Once Upon a Midnight Clear

This song shakes me to my core. 

From the very first words in the song, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”, I start to feel the wonder as I imagine myself outside gazing at God’s nighttime canvas, imagining what it would have been like to see the first appearance of the Star of Bethlehem. I sing and am carried away.

A few lines later come the words “the world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing”.

Tears start their journey down my face.

There is something holy and sacred about the words “solemn stillness”.

They reach out and ask something more of us. 

In the midst of all that stillness we are confronted with who we are in that moment…who we were that day…who we want to be. 

What happens when we are “still”… “solemnly still”? 

We are at once confronted and comforted by the words the angels sing. Their message to our needy souls is highlighted in this song and we would do well to pay attention to all sides of this message.

The song urges us to listen to the great “why” of Jesus! Why did He come? Why did God give us His Son and then take Him away?

”Peace on the Earth, Good Will to men, from heaven’s all gracious King”!   From God…to us…with Love!  It was all about the Grace! The Love!  Love came down and that was the greatest gift of all! 

That alone is an incredible message!

But something new happened this year when I sang this song. 

I woke up and finally noticed the words in the 3rd stanza. 

Frankly, I don’t remember ever singing that verse. 

So when I came to the line… “And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring”, I was stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t move forward. 

Not only did this sound uncannily like the Shakespearean King James version of a Christmas carol, but all I could think about was the atrocity of “man at war with man” and how that must grieve our God to His very core. 

What would our own “man at war with man” situations look like?

We have husbands and wives at great odds with each other; 

parents at war with each other & their children;

brothers and sisters at war within their own families; 

families against families; 

friends in discord; 

neighbors against neighbors …just read 5 minutes of your own HOA online conversations or read the disruptive, negative comment section of just about any post online and you will become sad, shocked, discouraged.

We fight against peace every day in the choice of words we use with others, our blind eyes turned against the need of those around us, and at times our harsh, antagonistic words and actions.

Our examples of strife are sickening. Our moments of anguish plentiful. And our times in battle too numerous for healthy sustenance.

We do what we don’t want to do and we say what we never intended to say.

We are a tangled ball of complicated human mess! 

We need help!  

Enter HOPE! 

And so right there still in the 3rd verse, the lyricist offers this commanding, but somewhat impatient advice: 

“O, hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.” 

“Hush the noise”…yes!!!  That is a huge piece of the puzzle in our own ability to focus on the right things.  We need to put the kibosh on the wrong things. 

We need to hush the noise in our lives…  

Put the world on the back burner and listen to the holy message of the angels. 

We need to get back to the state of “the world in solemn stillness lay”. 

In the last stanza the lyricist reminds us that clocks are ticking and life is short. He leaves us with the hope we so badly need… “When peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world give back the song which now the angels sing!” 

“The whole world give back the song!”

One day we will have “peace over all the earth”. 

Until then the way to peace begins with us… each word, each action, each thought, directed from God to us and back again. 

Word by word, step by step, song by song, we move toward Him. 

The One who brings us HOPE, offers LOVE! 

The One who stops us in our tracks, causes us to rethink all the songs, all the messages, and calls us to action.

I’m awake now! I hear the angels sing! And I want to give back the song!

Christmas shakes us up, moves us to tears, and loves us all the way to peace. 

May you have many midnights clear enough to live in peace with yourself, your neighbor, your world. 

---

Here are the entire lyrics of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Edmund Sears in 1849, a “shake up” gift to you. 

    It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

It came upon a midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
‘Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King!’
The world in solemn stillness lay
to hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled;
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o’er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.

But with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angel strain have rolled
two thousands years of wrong;
and man, at war with man, hears not
the love song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
and hear the angels sing.

For, lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet bards foretold,
when with the ever-circling years,
comes round the age of gold,
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world give back the song
which now the angels sing.

---

Luke 2: 13-14

“Then all at once, a vast number of glorious angels appeared, the very armies of heaven! And they all praised God, singing: 

“Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven!

For there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men.”

(The Passion Translation)