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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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They’ll Know We are Christians …

Loud is the world in its various forms and cluttered is our landscape with signs and advertising. It’s so hard to escape the bombardment–and still we fill our quiet time with TV in our homes and the radio in our cars.  Yet God tells us, “In returning and rest (or repentance) you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength …” Isaiah 30:15.  Must we compete with the world to reach out with the gospel?  And how do we be IN the world without being OF the world?  They hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians” helps us to know:

I.  Ephesians 4:1-6.  They’ll know we are Christians by our warfare.  As the first stanza goes:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, And we pray that our unity may one day be restored

Unity in Christ is a big factor in being to wage war not as the world does but with divine power to demolish strongholds and take thoughts captive for Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).  When Elijah was struggling after Jezebel threatened his life, God restored him with hot food and quiet rest, told him he was not alone, and reminded him that He was found not in the ways the world defined power but in “thin silence” (1 Kings 19:9-13).

II.  1 John 1:5–2:6.  They’ll know we are Christians by our walk.  The second stanza continues:

We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land

First, we must walk with God in the light because His very nature is light.  Then, we find Jesus’ blood washing us clean as we walk in fellowship with others who are also walking in the light.  This means walking in obedience to truly know God and walking as Jesus did as an imitation of Him.  Only then are we in a position to teach the gospel as it comes from the same compassion for the lost that Jesus had (Matthew 9:35-38).

III.  Luke 18:35-43.  They’ll know we are Christians by our worship.  The final stanza declares:

All praise to the Father, from whom all things come, And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son, And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one

After a blind beggar, who had faith to be made well, was healed by Jesus, he “followed him, glorifying God.”  The passage concludes with the people who saw this giving praise to God as well.  We must give praise continually to God (Psalm 99:1-9).  When we live our lives as a living sacrifice, others see our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2) and give God praise and glory too.  This subtle advertising is the best billboard for the gospel.

The song concludes by telling us that it is by our love–even for those hardest to love–that the world will know that we are followers of Christ … just as Jesus told us (John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:43-48, 1 John 3:11-24):

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Do they know that you’re a Christian?