When I was a small child I thought we were singing "We three kings of Orion Tar . . ." and that it somehow fitted in with the tar baby in the fairy story. I knew there was a "Baby" involved, so it was logical to my infant mind, but I confess I missed the plot of the origin of the wise men.
When I could read I saw that We Three Kings were in fact "of Orient" origins, but that just placed them somewhere near Leyton Orient, for I was a football (soccer) fan. Then I gradually learned through more reading and listening that they were from the East, as in east of the land of Israel. It took time---line upon line---before I worked out that the wise men (not kings any longer, that was a bit misleading, and probably more than three in number) were indeed prophets (see Revelation 19:10) who knew from scripture prophecies of the Birth of the Christ Child. They came to adore Him, and I came to identify with their deep feelings for Him.
It is easy to miss the true picture and the real story, especially in lyrics of songs, or carols, or hymns, or in scripture, especially when familiarity can obscure the real meaning, and we get left with just our familiar traditional understanding, never correcting it or adding to it for a better realisation.
I am reminded of the Yorkshireman who attended a concert of Handel's "Messiah" and was convinced the choir was singing of a partiality for a good piece of mutton when they sang "All we like sheep". . . ! A close look at Isaiah 53:6, in context of the whole Messianic chapter, will show his mistake.
We have spoken earlier of the profound doctrine in the line, "The hopes and fears of all the years, / Are met in thee tonight", O Little Town of Bethlehem. What hopes? What fears? Why, if Jesus were not born, and if He did not fulfill His mission and commission, the whole family of mankind, as well as the whole of Creation, would perish and collapse under the weight of the Fall of Adam that was already in place. Every soul baptized for a remission of sins prior to His coming --- in "hopes" of a future redemption by Jesus --- would have the hopes dashed forever. Every soul who was translated (Moses, Elijah, and others) would have to be untranslated and returned to a lost and fallen condition with no future hope of rescue. "Hopes" indeed. . . . "Fears" indeed!
Was the angel who came "unto him from heaven, strengthening him" in His Gethsemane ordeal someone who had an extreme vested interest in the outcome of this suffering in the Garden? Someone who perhaps drank from another bitter cup in an earlier Garden, that mankind might be? Could this angel have been "mighty Michael, who foremost fell that man might be", in the words of Elder Bruce R. McConkie? Michael is Adam, we learn from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Also. ". . . Where meek souls will receive him, still / The dear Christ enters in." Again, the true meaning of Christmas --- to receive the Christ, the heavenly gift. Notice, not "shall receive him, still . . . ." It is not inevitable or automatic. "Where meek souls will receive him, still . . . ." It must be according to the free will of each soul. That suggests a wise use of the agency (the power to act, not just to choose) on the part of each individual soul.
These are profound truths, they are among "the very points of his doctrine" that are so vital for us to know so that we "may know how to come unto him and be saved."
Elsewhere, "Mild he lays his glory by" (we spoke last week that He "emptied Himself" to divest Himself of all His premortal knowledge and so forth---then He gained it all back as He learned and was obedient to His Father's will, so that by age twelve He knew again), / "Born that man no more may die; / Born to raise the sons of earth [the bodies of Adam, Eve, and all their posterity (us) are made from the dust of the earth], / Born to give them second birth. . . ." How clearly the holy scriptures, and inspired hymns, speak of the need for fallen, mortal man to be born again, born into the family of Jesus Christ (their "Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" --- see Isaiah 9:6), to become His sons and daughters in a new birth. Baptism itself is the death and burial and raising out of water to a new life of all who submit to it. The Prophet taught, "Being born again, comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 162).
Our sacrament hymns are teaching in so many instances the same doctrines---"the very points of his doctrine." Consider: ". . . A broken law to satisfy. . . ." (Hymn 191), ". . . A broken law to recompense." . . . (Hymn 187), " . . . And thus dispelled the awful gloom / That else were this creation's doom" (Hymn 174) . . . . All speak of Creation --- Fall --- Atonement, the three great doctrinal pillars of eternity. There are dozens of other examples of the very points of this core doctrine of Christ appearing in our sacrament hymns.
We have been trying to make the point ("the very point") that Christmas need not be just one day a year, that indeed every Sabbath --- His holy day --- can bring the Christmas story to our remembrance, for the Sabbath story is the Christmas story, and unless we recognize this we do not really appreciate either day, nor indeed Him, and what He has done for us.
What were we each doing one hundred years ago? . . . We were somewhere, as individual souls, doing something. . . . Did we know better there and then of these eternal truths than we know now?
We did. . . . Our great need is to remember. How to remember? How can we recall, recall, recall, like a distant echo? Notice! The scriptures "have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls" (see also John 14:26; D&C 130:18--19; Revelation 12:7--11, and so on). The scriptures speak of "a new song". Do you think there was ever an "old song"? Just as the "new and everlasting covenant" is the old covenant revealed anew, so the old song is the new song, the song of the salvation of our God and His Christ. Here is the key question: do we know the words of the song, so that we can sing it? Or do we unconsciously interpose the words of a favorite folk song or blues song, or rap lyrics (perish the thought!) because we have forgotten the words? Where will we find the words of "the song of redeeming love"?
Why do we sing at the end of each old year, and the start of each New Year, "Auld Lang Syne"? The three-word title is of Scottish origin, probably penned by Robert Burns, and it literally means, "Old Long Since," evoking past associations, friendships, and loves, and recalling by extension a golden age of peace and harmony and wonderful, clear understanding and hope, a Zion society.
Someone said, along these same lines: "I have spent my life stringing and unstringing my instrument, and the song I came here to sing remains unsung."
Happy New Year, beloved family and friends! --- for the sake of Old Long Since. . . .
Steve
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