As the radio announcer introduced two Christmas carols by British composer John Rutter, she mentioned a comment Rutter made. Until the time of the Protestant Reformation, Rutter noted, the lyrics for nearly all sacred music were in Latin. Christmas carols had been the exception.

Sung in the people's own tongue (the vernacular), and set to popular tunes, Christmas carols reflect the piety and devotion of common folk. That may be why they are still so beloved today. Maybe, buried somewhere in the collective unconscious, there is the subtle recognition that this is our music, not the music of prelates and professors, but the music of the common folk.

Is that not, after all, the message of the season? That God has appeared, not in splendorous epiphanies or glorious visions, but in the vernacular of human flesh. God has come among us, tangible and vulnerable.

In the words of Scott Cairns,*

The tender flesh itself

will be found one day

 - quite surprisingly -

to be capable of receiving

and yes, full

capable of embracing

the searing energies of God.