Dear Readers,
In the Anglican Church, we sing Advent hymns, all during the Advent Season, the season of reflection, contemplation, longing, waiting, and watching.
Only on Christmas Eve do we begin to sing Christmas hymns and we continue to do so, until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.
One of the Christmas Eve hymns that we sing is variously known as:
“A Christmas Hymn” or
“And Every Stone Shall Cry” or
“A Stable Lamp Is Lighted”
This hymn appears on Page 104 of The Hymnal, 1982, Oxford Press.
The poet, Richard Wilbur, wrote the words to that hymn.
Richard Wilbur, born 1921, was an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987. He twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: 1957 and 1989. He died in 2017, aged 96.
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A Christmas Hymn
Words: Richard Wilbur [born 1921]
And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, “Master, rebuke the disciples.”
And he answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
~Luke19:39-40
A stable lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.
This child through David’s city
Shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
Though heavy, dull and dumb,
And lie within the roadway
To pave his kingdom come.
Yet he shall be forsaken,
And yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
For stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead,
God’s love refused again.
But now, as at the ending,
The low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
In praises of the Child
By whose descent among us
The worlds are reconciled.
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“All good theology begins and ends with doxology” and “[Good] hymns are [good] theology set to music.”
This hymn, A Christmas Hymn, is one of the finest examples of solid theology and doxology.
Listen to a choral recording of the hymn. There are three different links below. [I apologize for any advertisements via YouTube]:
“A Stable Lamp Is Lighted” by Richard Wilbur. [The tune is Andujar, by David Hurd, born 1950.]
Biographies:
Click here to learn more, subscribe, and to search the Archives of Mars Hill Audio Journal. Click the link below to see a list of the Archives which feature Richard Wilbur:
Richard Wilbur: Mars Hill Audio Journal
Listen to the mellifluous voice of Richard Wilbur:
Click here and listen to Selection #67: Richard Wilbur interview clip
Click here and listen to Selection #68: Richard Wilbur reads “A Christmas Hymn”
Some Questions to Ponder:
Jeffrey Johnson, in “Harbors of Heaven” says about this hymn: “I like the paradox in it, the hard-working biblical metaphors that carry meaning across the seasons and across the course of life.”
- With this quote in mind, study the paradoxes and the metaphors.
- What are the “seasons” and the “course of life,” to which Johnson refers?
- Should we relegate this hymn to one Season of the Liturgical Church Year? Why or why not?
- How well has Wilbur conveyed the “Grand Narrative of Redemption,” within this hymn?
- Which “two worlds” are reconciled?
- How does this hymn enlarge your vision of the meaning of the Season of Advent and Christmastide?
- What does this poem mean to us, as we live between the First and Second Advent?
- How effectively has Wilbur conveyed this theme: “The Cross casts a shadow over the Incarnation?”
- Among the three various titles of this hymn, which title best fits the hymn?
Coram Deo,
Margot
This choral CD includes the selection, “A Christmas Hymn:”
Margot’s Corner 