Christmas Carols unwrapped: God rest ye merry gentlemen

One of the things that fascinated me when I was a secondary school teacher was the new words children would come up with and use. They weren’t necessarily made up words, but they took words and changed its meaning to make it ‘trendy’ . The truth is Language is often changing and evolving and we see a great example of this in the carol ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen. The meaning of the words of that famous first line has changed since it was written roughly around the 1500s. 

This carol was first put into print in 1760 and at that time the word ‘rest’ meant to keep or continue or make, and the word ‘merry’ meant great or mighty. Therefore the first line should read: ‘God make you mighty, Gentlemen!’

The carol was made popular by Charles Dickens in his book ‘A Christmas Carol’ in which it describes:

“... at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.”

When I was looking into this carol I came across a lost verse that didn’t make publication in hymnals. It read: 

God bless the ruler of this house

And long may he reign;

Many happy Christmases

May live to see again.

God bless our generation

Who live both far and near

And we wish you a happy new year

Some people argue that the carol must have originally been a secular song due to this verse and it’s omission was due to the domestic picture it painted. However, within this verse I found great comfort and challenge. Often we compartmentalise our lives. We have a box for family, a box for friends, a box for church and even a box for God. At christmas time it can be even more stark. We have the Christmas full of Father Christmas, elves and turkey and the Christmas with the nativity is kept for the church carol service! However this isn’t how we should live our life. Every part of our life is sacred and the whole of our life is God’s. One of my favourite verses of scripture in the message translation says: 

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering

This Christmas, as we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. Let us remember that God is with us everywhere, and in every aspect of the celebration.