Sabbathought: What is "The First Noel" all about?

Many times to get to the root of important doctrine we must first find the root of key words. "Noel" is such a word. If we go root-deep into its meaning it will yield rich fruits, and will bring together in one many gospel truths found in the Sabbathoughts this year. Vade mecum (Go with me):

John Ayto's Dictionary of Word Origins [1990] is a treasure trove for this kind of search. He sends us to "native" as the root word of Noel: Native is one of a large family of words from the Latin verb nasci, to "be born" . . . a descendant of the base gen--, gn-- to "produce", which also gives us gene, general, generate, genesis, and so forth.

The past participle stem of nasci gives us nat-- to lead us into natal (as in pre-natal, post-natal), nature, natural, native, nativity. From this same root we get nascent, cognate, nation, naive (as in "born yesterday", explains Ayto!), pregnant, renaissance, innate, and noel. Also, the name Natalie . . . .

All have to do with birth or natural-born condition. This has perhaps been a little heavy, a bit of a scholarly chase, but we can train ourselves to see a pattern in all of it, to synthesize, to bring it all together in one, to see at-one-ment in it all.

To go a little further:

Latter-day Saints are familiar with this phrase from the angel to king Benjamin: "For the natural man is an enemy to God . . . ." Notice, not an enemy of God, but an enemy to God. That is significant. Man in his natural state---lost, fallen, carnal, sensual, devilish, without God in the world---is in a state that is inimical to God.

This from Alma clarifies and explains: "All men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness."

This state is a problem deep and real. But it is deliberate and purposeful. It opens the way for a redeemer, without Whom all is lost. Thus we arrive at Christmas, at the Christmas Story.

"The hopes and fears / Of all the years / Are met in thee tonight", O little town of Bethlehem, in the Birth of thy little Child. We could use the same words in connection with the Garden of Gethsemane thirty-three years later.

What hopes? What fears? Well, the hope of eternal life, the hope of rescue and salvation from the grim conditions of this fallen, miserable world. (We are not being gloomy or negative, we describe things as they really are.) What fears? The dominant fear that . . . well, what if He does not show up? Or, having shown up, what if He does not come through, and shrinks from the task of the awful Atonement? What if He says, "Father, remove from me this cup"?

But He did show up. And He did come through. He stayed true to His mission. He lost Himself in the mortal necessity of mankind's hopes and fears. And at such terrible cost. When we speak of God's life we say "eternal life." When we speak of a God suffering---unto the shedding of His blood---we speak of "eternal suffering" or "endless suffering." It is too astonishing to grasp fully.

From Brother Robert J. Matthews: "In my opinion, the kind of faith necessary for salvation, the kind of faith spoken of in the Lectures on Faith, cannot be achieved if one views Jesus Christ and His excruciating atonement, bleeding at every pore, as simply an act of major convenience.

"As I read the Book of Mormon I get the message that the effects of the Fall on mankind are so severe and dominating, coupled with our own sins, that unless we are redeemed by One more powerful than all mankind combined, we will not be redeemed at all. The power of self-redemption is not in fallen man.

"I believe that saving faith requires that a person be completely convinced that he is entirely dependent upon Jesus Christ, and Him only, for every shred of salvation. Without Him all is lost. The slightest reservation about the absolute necessity of Christ's atonement is injurious to one's spiritual health, and one's perfect faith and knowledge. I see no compromise on this point. Our relation to Christ is crucial, not casual. It is a necessity, not an option" (BYU, 1989).

So, The First Noel . . . Nativity, natural man, the native needs mankind has through the Fall . . . the Birth, the necessary rebirth, the hopes and fears of all the years met in little Bethlehem and in this birth of Christ in the meridian, the hinge, the fulcrum of time. And we move from B.C. to A.D. in the way we count the years, as a small, often unnoticed, tribute to Him.

How silently, how silently / The wondrous Gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts / The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming; / But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still / The dear Christ enters in.

And thus we see our job, our gift to Him at Christmas: to "receive Him." To take Him so deep into our souls that He comes out in our walk and talk.

I see it as no accident that in our LDS hymnbook the sacrament hymns are immediately followed by the Easter hymns, and then straightaway by a dozen or so Christmas hymns, and then by a trio of New Year hymns. Synthesize all of this together and we have our true context as Saints of the Last Days.

I for one affirm these things to be deep and marvelous and life-giving in their truth.

God bless us all at this Special Season.

Steve