Matthew 1:18-25 December 22, 2014 THE SONG OF ANGELS On this fourth Sunday of Advent, I want to do something a little different. I want to share with you someone else s thoughts on the meaning of this season. Those thoughts come in a Christmas carol that was written almost one hundred and sixty years ago: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. That particular carol touches on all four themes of the Advent season: hope, peace, joy and love. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is number 149 in our hymnal. I also typed out the lyrics and included it as an insert in your bulletin. Keep that insert handy because you ll be using it throughout this sermon. Notice that our hymnal and the insert have all five stanzas of this Christmas carol in it. Many hymnals leave out the rather somber third stanza, but I thought it was too important to skip over. It Came Upon the Midnight Clear could possibly be the least favorite, although very familiar, of the Christmas carols we love so much. A man named Edmund Sears wrote the hymn. He published other music, but this is far and away his most remembered. Not a great deal is known about Sears. We know that he was a Unitarian minister in the mid-1800s who spent his entire career as a pastor serving three small-town churches in New England. Now, his denomination is known as the Unitarian-Universalist Church. Today, the UUC, as some call it, is a fairly small denomination; but back in Edmund Sears day it was a large and politically-powerful denomination. Unitarianism came into existence in response and as an alternative to the rigidity and harshness of Calvinistic Puritanism; and it offered a kinder view of life and more compassionate understanding of God. History probably would have forgotten Edmund Sears and his ministry a long time ago if he hadn t published this poetic sermon, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. As you will see, the hymn was inspired by the angels in the Christmas story. In Matthew s Gospel, an angel appeared to Joseph on several occasions, including (as we read this morning) to instruct
2 Joseph on how he was to treat his unexpectedly pregnant fiancé, Mary, and the child that they were to name Jesus. But Sears carol was clearly inspired by Luke s very familiar account of Christ s birth. Luke s Gospel records that Jesus birth was announced by a choir of angels who sang a love song to the shepherds. Angels, for Luke, were vital to the Christmas story. As Sears put it: It came upon the 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 all, From heaven great news we bring: The world in solemn stillness lay To hear the angels sing. Let s sing that first verse together. (The organist plays and the congregation sings verse one) How often do you think about angel choirs playing on harps of gold? Although it conjures up a wonderful image, I don t know how accurate a representation of angels that is. I do know that when the Bible mentions angels, the term simply means messenger of God. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew word for angel is translated as messenger. I guess that means we re all angels, in a sense, when we proclaim God s Gospel message to others. The history of angels is long and complicated. In Jesus time, the Pharisees believed in them and the Sadducees didn t. Not very long ago, in our own time, belief in angels was very popular. I m not sure they re as popular today as they once were, when all kinds of books were written about angels. Still, many people very much like, and are comforted by, the idea that they have a Guardian Angel, a heavenly being that hovers near to them and watches over them. In Luke s Christmas story, however, the angels don t protect the Christ-child; they announce his coming. A choir of angels brings a message from God, singing to the shepherds. And God s message to humankind is, Through this special child born this day, I want you to know that I love you; and I want you to love one another. That angelic song is still a source of hope today. The angelic message, peace on earth and goodwill to all, still needs to be sung; indeed, I believe it needs to be sung today more than ever. Peace and goodwill to all is the essence of what Edmund Sears wanted to say in this Christmas carol. It tells us that, in the midst of the noisy, chaotic world,
3 we should be still and hear the angels song about God s love for us in Christ, and the need to love one another. 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. Please sing the second verse with me. (Sing second verse) This carol was written in 1849. The newspapers of that day brought disturbing news to the gentle pastor, Edmund Sears. The United States was involved in a very unpopular war with Mexico. That conflict was particularly unpopular in New England, where Sears lived. Many Northerners accused Southern politicians of waging that war to expand slave territory. President James Polk had been elected just a few years before on the promise of seizing California away from Mexico and settling a Northern border dispute with Canada even if it meant fighting a war on two fronts. At the time, American foreign and domestic policy was powered by what s called Manifest Destiny the idea that it was God s will for the United States to be the greatest and most powerful nation on earth and impose its will on every other nation in the world. The idea that the nation s leaders could so casually lead the United States into war and possibly TWO wars distressed Edmund Sears. That certainly wasn t in accord with the song of the angels at Christmas, Peace on earth and goodwill to all. Sears believed God s message of peace and love, which had been revealed in the birth of Jesus Christ, made clear the wrongness of killing Mexican and Canadian citizens who just happened to live on land that the United States decided belonged to it. Sears knew that Americans, particularly U.S. politicians, weren t listening to the Christmas angels who sang of peace and not war. Today, as then, the world just isn t paying enough attention to the fact that at Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace. We have so much crime, it s frightening. There was yet another school shooting a week or so ago. Violence is such an integral part of our culture that we even entertain ourselves with it, in movies, TV shows and video games. It seems
