Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the celebrated American poet and author of “Paul Revere’s Ride” was in deep despair. His beloved wife had recently died in a home fire. The eldest of his six children went off to join the Union Army, against his wishes. His nation was torn asunder by war. His faith was shaken. In December of 1863, after a prolonged period in which he could not put pen to paper, he scratched out a poem.
“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” echoes the seeming dissonance between the message of Christmas and the gritty reality of fallen world. Consider these lines:
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Longfellow was struck by the persistence of the church bells, bellowing out carols that preach peace on earth juxtaposed against the bitter horror of war. Yet his reality is not much different than our reality, in which we pause for Advent in a deeply broken world. Last year I was in the war-torn city of Kiev, listening as Christians sang Christmas carols.
To celebrate this season really is audacious. How can we sing “Joy to the World” when the world, as narrated by our social media timelines and the images we see flashed in front of us, tell another story? We can celebrate Christmas not only because Jesus was born into a world every bit as troubled as ours, to a people oppressed by a totalitarian power, to a young fragile couple with little agency. Yet, those church bells peal because the baby in the manger was indeed the Son of God, the one whom the prophet Isaiah said was “The Prince of Peace” and upon whose shoulder every government in human history rests. There are sweet tidings of joy only because at his first Advent, he defeated sin, death, and the grave. There is a new world coming.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
