from heav’n came down,
The King of Glory dropp’d his crown,
And veil’d his majesty,
Empty’d of all but love he came;
Jesus, I call thee by the name
Thy pity bore for me.

O holy child, still let thy birth
Bring peace to us poor worms on earth,
And praise to God on high!
Come, thou who didst my flesh assume,
Now to the abject sinner come,
And in a manger lie.

Didst thou not in thy person join
The natures human and divine,
That God and man might be
Henceforth inseparably one?
Haste then, and make thy nature known
Incarnated in me.

In my weak sinful flesh appear,
O God, be manifested here,
Peace, righteousness, and joy,
Thy kingdom, Lord, set up within
My faithful heart, and all my sin,
The devil’s works destroy.

I long thy coming to confess
The mystic power of godliness,
The life divine to prove,
The fulness of thy life to know,
Redeem’d from all my sins below,
And perfected in love.

O Christ, my hope, make known in me
The great, the glorious mystery,
The hidden life impart:
Come, thou desire of nations, come,
Form’d in a spotless virgin’s womb,
A pure believing heart.

Come quickly, dearest Lord, that I
May own, tho’ antichrist deny,
Thy incarnation’s power,
May cry, a witness to my Lord,
“Come in my flesh is Christ, the Word,
And I can sin no more!” ~ Charles Wesley