My Favourite Christmas Carols - No 5

Just ten days to go!

This year I've decided to come clean about Christmas Carols.  You could never guess which ones I like by what I choose for services for those choices are constrained by all kinds of factors.  So yesterday as I played stoically through another Bethlehem Carol Sheet's worth of carols in a local shopping centre as we gave out Christmas invitations I decided I'd think through my favourites. 

 

In the event it was surprisingly easy. 

 

In fifth place is a carol that I like for several reasons. 

---

We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

 

O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

 

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

 

Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.

 

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

 

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

 

 

Here is an interesting version: 

 

 

Mungo Jerry shows one reason I like it - the tune, which is rhythmically memorable both in the minor key (the verses) and the major key (chorus) and very adaptable - it works fast and slow, loud and soft or both.  Some carols have VERY boring tunes.

 

More surprisingly MJ also grasp some of the song's theology by the way they portray the death and resurrection of Christ near the end.  And that's what I love about this interpretive carol.  Whilst we may argue whether the gifts meant exactly all that Hopkins claims it has depth and truth and points the singer to the cross and resurrection, to the Saviour and to the Gospel.

 

What more could you ask of a carol?