4 that we need to hear once again the song of the angels who sang out at Christmas. As Sears wrote: Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long. Beneath the angels strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong. And we, through bitter wars, hear not The love song which they bring. O hush the noise and end the strife, To hear the angels sing. Let s now sing that third verse. It probably wasn t just the war with Mexico that was on the mind of Sears. In his native New England, the issue of slavery frequently made headlines in the newspapers, and it was on the minds of many people. At about the time this carol was written, an obscure politician from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln was beginning to speak out on the subject. All over the country, lines were being drawn in the hearts of Americans. A little more than a decade after It Came Upon the Midnight Clear was written, the United States entered into a civil war over the issue of slavery. The incredibly cruel and harsh life of slaves may very well have been on the mind of Sears when he wrote the fourth verse of his carol. And ye, beneath life s crushing load Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way, With painful steps and slow, Look now, for glad and golden hours Come swiftly on the wing; O rest beside the weary road, And hear the angels sing! Let s sing verse four together. The song of the Christmas angels continues to be a source of hope for the downtrodden. The message of God to the slaves of today is the same invitation as it was back in Sears day an invitation to a life in Christ that brings freedom, and rest beside the weary road. It s shocking to realize, as I read in the newspaper just a couple of months ago, that even now, in 2013, there are still people being forced into slavery in Africa, India, and other nations in our world. Children in Asia are often used as virtual slave labor in factories and sweat shops, and we perpetuate that when we purchase the very low-cost items they make. Today we might not have slavery the way it existed in nineteenth century America, but we do still have slaves. There are people who are
5 slaves to their hatreds, their fears, and their bad habits and destructive addictions There are people who live under the rule of oppressive dictators. There are people who are enslaved to hunger, poverty and despair, and can t seem to escape. There are people who live under horrific conditions that aren t all that different from the slavery that existed in Edmund Sears time. And there are others who need to hear the liberating message of God s love and God s call to peace. There are those who live in the chains of personal problems, sickness and loneliness, domestic abuse, and living in violent and very dangerous neighborhoods. There are people who are enslaved to their financial worries. And on and on I could go. Fortunately, today the song of the angels at Christmas continues its message of peace on earth and goodwill to all. You see, the God who came near to us at Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ; the God we call Emmanuel, God with us, is still with us. God loves us and empowers us in the midst of our troubled times and in the midst of our troubled lives. Ours is the God who says to us, Come unto me, you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let me tell you once again why we celebrate Christmas: because God sent God s love to us in Jesus Christ. And Jesus message to us is to love one another. For two thousand years, the world has mostly turned a deaf ear to that message, but God will not be defeated. That is a central teaching of our faith. No matter how bad things may seem, there s still hope. No matter how great the level of violence and destruction human beings inflict on other human beings and on the earth we inhabit, Christmas insures that one day there will come a time of peace and harmony, righteousness and justice, and it will be for all people, for all eternity. God has assured us that there will be a final victory of God over all the forces of evil. The Kingdom of God is coming, and when it arrives there will be peace on earth and goodwill to all. Because when God s Kingdom comes, the world will finally respond to the song of the angels that was sung on that first Christmas. And then, all will be light and love and joy. That is God s new covenant promise to us a promise that was established when Jesus was born and the heavenly messengers sang out, Glory to God in the highest! Edmund Sears captured that truth in his final stanza. 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
6 Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing. Join me in singing that final stanza. Thanks be to God that the song of the angels continues to be sung, even today. May we hear and sing along to their song of peace on earth and goodwill to all, this Christmas and every day. Amen.