O Hum All Ye Faithful

I found myself humming “O Holy Night” in the shower this morning. It is one of my favourite carols.

O holy night! the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope - the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the Wise Men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend.
He knows our need - to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we;
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Except that, of course, humming is wordless. So I wasn’t humming “O Holy Night” I was humming “Hm Hm Hm Hmmm” to the same tune. And it occurred to me that humming is a bit like doing good works.

Good works are sweet but wordless. Why did the young man help the old lady cross the road? There may be any number of reasons. Maybe he is trying to impress some onlooker. Perhaps altruism makes him feel good about himself. Perhaps he believes he will go to heaven or nirvana when he dies if he behaves kindly. Perhaps he believes that Jesus is the Lord who taught us to love one another. But without words we’ll never know.

This is what lies at the heart of the problem with the quote often attributed to St Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words”. There are undoubtedly many good reasons why this quote, whoever said it, has attracted so many admirers. It highlights the power of Christ-like living. And it is true that when we do good works, we adorn the message we preach. Just as when lyrics are put to a melody the lyrics are enhanced and the beauty of the message can be better appreciated. It is good for our neighbours to see that when someone lives under the Lordship of Jesus their lives are transformed for the better. As they live for the Son of God who loved them and gave himself for them, they find themselves controlled by his love and eager to love others (Gal. 2:20, 2 Cor. 5:14). Likewise, when someone knows the lyrics of a song, humming the tune will remind them of the message. When someone knows what we believe, our good works will go a long way to ear worming our gospel into their hearts.

But of course, I did mention that Assisi’s quote is problematic. And in fact, it is fundamentally flawed. Because the gospel is a message. The gospel is a set of words, a proposition, “Jesus is Lord”. And this proposition cannot be guessed or worked out by merely beholding someone’s good works, anymore than someone might work out the lyrics to “O Holy Night” by listening to my humming. No, wordless evangelism is not evangelism, and it is powerless to save. The gospel must be declared, explained and defended. And people must be called to repent and put their trust in the Lord of the gospel: “Behold your King, before Him lowly bend!”.

Perhaps there are some more sinister reasons why Assisi’s quote has become so popular. As the prophet Jeremiah once lamented, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). According to Cranmer, “What the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies”. In other words, the heart believes what it wants to believe. And Assisi’s quote offers a very seductive proposition to the human heart because the sinful heart looks for any opportunity not to praise God.

And evangelism is intrinsically linked to praise. It is about praising God in the public square, giving God the glory before all the nations. You can sing praise, but praise is not about singing. Praise is about speaking well of someone, declaring their great qualities. As the apostle Peter puts it, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

Evangelism is about proclaiming God’s excellencies to people still living in darkness. There is no longer a special priesthood within God’s covenant community, as there were Levites among the Israelites. Now, we are all priests. Our priestly role is to teach the nations about Yahweh and call them to worship him. Just as the apostle Paul describes himself as “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 15:16)

The other reason Christians are often reluctant to speak about Jesus boldly is because of the backlash it might provoke. Gospel proclamation always provokes opposition from those who will not repent. When performed in silence, it is hard to see how anyone might object to a good deed. But when accompanied by gospel proclamation, even the best deeds can draw people’s ire. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, draws attention to the foolishness of this in his speech to the Sanhedrin,

“Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” (Acts 4:8-11)

Thankfully, like Peter, the Holy Spirit has been given to all of us. So let us not be content merely to hum the praises of our Lord but to declare them with full voice not just at Christmas time but always. “Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever! His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!”