Where’s Worship? On the Loss of Adoration in Our Caroling

At The Atlantic today, Emma Green astutely comments on the famous chorus in the beloved carol O Come All Ye Faithful – “Oh come let us adore him”:

Adore is a curious word. In English, it’s become a cutesy toss-off, best used around baby chicks (“Adoooorable!”) or under-$50 Christmas presents (“Oh, I just adore Yankee Christmas Candles!”). It denotes obsession, but in a sugar-high kind of way—a burst of intense affection that doesn’t necessarily reach the depths of the soul.

But the word comes from a serious root: the Latin, adorare, to speak or pray. It is a worship word, one of prostration that lifts the eyes up rather than turning them to the ground. And it is the central idea of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Oh, come, let us adore him: a straightforward call to prayer, urging everyone to drop what they’re doing and gather round, for “born the king of angels.”

And Green’s observation carries over to other endlessly played, sung, and covered carols like Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, or O Holy Night. All of these hymns were intended to move the singer or listener to worship at the wonder of the Incarnate God; the lyrics are rich with descriptive theological content meant to fix our gaze on the Object of worship and so deeply move our souls. Like many hymns in the Christian compendium, they also form a striking contrast to what passes for modern Christian worship music – which is generally more likely to produce that Adooooorable!-esque, sugar-high response to shallow lyrics about God than genuine adoration.

Consider some of these lines from later verses in the aforementioned carols:

O Come All Ye Faithful:

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Joy to the World:

No more let sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.
As the curse is found.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing:

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

O Holy Night

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

So perhaps this can be an encouragement in these waning hours of Advent, before the Christmastide celebration begins, to let our listening and our singing lead us to that kind of genuine worship these lyrics are inviting. The centrality of Jesus here is unmistakable – the glory of his incarnation is undeniable. May it move us in that same way.

May it move us to “Adoration: the joyful, wondrous experience of humans in relation to God.”