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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Meant to keep ladies cooler, crinolines over hoop skirts were a terrible fire hazard around open flame.  The poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was burned too severely trying to extinguish the blaze that killed his wife to attend her funeral.  Two years later with one of his six children dead already and the oldest wounded terribly in the Civil War, he rode a train to DC and on Christmas 1863 wrote of the disconnect he found between life and the peace he read about from the pages of his Bible.

Perhaps we, who also struggle with life and the world we live in, can reconcile God’s Word with what we see through what became the song, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

I.  Isaiah 9:6-7.  Longfellow found a disconnect between his grief and horrors of this life when he heard the church bells ringing and thought of all they symbolized.  If Jesus was the Prince of Peace to bring peace on earth, where was that peace?  Job too went through much anguish, but he trusted God through it all (Job 1:20-22; Job 2:9-10).  The first stanza on his mind’s journey went like this:

I heard the bells on Christmas day, Their old familiar carols play, And mild and sweet their songs repeat Of peace on Earth, good will to men.

And the bells are ringing (peace on earth), Like a choir they’re singing (peace on earth), In my heart I hear them (peace on earth), Peace on Earth, good will to men.

II.  Matthew 10:34-39.  As long as the fellow’s focus was here on earth, he found only destruction and death.  The Prince of Peace, as it turns out, came not to bring peace but a sword.  How can that be?  His eyes needed to shift higher.  It’s peace between God and man that Jesus brought by His incarnation as He was the baby born to die (Matthew 1:21).  We suffer here but have peace and hope there (Romans 5:1-5).  We see him wresting with this in the second verse:

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.

But the bells are ringing (peace on earth), Like a choir singing (peace on earth); Does anybody hear them? (peace on earth), Peace on Earth, good will to men.

III.  1 Corinthians 15:13-19.  As this dawns on Longfellow, there’s a transition in the hymn:

Then rang the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead, nor does He sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth); the wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on Earth, good will to men.

He decides that this world is not his home and puts his trust in the gospel that brought the outcome of peace between God and man as evidenced by the third stanza:

Then ringing, singing on its way, The world revolved from night to day, A voice, a chime, a chant sublime Of peace on Earth, good will to men.

And the bells, they’re ringing (peace on earth), Like a choir they’re singing (peace on earth), And with our hearts, we’ll hear them (peace on earth); Peace on Earth, good will to men.

His struggle is the same as ours and the same question posed to us as the final chorus asks:

Do you hear the bells, they’re ringing? (peace on earth), The light, the angels singing (peace on earth); Open up your heart and hear them (peace on earth); Peace on Earth, good will to men.

Peace on Earth, Peace on Earth, Peace on Earth, good will to men.

The same peace that Longfellow found that the bells proclaimed can be yours.  Do you have it?

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Behold, The New Has Come

For me to get to acceptance in the grieving process after my wife of almost three decades passed last year, I had to keep a forward focus or risk getting mired in memories.  Any move from an old life to a new one is like that.  If we are focused too much on what we have lost, we will miss what we have gained.  Becoming a new creation in baptism is like that as well. If we do not die to sin and work through the transformation process, then we can never embrace the new and abundant (John 10:10) that God has called us to live.

I.  2 Corinthians 5:17-18.  If in Christ, you are a new creation, but how do you life differently if all you know is your old life with its old habits and sinful way of living? Sadly, many people obey the gospel but then only live differently in degree, not in character, than those in the world. Paul spoke of this spiritual war that raged within him (Romans 7:21-23) that was still a transformative process that began at his baptism when he rose out of the water to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-5). But, he was working hard to become like Jesus in His death, so He might attain to Jesus’ resurrection in His new life (Philippians 3:10-12).

II.  Romans 12:1-2.  As a new creation, the old has passed away … but has it?  We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, not being conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Then when the old has truly been put to death, then we can test what is a good way of living this new life in Christ.  We must die to sin first (Romans 6:6-8). The problem with being a living sacrifice is that the offering keeps crawling off the altar. To do this we must forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead. By keeping this forward focus, Paul says, is how he presses on to the goal of heaven (Philippians 3:13-16).

III.  2 Corinthians 5:19-20.  Without Jesus’ reconciling work at the cross and at the grave, we could not have new life, and with this new life comes new work that we also aren’t familiar with.  We are to be “ministers of reconciliation” or “ambassadors for Christ” who speak on behalf of God about this new life–even though we have just taken hold of it ourselves. Just as Jesus died to sin and rose to life, we must press on to take hold of this new life that has now come to us (Romans 6:9-11). Instead of looking back at our old life and regressing into those old habits and behaviors, we must hold true to what we have already attained.

