A Love Song to the World - A Reflection for Christmas 2012

By -
Dear friends in Christ,

“It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.”

On a night over two thousand years ago, angels bent near the earth and shepherds heard their song.  It was a song whose words were so desperately needed, and whose melody soothed the souls of the deeply troubled.  It was a time, much like any other time:  there was conflict; there were wars and rumours of wars; the poor went unfed and the rich sat in lofty places; there were broken hearts and broken spirits.  But a song broke through it all and announced that into the lives of a people who had suffered long, with woe and strife, with sin and sadness, was coming a Saviour who would bring peace.  That message was desperately needed then, and it is no less desperately needed today. 

The words of that beloved hymn, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, penned by Unitarian minister Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876) remind us that the message of the angels is not simply a message that was sung in distant times to long-forgotten shepherds, it is a message that angels still sing to us today.  The angel strain has continued to roll amidst “two thousand years of wrong.”  It is still sung, Sears contends, but “man, at war with man, hears not, the love song which they bring.”  Yet, if we hush the noise, we may still “hear the angels sing.” 

So in these days which are “hastening on” we would do well do listen, for if we do, we shall surely yet hear that love song about which Sears wrote.  It is a love song sung by angels proclaiming the birth of Jesus Christ.  In fact, Jesus IS God’s love song for a broken and hurting world.  Jesus IS God’s love song to his weary and worn-out children.  Jesus IS God’s love song for you and for me.  It is Jesus that the angels proclaim in song and sacred melody.  Let us open our eyes to see them “touch their harps of gold,” let us open our ears to “hear the blessed angels sing,” and let us open our hearts to the one about whom they sing, that “the whole world might give back the song, which now the angels sing.”

A blessed Christmastime to each of you and your families,

The Rev. Daniel F. Graves

Comments

The Ven. Richard Geoffrey Leggett, Ph.D., CWA said…
Thank you for enriching my Christmas. I've always had a hard time with "It Came upon a Midnight Clear" but you have given me an insight into the text that helps me. Blessings.

Richard Leggett
December 24, 2012 at 9:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Was Peter Fishing Naked?

By -
Image
“Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.” (John 21:4-8) When we preach on this, the last of the Resurrection appearances in St. John’s Gospel, we rarely stop to ask the question, why was Peter fishing in the nude? After all, the story from which this short excerpt is taken contains so many wonderful images on which we might otherwise preach: the multitudinou
Read more

Restoring a Reed Organ, Part 13: Recovering the Bellows and Exhausters

By DFG -
Image
 After we stripped the cloth off the reservoir and exhausters, we sanded them down so that they were nice and clean with no glue or material residue remaining   The bellows had been recovered in 1905 and the restorer had left a penciled note on the inside of the reservoir.  The exhausters, however, were original. They were "harmonium style", that is, with large ribs with leather hinges and leather gussets. The conventional wisdom as that novices like us should not attempt to recreate these on the first go-around.  We decided we would just recover the exhausters using bellows cloth (more on that, below).   We cleaned off the old ribs and sanded them down so that we could use them again in the exhausters. We then set them aside while we moved to work on the main reservoir. We rehinged the bellows board to the movable reservoir board (for some reason I didn't take any photos of that) and then while waiting for the hinge to dry w
Read more

Restoring a Reed Organ: Part 3 - Resources

By -
Image
Last time, I promised a post on the resources that we would be using to restore our Mason and Hamlin reed organ.   I got a little behind on that and we have now begun work on the organ, so here is a little “catch-up” post with the promised information. One of the gurus of reed organs was the late Robert Gellerman.   Gellerman has a very useful book entitled, The American Reed Organ and Harmonium , which not only gives instruction on reed organ restoration, but includes a detailed history of the American reed organ.   He also has a detailed chapter on tuning, as well as designs for organ benches, stop face fonts, and much more.   Gellerman also is the compiler of the Reed Organ Atlas , which is a directory of reed organ manufacturers, where they were located, and known serial numbers by years.   It is a very helpful resource for identifying and dating the old reed organ in the church basement or in the attic of the proverbial “Aunt Maude.” A book that seems to stir much contr
Read more