Description
A mediation on the song 'We three kings' we three kings, the magi, wise men, ‘scholars’
Extract:
We three kings - A meditation for Epiphany - by Andrew Pratt
A small boy stood in a church hall. It was Christmas time. They were going to sing 'Good King Wenceslas'. 'You will be the Page', said the pianist, 'Sing up'. I did. The pianist did an excellent job of disguising a grin. I heard muffled laughter. 5 year olds are not meant to be bass-baritones! My singing career was mercifully brief. One of the memories of Christmas, funny how they stick with us!
Singing 'We three kings' is another. The words so rarely make it into 'serious' hymn books, so filled with legend. Part of the problem of the Christmas season is trying to disentangle truth from myth, myth from legend. Some take the stories literally and ignore the contradictions, some say the tangle is too great to undo. Still others reckon none of the Christmas stories in the Bible is likely to be literally true, that each is metaphorical or told for reasons of theology that are long lost.
But think on this, at the centre of our Christmas celebrations is the belief that God became human in the form of the person we know as Jesus.
Continues .... and then followed by We Three Kings
The Kings
We three kings of Orient are;
bearing gifts we traverse afar
field and fountain, moor and mountain,
following yonder star:
O star of wonder, star of night,
star with royal beauty bright,
westward leading, still proceeding,
guide us to thy perfect light.
Melchior
2 Born a king on Bethlehem plain,
gold I bring, to crown him again-
King for ever, ceasing never,
over us all to reign:
Chorus.
Verses 3-5 continue
Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
Words © Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, www.stainer.co.uk.
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