Andrew Wilson on Christmas

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (December 2025) it’s It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Joys That Make the Season Special by Andrew Wilson – taking us to the first Christmas to show that what can make our Christmases truly special is Jesus, the light of the world – which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Shepherds, Rejoice!

Even though it’s not strictly a Christmas carol, Isaac Watts’ ’Joy to the World’ is familiar to many. The one below by him is not so well known. I like that it tells a story of sorts. The first two stanzas are spoken by the angel Gabriel, then comes the response of the heavenly choir in stanza three, followed by our call to praise in stanza four.

‘Shepherds, rejoice! lift up your eyes

And send your fears away;

News from the region of the skies:

Salvation’s born today!

Jesus, the God whom angels fear,

Comes down to dwell with you;

Today he makes his entrance here,

But not as monarchs do.

‘No gold, nor purple swaddling bands,

Nor royal shining things;

A manger for his cradle stands,

And holds the King of kings.

Go, shepherds, where the Infant lies,

And see his humble throne;

With tears of joy in all your eyes,

Go, shepherds, kiss the Son.’

Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around

The heavenly armies throng;

They tune their harps to lofty sound

And thus conclude the song:

‘Glory to God that reigns above,

Let peace surround the earth;

Mortals shall know their Maker’s love

At their Redeemer's birth.’

Lord! and shall angels have their songs

And men no tunes to raise?

O may we lose these useless tongues

When they forget to praise!

‘Glory to God that reigns above,

That pitied us forlorn!’

We join to sing our Maker’s love,

For there’s a Saviour born.

Words by Isaac Watts (1674–1748).

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The carol we know and sing is based on an earlier version written by Charles Wesley (1707-88), with some adaptation by others along the way, including George Whitefield (1714-70). The version below has variations on fourth and fifth verses, now hardly ever sung, but which are theologically rich. This remains one of my favourite carols.

Hark! The herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!’

Joyful, all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

With the angelic host proclaim,

‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Christ, by highest Heaven adored;

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time, behold Him come,

Offspring of a virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Risen with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by,

Born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

’Glory to the newborn King!’

Come, Desire of nations, come,

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving power,

Ruined nature now restore;

Now in mystic union join

Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,

Stamp Thine image in its place:

Second Adam from above,

Reinstate us in Thy love.

Let us Thee, though lost, regain,

Thee, the Life, the inner man:

O, to all Thyself impart,

Formed in each believing heart.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Advent Devotionals

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (December 2023) it’s an Advent Devotional which is available in exchange for an email address and a short quiz here.

Centre for Public Christianity (December 2022)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has this month posted some ‘Life and Faith’ podcast episodes:

• A Christmas Classic – ‘Simon Smart, Justine Toh, and Natasha Moore to talk Christmas movies past and present: the films that stand the test of time and those that don’t; the borderline cases that feature Christmas but may or may not count as Christmas movies; and some new contenders for the title of Christmas classic. ’

• Everyday Economics – ‘This week on Life & Faith we speak to Jonathan Cornford about his family's quest for the simple life and why it makes good spiritual and material sense to live within limits.’

• Culture Making with Andy Crouch – ‘Andy Crouch believes that all humans are called to be culture makers: people who make culture or who are drawn to make something of the world. This creative calling is for everyone, he says, not just the creatives or the entrepreneurs among us. It's a rich vision.’

All praise to Thee, Eternal Lord

I have fond memories of singing this in a makeshift choir which got together annually to sing some of the lesser-known carols, of which this was one my favourites.

All praise to Thee, Eternal Lord,

Clothed in a garb of flesh and blood;

Choosing a manger for Thy throne,

While worlds on worlds are Thine alone.

Once did the skies before Thee bow;

A virgin’s arms contain Thee now,

While angels, who in Thee rejoice,

Now listen for Thine infant voice.

A little Child, Thou art our Guest,

That weary ones in Thee may rest;

Forlorn and lowly is Thy birth;

That we may rise to Heaven from earth.

Thou comest in the darksome night

To make us children of the light;

To make us, in the realms divine,

Like Thine own angels round Thee shine.

All this for us Thy love hath done;

By this to Thee our love is won;

For this we tune our cheerful lays,

And sing our thanks in ceaseless praise.

Words are ascribed to Martin Luther, translated into English by an unknown author.

Centre for Public Christianity (December 2021)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has this month posted a ‘Life and Faith’ podcast (here) with the team talking about Christmas – ‘the food, the gifts, the traditions, the family time – and what any of it has to do with the original story’.

Also posted (here) is an interview with theologian Sarah Coakley on ‘the problem of desire’, or ‘our relationship to sex, food, money, the body, and God’.

The Unexpected Guest

I wrote this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

When does Christmas start in your household? At what point is it socially acceptable to put up your tree and start playing Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ at full pelt?

With the regularity of a liturgical calendar, the Christmas adverts on TV arguably mark the beginning of the festive period for many of us. Nowadays, the Christmas ad is as much a part of the season as Boxing Day sales, broken toys, and left-over turkey.

