Singing Shepherds (GH Day 24)

Christmas is here, and it’s the most musical time of the year for a lot of folks. I love playing Christmas music and singing Christmas songs: everything from “The Holly and the Ivy” to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” What a shame that we only get to enjoy these wonderful carols and classics once a year!

In July, I introduced George Herbert’s poem “Christmas,” focusing on the first half. In a twist on the nativity story, the narrator is a worn-out rider seeking lodging who is welcomed by an innkeeper. The narrator then turns around and asks for his soul to be made a lodging for the infant Lord (in place of the manger).

In the second half of the poem, we leave the Mary/Joseph/inn/stable story behind and focus, at least initially, on the shepherds:

THE shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
                      My God, no hymne for thee?

My soul’s a shepherd too: a flock it feeds
                      Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is thy word; the streams, thy grace
                      Enriching all the place.
 

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
                      Out-sing the day-light houres.
Then we will chide the sunne for letting night
                      Take up his place and right:

We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
                      Himself the candle hold. (lines 1-12 of “Christmas” part 2)

Welsh sheep

Just as he had, to some extent, taken on the characteristics of a weary Mary, the beasts (“brutish”) in the stable, and the manger in the opening sonnet of “Christmas,” Herbert’s speaker now assumes the place of the shepherds. 

In the nativity story (particularly the Luke 2 passage), it is the angels singing (although really there’s no mention of them singing, only speaking), but Herbert puts his twist on this too: his shepherds are the ones singing. Here Herbert is probably playing on the conventions of Renaissance pastoral poetry, where shepherds do a lot of singing. Yet, his point is that the shepherds (of the nativity and in the pastoral poetry) are known for their songs, so can’t the narrator come up with a song as well?

This begins the analogy of lines 3-7. His soul is a shepherd, his flock is his thoughts, words, and deeds, which feed on the pasture of God’s word and drink from the stream of God’s grace. Inherent in this little analogy is a reflection question: on what are we feeding and from what are we drinking? What is my soul, the core of my being, intentionally looking to for its nourishment?

The mention of thoughts, words, and deeds is a reference to a liturgical confession: we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. Surely Herbert is thinking of his position as well. As the pastor (assuming when Herbert wrote “Christmas” he was already leading the little congregation of St. Andrews at Bemerton, outside Salisbury), he is a shepherd responsible for feeding his flock, his congregation.

So, shepherd and flock—one’s own soul and his thoughts, words, & deeds or the pastor and his congregation—shall sing of our one Lord (lines 7, 11). In another sight twist on the nativity story, which, with the angels and shepherds, takes place at night, Herbert focuses on the sun/Son, who came to bring light to the world (John 1:5, 9). Night no longer can take his (the sun’s/Son’s) place: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light (Isaiah 9:2). Now that’s something to sing about!

Joy: the Now and the Not-Yet (GH Day 23)

It's Christmas time, and during this time the word "joy" pops up frequently. Maybe it's on Christmas decorations on sale in the stores ("JOY"), maybe it's in Christmas carols you hear or sing ("O tidings of comfort and joy," "Joy to the world"), maybe it's written on the Christmas cards you receive ("Wishing you joy in this holiday season"--or something like that). In southern Louisiana it's on the signs wishing everyone a merry Christmas, or "Joyeaux Noel."

What is this joy we wish people during the holidays? Commercials seem to suggest that if we're simply given the right gift at Christmas, then we'll experience this joy. But when has a physical gift you've been given (and think of your favorite gift ever here) truly brought you lasting joy?

George Herbert (of course!) speaks to this problem in the opening stanza of his poem "Man's Medley":

     Hark how the birds do sing,
          And woods do ring:
All creatures have their joy, and man hath his.
     Yet if we rightly measure,
          Man's joy and pleasure
Rather hereafter than in present is.

Even his opening word "Hark" is reminiscent of Christmas time for us (e.g., "Hark, the herald angels sing"). (What other time of year do we use this word? Granted, it's because of Charles Wesley's lyrics 100 years after Herbert, but now "hark" has Christmas time associations for us readers.) Birds & woods (that is, trees, garland, pine sprigs, red berries): these are also associated with Christmas.

Yet in line 3 Herbert draws a contrast for us between the joy experienced by creatures and that experienced by humans. What is different? We humans can never know true joy in this lifetime. It is "[r]ather hereafter" (6), in Heaven, that we can know true joy. No earthly present, no matter how nice it is, no matter the thought that went into it, can give us lasting joy and pleasure.

Lest we give up on experiencing any joy, or "cheer," as Herbert also calls it, he reassures us in stanza 4:

     Not that he may not here
          Taste of the cheer;
But as birds drink, and straight lift up their head,
     So must he sip and think
          Of better drink
He may attain to after he is dead.

Using another word that we associate with Christmas time, "cheer" (line 20), Herbert draws his illustration from nature. Don't get lost in the pleasures of the here-and-now. They are but foretastes of what is to come, the "better drink" (23) of the joys of Heaven.

Of course, as you no doubt know, the Christmas carol, "Joy to the World, the Lord is come," is really pointing us toward this "hereafter": the 2nd advent of Christ, ushering in the joys to be experienced in His kingdom under His rule. So, as we experience the joys of this holiday season with family and friends, let us remember that this present is only a foretaste of the "cheer," "joy," and "pleasure" to come with our spiritual family in Christ.