Devotional for December 12

“Angels We Have Heard on High”  

UMH #238

Of all beloved Christmas carols, this one might be the most sheer fun to sing, thanks to its breathless refrain of “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” with the first syllable of “Gloria” prolonged for three full measures, each one with a double cascade of eighth notes. No other hymn better conveys the opening of the heavens on that holy night, inviting us to hear that miraculous chorus of angel voices. The Latin of the refrain adds its own sense of holy mystery. Many singers don’t even know what the words mean (“Glory to God in the highest”); they just know that the angels are heralding something unprecedented in all of human history.

But just because of this striking refrain, this song seems apt for parody. When I was an undergraduate at a women’s college, our dorms did permit both female and male visitors, but all guests had to be announced at the bell desk. Residents took turns staffing the bell desk and soon learned the code: “You have a visitor at the bell desk” meant another student, teacher, or parent; “You have a caller at the bell desk,” meant: an eligible man! So at one dorm Christmas program, several residents put together their own version of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” changing the refrain to “There’s a ca-a-a-a-a. . . . . . ler, waiting at the bell desk.” The strange Latin words provide their own invitation for comic misunderstanding, deliberate or inadvertent. My younger son, Gregory, had a first-grade crush on a classmate named Chelsea and marveled that there was even a song about her: “in ex-Chelsea Deo.” I discovered an “All in the Family” parody online featuring Archie Bunker’s daughter, Gloria, as the subject of the refrain.

Is this sacrilege, to parody such a deeply meaningful song? I’ve decided it isn’t. After all, I heard a sermon once on the circumstances of the nativity as showing God’s own sense of humor, or at least his sense of the pleasures offered by the wildly incongruous. A savior . . . born in a stable? Laid in . . . a manger? His first attendants. . . an ox and a donkey? News of his birth delivered first to . . . shepherds? And to . . . . sheep? 

Why not? Christmas is a time of joy, which can also mean a time of laughter. We will plenty of opportunity later to weep. But for now, let’s sing our little hearts out, with a smile.

—Claudia Mills