Although it’s perhaps lost something of its lustre over the years, the John Lewis ad is still something of a benchmark. This year’s – ‘Unexpected Guest’ – sees our young hero befriending an alien who has crash-landed their ship in his local woods.

Overcoming his initial hesitancy, he introduces the visitor to the delights of the season: wearing novelty jumpers, eating mince pies, throwing snowballs, watching schmaltzy films. And all to a stripped-back cover of the 1984 classic, ‘Together in Electric Dreams’, the tale of friendship reaching a climax with the lyric ‘love never ends’.

The ad’s tagline – ‘For a Christmas as magical as your first’ – interprets their story for us, inviting us to reach back to something more basic, more lasting, more secure.

Where might that be found?

In part, it’s found in that which the ad itself captures – in befriending strangers and sharing traditions. Treating people as unexpected guests rather than unwelcome intrusions makes sense for those who are themselves part of the story in which God loves, Jesus serves, and the Spirit ministers – in self-giving tenderness towards us. Sentiment aside, how might we demonstrate over the festive season, and beyond, a generosity of heart and home?

But in a storyline which raises the possibility of an ‘unexpected guest’ coming to earth, and with a tagline which invites us to rediscover the magic of our ‘first’ Christmas, we might be encouraged to think of the very first Christmas of all.

Whatever we make of Christmas TV ads, the longings they reflect about relationship, togetherness, and harmony come together in the one who is truly able to offer them. It’s not that the sentiments are wrong. It’s that the solution to our sense of lack is located in the wrong place. The ads lay out a need we have that can be met only in the one who came that first Christmas to set in motion a divine rescue plan – Immanuel, God with us.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

The carol we know and sing is based on an earlier version written by Charles Wesley (1707-88), with some adaptation by others along the way, including George Whitefield (1714-70). The version below has variations on fourth and fifth verses, now hardly ever sung, but which are theologically rich. This remains one of my favourite carols.

Hark! The herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!’

Joyful, all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

With the angelic host proclaim,

‘Christ is born in Bethlehem!’

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Christ, by highest Heaven adored;

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time, behold Him come,

Offspring of a virgin’s womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail the incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Risen with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by,

Born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

’Glory to the newborn King!’

Come, Desire of nations, come,

Fix in us Thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display Thy saving power,

Ruined nature now restore;

Now in mystic union join

Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,

Stamp Thine image in its place:

Second Adam from above,

Reinstate us in Thy love.

Let us Thee, though lost, regain,

Thee, the Life, the inner man:

O, to all Thyself impart,

Formed in each believing heart.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

’Glory to the newborn King!’

The Thronging Angels Hailed His Birth

I love this Christmas hymn, even though I’ve never sung it!

The words are by Frank Houghton (1894-1972), who served as General Director of the China Inland Mission (now OMF) between 1940 and 1951.

The thronging angels hailed His birth,

Their chorus woke the morn.

But not for them He came to earth –

‘Unto us a child is born!’

This wondrous Child is of our kin,

Though Lord of earth and heaven,

Redeemer from the curse of sin –

‘Unto us a Son is given.’

For God spared not His only Son,

The Saviour freely came,

Endured until His work was done,

For ‘Jesus’ is His name!

We who have greater cause than they

Acclaim with them the morn,

With angels and archangels say,

‘Hallelujah! Christ is born!’

The Christmas Jesus #4: Given a New Purpose

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham...

Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar...

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth...

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife...

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit...

Having been warned in a dream, he [Joseph] withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 1:1, 3, 5, 6, 18 and 2:22-23

If we had been put in charge of organising the coming of God’s Son into the world, we probably would have done things differently.

For a start, we wouldn’t have included those women in the messianic line. Not only are they women (which is significant), and not only are they Gentiles or associated with Gentiles (which is also significant), but they’re also, as one writer puts it, ‘Mothers on the Margin’. In some respects, they anticipate the whiff of sexual scandal surrounding Mary’s childbearing, reminding us that God doesn’t always work out his purpose within the boundaries of public respectability.

Their inclusion sends out a signal that God can be found on the margins, using people with dubious records, people without the normal trappings of status and power, but who might – like some of Jesus’ grandmothers – be right at the centre of his amazing plan for the world.

Issues of power and status continue into Matthew 2, where the contrast is not only between two ‘kings’ – Jesus and Herod – but between those who have power, like Herod and the religious elite, and those who are apparently powerless and insignificant, like pagan astrologers, like children under two years old who can be wiped out at someone else’s whim, like Joseph and Mary who are forced to become refugees and then residents of backwater Nazareth.

Jesus’ coming rewrites the messianic script, challenging ideas of social status and power in the process – born under a cloud of sexual impropriety, taken as a refugee to Egypt, living as a ridiculed Nazarene, dying as a criminal on a Roman cross.

Although we might not immediately think of it this way, it’s a reminder that belonging to Jesus gives us a new purpose. God is working out his plan of salvation for all nations, and – incredibly – he makes us a part of how he brings that about. And that salvation, as we see in the Christmas story, is for people who lack power and status, for people on the margins, for people with sexual scandal in their histories, for people with dodgy backgrounds, for people for whom things haven’t quite worked out the way they hoped they would, for people like you and me.

