Christmas Hymn: The Morning After Jesus' Birth

Here is a hymn for this Christmas season. If you download the graphic, it should be large enough to reproduce well.

 
The morning after Jesus’ birth
no angels hovered near the earth;
the shepherds left to tend their sheep
and Bethlehem awoke from sleep.
The world was changed when Jesus came,
and yet, too much remains the same
as evil seems to keep its hold,
despite what prophet songs foretold.

We sing the angels’ song of peace
and wait for rage and war to cease.
And wait, with faith the world finds odd,
to greet the promised reign of God.
That reign is here, but upside-down,
for Jesus claimed no earthly crown
and shunned the use of hate and might
to turn the world from wrong to right.

At times that reign is hard to see,
and not where we would have it be.
It grows among the poor and weak
in places most refuse to seek.
As seeds take root in barren ground
so can the reign of God be found,
for Love has come and blossoms still
when we have faith and do God’s will.


LMD; suggested tune: YE BANKS AND BRAES
Adam M. L. Tice, December 7, 2016; ©GIA Publications, Inc.


Comments

  1. It's a little fuzzy once printed, any chance that can be fixed with another version?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok, I've uploaded it in a different format--see if that looks better.

      Delete
  2. I'll see what I can do. Blogspot puts size limits on file uploads, and doesn't allow PDFs as far as I can tell.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let Speeches Fall Silent--a hymn after the Orlando massacre

The Son of God Became a Refugee (additions)

Contemplating Craft and Psalms