A WORD FOR TODAY, December 23, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, December 23, 2025
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Isaiah 52:7, WEB
I remember as a kid going door to door in the days before Christmas, singing songs to bring joy to the neighbors. Christmas Caroling has been around for a long time, hundreds of years, and was a common activity for youth groups in my day. Our church joins a couple of others in town for an evening, but it just doesn’t seem as common these days. Of course, the school and Sunday school at our church do Christmas programs, and we sing a lot of carols during worship.
Carols have been around for a long time, first written around the fourth century. The first Christmas songs were written to counter to heresies of Arian and others, at the same time as the writing of the Nicene Creed. They weren’t very popular in those days because they were theological hymns written in Latin. St. Francis of Assisi is considered the "Father of Christmas Carols" because he popularized singing sacred songs in the vernacular (local language) for Christmas, starting with the first live Nativity scene in 1223. Francis believed music was a powerful way to teach people about Jesus's birth, leading to the first carols sung during these popular Nativity plays, which then spread through Europe as street-caroling. St. Augustine said, “He who sings prays twice,” and that’s the joy of the Christmas carols we sing at this time of year.
Carols were not for Christmas only, but most of the carols we sing these days are focused on the birth of Jesus Christ. A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with Christian church worship and sometimes accompanied by a dance. Carols weren’t always popular. In the UK, Oliver Cromwell outlawed the singing of carols in 1644. Many of the Christmas carols we love came out of difficult times for the writers. They were influenced by the Bible, and used music to bring peace in their chaos and joy in their sorrow.
Christmas caroling in my youth was a bunch of people walking down the street, going door to door, singing our favorite songs, but many traditions with Christmas music are more elaborate. Las Posadas, religious and cultural festival celebrated in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as in some parts of the United States, between December 16 and 24.
Las Posadas means “the journey” and is a reenactment done by the children of the town. They dress up in costumes representing the Christmas story and go door to door, singing and searching for a place where Mary and Joseph can stay. In some cities, the children are welcomed into a different house each night. In others they end up in a different church. The festivities follow with prayer and singing and a telling of the Christmas story. After the story the children smash piñatas which are filled with nuts, fruit and sometimes candy. The Santos Pereguinos, or holy pilgrims, re-create the journey until Christmas, stopping at a different house or church each night.
We all have our favorite Christmas carols that we enjoy hearing: both religious and all the other fun songs that have come out of the season. St. Augustine said, “He who sings prays twice,” and that’s the joy of the Christmas carols we sing at this time of year. The people in Isaiah’s day had no idea how God would fulfill His promises, yet they worshipped Him. He spoke of an unfulfilled hope as if it had already come to pass. We have seen the fulfillment of all God’s promises in the birth of Jesus, and He calls us to share the Good News with all we meet. We can do by singing hymns of praise and jubilant song, as we do with our favorite Christmas carols that tell the story of Jesus and the salvation that He won for us from the manger to the cross. He is the King that reigns now and will reign forever. Our carols honor the Son and share the blessing of His grace. They remind us that every promise has been fulfilled in Him, and in Him we will have peace forever.
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