This week we look another Vajda-Schalk collaboration. The basis for this hymn are the poor shepherds who kept watch over their flocks at night. Vajda also uses the Old Testament to describe the Messiah who fulfills the prophecies made about him.
The hymn is set the Carl Schalk tune, "Manger Song." This is a peaceful tune, no doubt it could be used as a lullaby. And isn't a lullaby an appropriate song for a baby born in a manger? Many of our Christmas hymns have that quiet, serene quality to them. They also have a quiet awe about them.
1.
Where shepherds lately knelt and kept the angel's word,
I come in half-belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;
But there is room and welcome there for me,
But there is room and welcome there for me.2.
In that unlikely place I find him as they said:
Sweet newborn Babe, how frail! And in a manger bed,
A still small voice to cry one day for me,
A still small voice to cry one day for me.3.
How should I not have known Isaiah would be there,
His prophecies fulfilled? With pounding heart I stare:
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me,
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me.4.
Can I, will I forget how Love was born, and burned
It's way into my heart unasked, unforced, unearned,
To die, to live, and not alone for me,
To die, to live, and not alone for me.
You may notice that Vajda uses repetition. In this hymn he repeats the last thought of each verse twice. (Last week we saw two hymns that repeated a single word: "Now" and "Then.")
Vajda goes back to that hill in Judea, that inn in Bethlehem, that stable with its now-famous manger by that inn. There is irony in this hymn. He places himself as a pilgrim coming with the shepherds, seemingly half-believing what the angel had just told them. The first verse is an ironic twist to Luke's statement: "And she laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Vajda tells us that for him there is room in this baby's Kingdom for him, and not only room, but he is welcome to be there. That is a nice twist on Luke's account, no?
In verse two Vajda mentions the unlikeliness of finding a royal baby where he found him-in a manger, where animals eat. And the God of the universe as a baby needing the care and protection of the parents he created? How unlikely! But that's what Vajda tells us he finds in God's Word, a "still, small voice to cry one day for me." One can imagine the reflection back to Elijah who sought God's voice. Elijah listened to a fierce wind, a raging fire, and loud thunder, but did not hear God's voice. Instead Elijah heard God's voice in a still, small voice. And even today God speaks in a still, small voice. He speaks through his Word and his Sacraments. Simple things, really, but simple things that harness the quiet power of God.
