Dr. Platypus

… and to all a good night!

The Ninth Lesson:

St John unfolds the mystery of the Incarnation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

Carol:

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

The Eighth Lesson:

The wise men are led by the star to Jesus.

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” ³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ⁶‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’” ⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. ⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. (Matthew 2:1-12)

Carol:

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Bilingual Bonus: In Greek, the words of the wise men to King Herod can be sung to the tune ADESTE FIDELES if you add an “Amen” or an “Alleluia” at the end:

ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ τεχθεὶς
βασιλεὺς τῶν ἰουδαίων;
εἴδομεν γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ἀστέρα
ἐν τῇ ἀνατολῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν
προσκυνῆσαι αὐτῷ. (3x)
Ἀμήν.

or phonetically,

poo ehss-teen oh tekh-thees
vah-see-levs tohn yoo-dheh-ohn
ee-dhoh-men gar ahf-too tohn ah-steh-rah
en tee ah-nah-toh-lee keh eel-thoh-men
prohs-kee-nee-seh ahf-toh (3x)
ah-meen.

The Third Lesson:

The prophet foretells the coming of the Savior.

²²The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light:
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined.

⁶For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
⁷Of the increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom,
to order it, and to establish it
with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.  (Isaiah 9:2, 6-7, KJV)

Carol:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

The Second Lesson:

God promises to faithful Abraham that in his seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:15-18)

Carol:

Angels, from the Realms of Glory

The First Lesson:

God tells sinful Adam that he has lost the life of Paradise and that his seed will bruise the serpent’s head.

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”

¹⁴The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. ¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁷And to the man he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:8-15, 17-19)

Carol:

Adam Lay Ybounden

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is a 90-year-old tradition at King’s College, Cambridge. According to the King’s College website,

Our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s, after experience as an army chaplain which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn ‘Once in royal David’s city’.

The BBC has broadcast the King’s College service every year since 1928 with but one exception. The lessons have remained constant over the years, drawing on earlier work by E. W. Benson, the Archbishop of Truro. Benson’s son later recalled,

My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve – nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop

Almost immediately, churches began adapting the service for their own use. My own church has a longstanding tradition of a service of Lessons and Carols on a Sunday morning during Advent.

For the next nine days, I’ll share the traditional lessons along with a Christmas or Advent carol. May the lessons and carols guide you toward the light of Christ.

Four reasons one ought to be skeptical of the idea that the Evangelists “borrowed” the idea of a virginal conception of Jesus from pagan sources.

I’ll be spending time with family over the next week or so. Other than brief reflections on the last two “O Antiphons,” I don’t plan to do any serious blogging. In the interim, here are links to a series I did last year on the date of Jesus’ birth:

• Herod’s Death
• The Census
• The Star of Bethlehem
• The Date of Jesus’ Birth?
• Zechariah’s Priestly Service
• Clement of Alexandria
• Why December 25?

Enjoy!

Straight No Chaser does The Twelve Days of Christmas.