When this is suggested, if the Holy Spirit has an arm around my shoulder and a hand over my mouth, I might smile and say, “We could do that.” If my self-control has left the building, I will say, “But all the verses together tell a story and we can’t miss the story!”
If there is a rare moment of calm and I am willing to share some of myself with you, I will tell you, “I want to sing all the verses because I am obsessed with third verses.”
First verses are important. They set the pace and tone of a song and tell you what is to come. Second verses keep that tune going. Final verses wrap up the message, bring the chords to resolution, and permit the satisfying heart response of “Aaaaaaa-men”, whether or not we sing it.
But that third verse, the third verse is where the gems are. The hidden theological caramel or peanut butter or even buttery mashed potatoes that bring the whole thing together and make it worth savoring.
I am fully aware that some of you may be indeed hoping that the Spirit is going to slide her hand over mouth at any minute now, but stick with me for a moment.
The third verse of Amazing Grace, “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ‘tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” This verse isn’t about what happened before, like the first verse, or even what will happen in the distant future, as in later verses. The third verse is about what grace is doing right now- getting us through dangers, toils, and snares. This amazing action means we can count on grace in the next step and the next and the next.
The third verse of A Mighty Fortress sings a song of God overpowering the forces of evil, in the present. The might of the tyrant is doomed to fail for one little word, “Jesus”, subdues him.
Third verse of Great is Thy Faithfulness: “Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.”
The third verse often carries the deepest thoughts of the hymn writer, the present reality of what it means to trust in the God who made us, knows us fully, and is the very ground and source of all that is and was and will be, in us and around us.
Lest you think this only applies to hymns, the third verse of The Star-Spangled Banneraffirms that said banner does indeed still wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave. The third verse of Home on the Range tells us the singer would not exchange his home on the range for any other place. The third verse of Johnny Cash’s Walk the Line: “As sure as night is dark and day is light/ I keep you on my mind both day and night/
And happiness I've known proves that it's right/ Because you're mine, I walk the line.” Johnny is summing up that walking the line for (or with) his beloved brings him happiness that couldn’t come from other behavior.
So, what does all this third verse nonsense have to do with Christmas?
My point, and I do have one, is that the third verse of the Christmas carols and songs is the best verse. We might know the first best, but the truth of God’s gift to the world in Christ, the miracle of God’s ongoing love with us, the joy of Christ’s real presence all around us is in the third verse. The first verses give us joy for tonight, but the third verses give us the hope and peace we need to live all the other days of the year, believing in the truth of Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.
Away in a Manger: Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay/close by me forever and love me, I pray./ Bless all the dear children in thy tender care and fit us for heaven, to live with thee there.
The Bells of Christmas: Now let us go with quiet mind, the swaddled babe with shepherds find, to gaze on him, who gladdens them, the loveliest flower of Bethlehem.
O Little Town of Bethlehem: How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of his heaven…
Angels from the Realms of Glory: Sages, leave your contemplation, brighter visions beam afar, seek the great desire of nations, you have seen his natal star…
Joy to the World: He comes to make his blessings known, far as the curse is found… (It doesn’t matter if you think the curse is original sin or human desire for control or total depravity, Christ comes to make his blessings known over and above all those things.)
And, of course, I cannot leave out:
I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve: He dwells again in heaven’s realm, the Son of God today; and still he loves his little ones and hears them when they pray.
The third verses of our Christmas hymns tell us what God is still doing in this world, the God who became flesh and lived among us and showed what true love and life and forgiveness and healing are. Not only what they are, but that all these things and much more are the Divine desire for us and for all creation.
In God’s own four verse hymn, bringing order out of chaos at the very beginning was the prelude. The first verse was the covenants with Israel and the promises kept to all our ancestors, to Abraham and Sarah, to Hagar and Ishmael, to David and to Bathsheba, to the people in exile, and to the prophets who spoke of a future they might not live to see.
God’s second verse is what we celebrate today: the Incarnation, the timely reality of God with skin on in the person of Jesus. The eternal Word of truth and love and power made flesh and experiencing life as we do, including death, but showing power and triumph over all evil and threats to separate us from God’s forever love.
We live in the third verse, the verse of toils and dangers and snares, but also of an ever-present grace. In this verse sometimes we hear the angels sing. Sometimes we tell it on the mountain. Sometimes we take it to the Lord in prayer. Sometimes we ask the Lord to take us by the hand and lead us home. Sometimes we remember that we have nothing to dread or fear and we lean on the everlasting arms.
We live a third verse life, but we also know and can believe, with God’s help, that a fourth verse is coming. A verse where everything is made new, a verse when peace reigns in clear and tangible ways, a verse where all the chords resolve and we can, together with all the saints and the angels, sigh out that “Aaaaaaa-men.”
But we aren’t there yet. Still, we sing our third verse, but we do it together, with the light of Christ- from the manger, from the font, from the table, from the cross, from the empty tomb, and from our hearts to all around us. We live a third verse life of God with us, no matter who or where we are, what we have done or left undone, or- even- whether or not we can carry a tune.
Because, in the end, it is not our song. It is the song of our God. It is a song of harmony and power- started “in the beginning” and will have no end.
So, on this night, my friends in hope and in Christmas joy, let us sing out all the verses of God’s wonderous work in Jesus. Let us rejoice that unto us a Savior has been born. And let us remember, in our third verse life, that the song of God’s love is for all people, for every day, for every night, forever.
Amen.
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