Oh Come let us adore Christ
Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) William Wordsworth sounds the warning: Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Misshapes the beauteous forms of things: We murder to dissect . Dissecting Christmas carols can be musical murder. Unless the disassembly fits together again more beautifully and more fully felt. That’s my goal. “O Come All Ye Faithful” is near the top of my favorites. As I ponder why, I see it’s because of three marriages in this carol. Heaven and Earth First is the marriage of heaven and earth. Of course, that is what Christmas is: “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” But this glorious fact is not what I have in mind. What captures my attention here is that, as we sing, we summon all the faithful on earth to come, and we summon choirs of angels to come — both to see and adore Christ . Verse 1: “O come, all ye faithful. . .” Verse 3: “Sing, choirs of angels . . .” And so the “us”