Before Christmas 2019 fades too far back in the rearview mirror, I’d like to focus on a carol I heard this year, I am pretty sure for the first time. Hard to imagine an old Christmas carol I haven’t heard with radio stations playing seasonal music non-stop from Halloween on, but so it appears. I trust this one, indeed, is an old song because the version I downloaded at iTunes was by Peter, Paul & Mary, and that fact alone dates the piece.
‘The Cherry-Tree Carol’ came my way a couple Saturdays ago on the newest edition of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. I don’t think this Christmas special from New York City was broadcast on public radio, but the show was ever so enjoyable on YouTube. garrisonkeillor.com sent along an email reminder and tune in I did. It was good to hear Garrison & the gang again.
Halfway through the show as his duet partner came onto the stage, Garrison introduced ‘The Cherry-Tree Carol’ as a not-so-famous Christmas song, in part he thought because it portrayed Joseph as Mary’s not-so-enthralled-about-the-baby fiancé.
Which got me to thinking immediately about what that experience would have been like for Joseph. I can remember hearing from my own intended long ago that we were with child pre-wedding and I know the turmoil it caused both of us and our families.
Gospel narrative goes that when Joseph got word of the pregnancy, he was going to gracefully disassociate from Mary and set her on her own path toward motherhood. But an angel comes to calm him and let him know how high the stakes are and that Joseph, himself, is called to care for and parent the boy, explained to him by the angel as being none other than the Son of God.
I can not imagine finding that little nugget of world history on my plate at a time when I was merely trying to figure out how my life had just been changed forever because a baby was now part of it. True, I knew all about the why of our blessed event. Joseph was freaking ambushed.
So I turned up the volume, paid good attention to ‘The Cherry-Tree Carol,’ then quickly went looking online for lyrics to clarify the narrative. Song starts with establishing Joseph as an old dude, yet he was marrying the ‘Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee.’ Goodness. No pressure there.
Second verse sees Joseph and Mary trekking to Bethlehem, donkey-style, for the census. Along the way the hungry couple passes through a cherry orchard where Mary lays a simple truth on the ‘so meek and so mild man’:
‘Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child.’ Then, just in case he didn’t hear her truth correctly, she repeats, ‘Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child.’
Excuse me? Did you say With child? Well, I guess ‘Joseph flew in anger / In anger he flew.’ Was this the first he knew? Seems so. He then pops off and bellows, ‘Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee.’ And just in case Mary didn’t get his drift, he repeats ‘Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee.’
Seems like a standoff, eh? Not so much. The baby Jesus then speaks up in the womb telling the cherry trees to bend down so his Mother can gather their fruit. And, of course, they do, honoring the wish of the Son of God, for pete’s sake. Rather pleased with that development, Mary sings out, ‘Oh, look thou Joseph, I have cherries by command.’ She, of course, repeats it.
No verse follows that tells of the resolution of this couple's travel dilemma. All we know for sure is that Joseph is an old man who has just learned his trophy wife, a young so-called virgin, is going to have a baby. Angel hasn’t made his/her appearance yet to plead Heaven’s case.
Which brings this story to another very interesting and ever so seminal place: Who, then, was Jesus’ birth father? Hundreds of years after the event the Church standardized teachings with the Holy Spirit as impregnator bit which affirmed the Gospel stories that had already been written.
But if a curious person doubted that who-made-the-baby story, what truth is left? Who provided the male set of chromosomes that gestated into Jesus, the Son of God? Joseph? If not, who? Kinda’ makes ya’ wonder, doesn’t it? Too bad the carpenter Joseph, his wife, or even their son never wrote a memoir to clear all this up. Ah, mythology…
I must say I am pleased with having ‘The Cherry-Tree Carol’ find me this Christmas. Brings more of the humanity of the story into focus. Makes it clear, too, that the Savior of the World — shoot, maybe even the whole damn Universe — was conceived out of wedlock.
It is fun to consider that my lovely Jennifer and the church’s very own Jesus have that essential personal experience in common. :-)
Today’s elder idea: ‘The Cherry-Tree Carol’
Wikipedia reports ‘The Cherry-Tree Carol’ probably dates back to the 15th Century and comes in a few different versions, some that provide narrative beyond the orchard event.
When Joseph was an old man
An old man was he
He married Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee
He married Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee
Joseph and Mary walked through an orchard green
There were cherries and berries
As thick as might be seen
There were cherries and berries
As thick as might be seen
Mary said to Joseph
Mary said to Joseph
So meek and so mild
Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child
Joseph, gather me some cherries for I am with child
Then Joseph flew in anger
In anger flew he
Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee
Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee
Then up spoke baby Jesus from in Mary's womb
“Bend down the tallest branches
That my mother might have some
Bend down the tallest branches
That my mother might have some”
And bend down the tallest branches
It touched Mary's hand
Cried she
Oh, look thou Joseph I have cherries by command
Oh, look thou Joseph I have cherries by command
When Joseph was an old man
An old man was he
He married Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee
He married Virgin Mary, the Queen of Galilee
Images of Joseph & family ripped from an internet search.
