Come, Christmas Child

Music by Ron Klusmeier
Words by Shirley Erena Murray
Tune Name: INVERCARGILL

Lyrics as Poetry

Come, Christmas Child,
come again in your wonder,

changing the world with the light that you hold;
burst through the mist and the dust of the ages,
Word for our time to unwrap and unfold.
Come, Christmas Child.
Come, again Christmas Child.
Oh, come, Christmas Child.

Come to be born in a comfortless cradle,
come where our cruelties keep us in chains:
Herod still hunts for our innocent children,
Rachel still weeps and her sorrow remains.
Come, Christmas Child.
Come, again Christmas Child.
Oh, come, Christmas Child.

Bring us your mirror of hope and compassion,
bring us your mindset that mends and restores,
bake us the bread of new life you will offer,
knocking once more on humanity’s doors.
Come, Christmas Child.
Come, again Christmas Child.
Oh, come, Christmas Child.

Come, Christmas Child, in the festival’s flurry,
come in the silence, the pain and the night,
come in the hearts that are faithful as Mary,
bringing the joy of the love you invite.
Come, Christmas Child.
Come, again Christmas Child.
Oh, come, Christmas Child.


Words by
Shirley Erena MurrayCopyright © 2013 by Hope Publishing Company
Carol Stream, Illinois • USA

Comments About Song


A Reflection by
WALTER FARQUHARSON

This isn’t a carol that is likely to be added to the “Favourite Songs of Christmas” list. Many who hear it will dislike it with passion. It’s a spoiler, messing up tinsel and snowflakes, jingling bells and angels singing sweetly.

Over many years I have heard worshippers complain bitterly when the story of the holy family’s flight to Egypt as refugees has been read from the gospel of Matthew. Many worship leaders and scholars have been happy to worry about the historical accuracy of the story and happy to clip it out of lectionaries on that basis.

When I first read this carol written by Shirley Erena Murray, I thought: This is a courageous song. It needs to be sung. It needs to be heard if we are serious at all about the meaning of the Christmas story and the contemporaneous nature of the Christmas story. This moves the story from the comfort of being past event and safe sanctuary drama to the place where it belongs. That place is the real world where Rachel still weeps for her children, where too many tyrannies hold sway, where political expediency trumps concern for justice for marginalized, forgotten and abused people. It moves the story also into a world where hard decisions are made, dangerous journeys undertaken, and where we rely on small acts of compassion and flickering candles of hope.

We can all catalogue occasions when the Rachels of the world have wept, or are weeping, for their children and for the children of others, many lost, displaced, victims of violence at home or on the streets, homeless, starving, tossed aside during raging epidemics, denied access to health services and education, nameless.

Into this world comes this word – “Word for our time to unwrap and unfold”. Never have we needed this Christmas message more urgently. Never has it been so essential that we pay attention to what it means that God’s word, intention and purpose takes flesh and dwells among us. God’s presence is no casual visitation, not a passing through, not a tourist’s stop. Pause in your reading, friend, pause and absorb these words and their implications, “Dwells among us”.

We are called to join in this prayer:

“Come Christmas Child.
Bring us your mirror of hope and compassion,
bring us your mindset that mends and restores,
bake us the bread of new life you will offer,
knocking once more on humanity’s door.
Come Christmas Child.”

An Activity: Consider what Rachel or Rachels come to your mind as you think of “Rachel weeping for her children.” Don’t make a list; that’s too easy. Think of a Rachel or one group of Rachels. Hear her crying, hear her lament. Try to place yourself where you hear as God in love hears. What can you do – what small or larger things can you do for the Rachel(s) you hear? We are the ears and voice, the hands and feet of Christ in and for the world. What can you do? Today? Tomorrow?


AUDIO SAMPLE:
"Come, Christmas Child"

This Audio Sample is the entire selection with a double final refrain as sung by the Norval (Ontario) United Church Virtual Choir with leadership and engineering by Tom Auger.

Scripture References

  • Matthew 2:13-18
  • Luke 1:39-56
  • John 1:1-5
  • John 1:14
  • John 13:31-35

Season, Theme
or Subject

  • Advent
  • Birth, Birthing
  • Bread
  • Christmas
  • Christmas Eve
  • Compassion
  • Door, Doors
  • Faith
  • Festive, Festival
  • Heal, Healing
  • Here-and-nowness
  • Herod
  • Hope
  • Jesus∶ birth
  • Joy
  • Life∶ new life
  • Light
  • Mary (mother of Jesus)
  • Nativity
  • Rachel
  • Relationships
  • Trust
  • Wonder
  • Word

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