Consider Well...What our Good God has done for us
Consider Well…
What our Good God has done for us.
“Good people all, this Christmas time
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending his beloved son”
These are the opening lyrics of the Wexford Carol. Like many glorious old songs, we don’t really know when or who wrote this carol. Some historians date it back to the 12th century, others the 15th century. It is also called the "The Enniscorthy Carol", named for the Cathedral where it was rediscovered by the church organist and music director, Dr. William Henry Grattan Flood, in the 19th Century.
I love these old haunting carols because they force us to face the questions that surely lurk in the heart of the modern soul. In modern Western society, we celebrate the birth of an illegitimate peasant baby, born to a child bride, birthed in a cattle stall, with ornate lights, gifts, parties, and actual days off of work. Do any of us really stop to consider this dichotomy?! The poorest of the poor in history is celebrated with the most lavish celebrations of the whole calendar year for most Western people. Why?!
That is what this song is asking us to do: “Consider well, and bear in mind.” But do we? What does it really mean for us to remember every year at Christmas that, “In Bethlehem upon that morn; There was a blessed Messiah born.”?
One could easily get in the weeds comparing the theology about the “historical” Jesus, and who he was as a physical human, compared to the divine, mythical “Christ” who was the “light of the world,” as the Gospel of John states. Regardless of what the “facts” say, or the theologians explain, something happened in poverty-stricken Bethlehem 2000 years ago that changed the world. What was it? Was it really that a poor Jewish boy was born? Or was it that finally, at long last, the human consciousness was finally able to see that “our good God” did in fact love us and have regard for us.
Since the birth of Jesus, humanity has grown in leaps and bounds with regard to how we treat each other and value human life. Because of Jesus, women and children eventually received an equal status to that of men in the Western world. (It is not perfect by any means! But compared to where women and children ranked in 0 CE, at the birth of Jesus, we have come a long way.) We have enacted basic education levels in the West for all children. We do provide a social safety network for the elderly, widow, and the orphan. And some Western nations have even abolished the death penalty. All of these developments towards helping “the least of these” can be attributed to the Christian movement that started in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.
God uses people to show his love to us. It is through the goodness of other people that God’s tremendous love for humanity is made manifest. If we did not have the example of Jesus, we would not know how to act toward each other in the manner of love, kindness, and blessings that God acts towards us. It is only because the Messiah was born at Christmas that we are able to fully embody to ourselves and each other the true love that God wants to fill this whole earth.
We have a long way to go! But if we listen to this ancient song, calling us to “Attend on the Lord of life, Who came on earth to end all strife,” maybe we can continue to elevate the human consciousness and behavior to the heavenly realm that Jesus is calling us.