This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
First tune,
second tune.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
In the past God spoke
In the past God spoke
In the past God spoke
through the law and prophets
in many and various ways.
But right now God speaks
through his Son, his image,
his heir in these last great days.
So let's focus our minds on this Jesus,
run the race, keep the faith, and endure,
let's hold firm, never drift,
and avoid all shifting
from the hope we profess,
standing true, confessing
our Lord Jesus, strong and secure.
In the past God's glory
was unveiled to Moses,
in secret within the tent.
But right now God's story
is revealed in Jesus,
exactly as he was sent.
So let's focus our minds ...
In the past God's angels
came in flames of fire
to minister from on high.
But right now God's person
comes as our Messiah,
to save us and purify.
So let's focus our minds ...
Optional Christmas verse:
In the past God maybe
could be seen in visions
by those with a special call?
But right now this baby
is God's own decision
to visit us once for all.
So let's focus our minds ...
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Hebrews 1:1-3,7,14, 2:1.
Story behind the song
Christmas often seems to be about a little baby and the events associated with his birth, but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that Jesus went on to become a man ... in fact, the particular man who was the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of him on earth. How can he be both man and God? Well, people often picture him as a being half-way between God and man ... a prophet, or a vision, or an angel? This is a mistake in thinking, which the writer of the letter to the Hebrews is anxious to correct. So I wanted to write a Christmas song about the contrast between angels and Jesus, to emphasise that Jesus himself is the exact likeness of God, come to earth so we would know.
After I wrote the initial lyrics and this tune, I asked friends on the CSO e-mail critique group for suggestions for improvement, and I am very grateful to Michael Lehr for writing a better tune than mine (which you can find here) and for giving me considerable help with the words of the chorus. So my original tune becomes the "second tune" for this hymn. (Michael also suggested the last verse be dropped, and he was probably right about that too!)
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.