Rather than focusing on what I have lost when my old life died with my wife, I am riveted on taking hold of what God has given me as a widower for His Kingdom in this new life. We must all do the same thing with the new life He has given us in Jesus.

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None of Self and All of Thee

In our relationship with God as in our earthly relationships, we would all insist that we love the other, but to what degree do we love?  The transition to love for God begins when we recognize ourselves in the first stanza of this song and obey the gospel:

O, the bitter pain and sorrow That a time could ever be,

When I proudly said to Jesus, “All of self, and none of Thee” …

[In brackets, I will tell the story of four Valentine’s Days or my spiritual journey: In our last semester of college while student teaching, my wife and I both obeyed the gospel on Sunday, February 14, 1993, just four months before we would graduate and be married, and thus we began our married life together as new Christians.]

I.  1 John 4:7-12.  Growing in our relationship with God, however, progresses from our second birth–just as a baby grows from his first birth or a marriage grows from a wedding.  Sadly, many Christians stagnate for years with a head knowledge of God and the gospel.  They can often cite book, chapter, and verse and can tell all about the love of God (Romans 5:6-8) without truly loving Him in return.  They are caught in the second stanza:

Yet He found me; I beheld Him Bleeding on th’ accursed tree,

And my wistful heart said faintly, “Some of self, and some of Thee” …

[On February 14, 1994, my wife gave me a study Bible to celebrate our first birthday in Christ.  I dove into knowing everything I could learn about it, God, and salvation, even completing a Bible degree.  While my wife was always a solid rock of faith–even through a cancer diagnosis of 2012 and a first brain tumor diagnosis of 2017, I used the gifts God gave me to teach and preach for the next three decades with a strong head love for Christ that went up and down through the years.]

II.  1 Peter 1:6-9.  In the Old Testament, God speaks about refining His people in the furnace of affliction.  In the New Testament, He speaks of using various trials to test the genuineness of our faith that hopefully leads to the salvation of our souls.  In most places today, the freedom to worship and general lack of persecution has made Christians complacent in our spiritual growth and content living with a low level of faith.  Struggles can stir us to a heart love for God as seen here:

Day by day His tender mercy Healing, helping, full and free,

Bro’t me lower while I whispered, “Less of self, and more of Thee” …

[The previous summer had my wife reacting to air quality, chemicals, surfaces, electricity, and wifi.  In desperation, she attended a naturopathic clinic in Kansas in January that showed a mold toxicity in her system.  I began mold remediation and reconstruction in the house to prepare it to sell while also cleansing, storing, trashing, or burning our possessions.  Living with a friend with similar issues, my wife met me for dinner on February 14, 2020, less than a month before her second diagnosis of brain tumors, where we spoke about our uncertain future.  Through radiation, a host of physical struggles, and months of hospice care, God gave us a last season together while He and I worked to break through my wall and I could grow in my heart love for Him.]

III.  James 4:7-10.  A total submission to God in a Christian’s head, heart, soul, and strength is required for him to truly love God and live (Luke 10:27-28).  This soul love can only come with a yielding of oneself to Him entirely and is beyond a head and heart love.  It comes through much prayer and perseverance.  When seeking of His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) is added to fear of God and the keeping of His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13), submission can be achieved.  It is beyond the first four stages of grief after a great struggle or loss: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.  It is found in acceptance and is spoken about in the last stanza of the title song:

Higher than the highest heavens, Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last has conquered, “None of self, and all of Thee” …

[I did not arrive here when my wife died in mid-December.  It was only in the past couple of weeks when I finally gave up in my fight against God, no longer struggling to make provision for the flesh (Romans 13:11-14), that I awoke to that soul love for God and Christ, my Savior.  Not that I no longer face temptations, but I am wearing the armor of God while fully submitting to Him and seeking for Him.  And so, this is the lesson I am preaching this Sunday, February 14, 2021, on the 28th anniversary of when my wife and I first professed our love for God, having first realized His great love for us.]

Which stanza of the song do you find your love for God?

 

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No Undertone

To joy in Christ, let run no undertone
Of sadness, heavy heart or grief;
Let fullest comfort flow from Jesus’ throne,
Whose river holds no hidden reef.

Let heavenly peace completely rule the mind,
Unmixed with cares and low concerns;
Blow gently in my soul the Spirit’s wind,
From which no worldly fear returns.

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When I turn away from the mirror of your Word

God, help me to remember what I have seen when I turn away from my reflection in the mirror of your Word to interact with others. Your grace and your love, incarnated so vividly in Jesus, provide a model for me and show me how I should walk and talk. Help me to live for you, and not to trust only in having talked with you. Hear my cries when I grieve. Turn my heart and my feet toward you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

—Michael Summers