Rethinking Merry Gentlemen and Other Carols

A few years ago I was listening to Christmas music when the traditional carol came on, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” and I found myself thinking, Who cares if the gentlemen are merry? I had probably had a conversation that day with a woman in prison who was abused from early childhood, or one whose six-year-old son had run away from home on Thanksgiving morning. Shouldn’t we be singing about the children? I wondered. The gentlemen can surely take care of themselves.

Questioning what we sing–especially in this season–is nothing new. The beloved Christmas song “O Holy Night,” which originated in France, was once reviled among some, because its lyrics were written by a man with socialist leanings and its tune was by a Jew. This song was retrieved in the United States, largely because of an abolitionist, John Sullivan Dwight, who appreciated the third verse, whose words he translated in the way we still sing them:

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.

It obviously took an abolitionist to appreciate these words. (As a prison pastor, I like them a lot, too.) If they had only come to the attention of a Southern slave-holder, we likely would never have known this moving song.

To take a more modern example, I wonder if you’re aware of the different ways “Mary, Did You Know” is being talked about these days. Despite the endearing tune and deep truth that gets expressed in this song, some of us have been bothered by what someone described as “mansplaining” to Mary the mother of Jesus the import of her pregnancy. If we’ve read the first chapter of Luke (like, say, Luke 1.26-56), it’s right there! She was told, and she repeated, the truth of what God was doing through her! It’s why I laughed–through tears–a year ago when someone posted this meme on Facebook:

We sang those words last year at the prison, because they were too good to ignore. But if I were to do it again, I might use this different version by Jennifer Henry, a Canadian Anglican, that I saw for the first time this week:

Mary did you know,
 that your ancient words
 would still leap off our pages?
 Mary did you know,
 that your spirit song
 would echo through the ages?
 Did you know that your holy cry
 would be subversive word,
 that the tyrants would be trembling
 when they know your truth is heard?

You can find the rest of this version here. Seriously, I hope you’ll consider it. It matters what we say when we sing. It matters how we honor, or dishonor, the experience of women, and children, or slaves, or criminals. It matters whether we keep everything neat and tidy or whether we go to the heart of what God is doing in the world.

Years ago I remember reading, to my surprise, that “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” originally contained a stanza that doesn’t show up in most hymnals or recordings of this beloved carol. Here’s that missing verse; I wonder if you’ll feel its pinch:

 Yet with the woes of sin and strife
 The world has suffered long;
 Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
 Two thousand years of wrong;
 And man, at war with man, hears not
 The love-song which they bring;
 O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
 And hear the angels sing.

Come to think about it, we probably don’t want our freshly scrubbed children’s faces singing these words on Christmas Eve, on the way to opening long-awaited brightly wrapped packages, right?

Or maybe it’s exactly what we need to be singing.

This is just one of many times that our hymnody has been sanitized to remove some of the more harsh aspects of human experience. For another example, compare the version of “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” that we’re invited to sing at page 57 of The United Methodist Hymnal with the full text of that hymn, written by Charles Wesley, which you’ll find at page 58. Whew!

Which brings me back to “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” I found myself wondering what it would look like to sing this with a different emphasis. What if we named the hope that children–and, indeed, all of us–could be merry, safe, protected, and loved, and if we claimed the truth that Christ came for exactly that to happen?

I undertook to write those words, in place of the ones we typically sing. In doing that, I quickly discovered that I am no hymnwriter. Goodness–that’s a hard job! My version is set out below, which I’m happy for you to use if you wish (with attribution!), but what I really hope is that it might spur a better hymnwriter to undertake this task. (Jennifer Henry, we need you!) What if our Christmas hymns were more foolishly honest about what Jesus is coming among us to do?

God Rest You Merry, Children
alternate words by Lee Roorda Schott, © 2019

God rest you merry, chil-dren, in safety you shall sleep
 for Jesus came to be with us, our dignity to keep
 to save us all from evil’s power, with justice wide and deep
 O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
 O tidings of comfort and joy.

 Unsettle all the gentlemen and ladies as they sing
 Next door are hurting people they’ve forgotten how to see
 As Christmas dawns renew our care for those God comes to free
 O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
 O tidings of comfort and joy.

 God, topple every power that depends on hate and fear
 Change every heart that wounds and breaks, and bring compassion near
 so every night is ho-ly and everyone is dear
 O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
 O tidings of comfort and joy.

 Now to the Lord sing praises, wherever we may be
 Trust that our God will fi-nish this work in you and me
 that we might all be mer-ry in true community
 O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
 O tidings of comfort and joy.