Because of who he is and how he comes to us, the Christmas Jesus transforms the way we think about ourselves and others, and about church and mission. As 2019 ends and as 2020 starts and unfolds, let’s worship this Jesus – to his own glory.

The Christmas Jesus #2: Brought into a New Family

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham...

Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar...

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth...

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife...

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’

Matthew 1:1, 3, 5, 6 and 2:1-2

The persecution of Christians in China has steadily increased in recent months. President Xi Jinping has embarked upon a campaign to bring religion in China under the control of the Communist Party. Church leaders who have refused to sign agreements binding them to government regulations have been forced out of their homes and their churches have been closed. They have felt unable to declare that love for the homeland must be greater than love for the church and its Lord. For them, some alliances come before other alliances.

For us, too, the ties that unite us to Christ and to each other are stronger and ultimately more lasting than those which unite us to people in our own country, political party, even family.

In the closing scene of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ followers are to ‘make disciples of all nations’ (28:19) – Gentiles as well as Jews. But right from his opening page, Matthew shows us that Jesus comes for the whole world.

We see it in the birth of this ‘son of Abraham’: God is finally making good on the promise he made to Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed. We see it in the women in Jesus’ family tree – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba – foreigners to Israel who came within the orbit of the people of God. We see it, perhaps most clearly of all, in the worship of the Magi. If anything, these star-gazing, horoscope fanatics represent the lowest rung of gentile idolatry and religious hocus-pocus. And yet, these are the ones who follow the star, find the king, and offer him worship.

Whether it’s the promise made to Abraham, the foreignness of the women in Jesus’ ancestry, or the worship of the Magi, Jesus’ mission of saving his people from their sins will reach beyond the borders of Israel to embrace the whole world.

And we, too, are brought into this new family.

Once again, it works the other way round from what we might expect. God is not on the sidelines, desperately longing for us to invite him into our families so that he can get a piece of our action. Rather, he invites us into his bigger family! And as strong as the links are in our families, our links with each other in the family of the Christmas Jesus are stronger still – the family which forms our identity, the family in which all are included.

The Christmas Jesus #1: Included in a New Story

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers...

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Matthew 1:1-2, 17

One of the main ways we understand life is through stories. We each have our own personal story. Our families have a family story. Our church has a story. Our nation has a story. Stories embody the values of the groups to which we belong. They shape how we think about things in everyday life, such as money and friendships and family and food and sex and everything else.

For Christians, the most crucial story for our identity, for shaping the way we think and live, is the biblical story – God’s story. And when we become a Christian, God’s story becomes our story.

It’s tempting to think that being a Christian involves inviting God into a little part of our story, where we give God an occasional walk-on part in the drama of our life – the ‘religious’ part of our life. But it’s not like that at all. God calls us into the bigger story that he is weaving. And it’s God’s story that shapes how we think about things in everyday life, such as money and friendships and family and food and sex and everything else.

The Christmas story reminds us that God calls us to be a part of the bigger story that he is working out.

Matthew begins his gospel by telling us that Jesus stands at the heart of this epic tale the Bible tells, and that he brings the whole story to its goal. His opening phrase – ‘This is the genealogy of’ – would remind Jewish readers of similar phrases in the early chapters of Genesis. Matthew is placing the story he’s about to tell in the larger story of God’s dealings – not just with Israel, but with the whole of creation. It’s Jesus who is the promised son of Abraham who will bring blessing to the whole world. It’s Jesus who is the promised son of David who has come to be king over his people. He is the one towards whom the story of Israel and the nations and the whole of creation has been moving.

By God’s grace, we are included in this story. As Christians, we find our identity, with others, in the one who stands at the heart of God’s plan for the universe – the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Messiah, the true king, the true Israel, the Saviour, the one who saves his people from their sins, Emmanuel, God with us.

Ink 4 (Winter 2019)

The fourth issue of ink, published by Tyndale House, Cambridge, is now available, this one including a special focus on ‘Confidence in Christmas: How the birth story stands up to scholarly scrutiny’.

UK residents can sign up here to receive issues through the post, but the publication is also available as a pdf here.

The Bible Project on Luke 1-2

The team at the Bible Project has produced a series of helpful videos walking through Luke’s gospel. The one for chapters 1-2 is here, on events surrounding the birth of Jesus, highlighting how ‘the humble conditions of his family and their low status in Israelite society foreshadow the upside-down nature of Jesus’ kingdom’.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

This year’s Christmas hymn (an annual feature of this blog!) is a paraphrase by Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885) of a text that has been used by the church since the late fourth century, the Liturgy of St. James.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

and with fear and trembling stand;

ponder nothing earthly minded,

for with blessing in His hand

Christ our God to earth descendeth,

our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,

as of old on earth He stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture,

in the body and the blood;

He will give to all the faithful

His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven

spreads its vanguard on the way,

as the Light of light descendeth

from the realms of endless day,

that the pow’rs of hell may vanish

as the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six-winged seraph,

cherubim, with sleepless eye,

veil their faces to the Presence,

as with ceaseless voice they cry,

‘Alleluia, alleluia!

Alleluia, Lord most high!’