Bring in the Christmas that lights up the ages! Bring on the drama whose theatre is earth! Myth wrapped in mystery, conflict and passion: God in humanity struggling to birth. Refrain: Sing, sing, sing of this Christmas! Bring, bring our part to the play! Here is the Mary of marvellous spirit, holding the light that will challenge the dark, born in a baby who kicks in his cradle, Word come alive with unquenchable spark. (Refrain) Enter the angels whose glorias shimmer enter the shepherds in shock at the sight, follow the wise with their gifts of foreboding, Herod pursuing and putting to flight. (Refrain) This is the play of the powers and the prophets, seen in the Christ child of no fixed abode. Draw back the curtain to new revelation! Open our eyes to the wonders of God! (Refrain)
Christmas come close in a child’s crumpled face, to the ragged and raw in a harsh birthing place, in a surging of joy, in a bundle held tight, in a breath, in a cry through the dark of the night. Christmas come close to the place where we are, in our longing for peace, for a sign, for a star, for a certainty born in uncertainty’s space, for a mystery grasped that our blindness can trace. Christmas come close to the world that is bleak, giving hope a new home, making prophecy speak: so the angels will sing, and the wise will be heard, and the powers will take heed of this child and his word. Christmas come close into focus and frame, to humanity’s heart for the child to make claim: for the poor to be served, for the rich to kneel low, for Magnificat now in the Christmas we know.
Come, Christmas Child, come again in your wonder, changing the world with the light that you hold; burst through the mist and the dust of the ages, Word for our time to unwrap and unfold. Come to be born in a comfortless cradle, come where our cruelties keep us in chains: Herod still hunts for our innocent children, Rachel still weeps and her sorrow remains. Bring us your mirror of hope and compassion, bring us your mindset that mends and restores, bake us the bread of new life you will offer, knocking once more on humanity’s doors. Come, Christmas Child, in the festival’s flurry, come in the silence, the pain and the night, come in the hearts that are faith-filled as Mary’s, bringing the joy of the love you invite.