Monday, December 25, 2023

It is the 25th of December 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Merry Christmas! Why do we say “merry” instead of “happy”? Some have suggested that “happy” was the standard because “merry” had come to be associated with revelry and the lower classes- so in England, “merry,” which was the original, was replaced with “happy.” But, in Charles Dickens's “A Christmas Carol,” we hear the older “merry,” and his influence on modern Christmas in America is well documented. So there.

For this last Christmas show of the year, I want to tell or retell a story behind a popular carol and read some lines as a kind of benediction on this, the feast of the nativity- the day we set aside to remember the incarnation- a favorite day of children- and as Dickens wrote: “For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

So- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was perhaps the most popular American poet for a time in the 19th century. His Song of Hiawatha and Paul Revere’s Ride have made him a staple of anthologies. He was a professor of Modern Languages at Harvard, a world traveler, and an early American celebrity. But he was familiar with sorrow- his first wife died from complications from childbirth. Suicidal, he traveled across Europe to distract himself with studies (he wrote essays on French, Spanish, and Italian literature). His second marriage was a happy one that produced six children. But in 1861, tragedy struck as his second wife, Fanny, was sealing envelopes with hot wax when her dress caught fire. Henry attempted to put out the flames, but Fanny was killed. Henry’s face was scarred from the flames; the long beard he would be known for was grown to cover the scars.

That Christmas was especially difficult; not only was his wife dead, but one of his sons, against Henry’s will, went off to fight in the Civil War.

That Christmas, he was in no mood to celebrate. He wrote: “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.”

But his faith saw him through.  It was something of a genteel New England Protestantism- he was not a theologian, nor was he a hymn writer. But a poem he wrote the following Christmas would be set to music by a local organist and has become a Christmas staple. “Christmas Bells” or “I Heard the Bells” has one of the more defiant calls in the face of despair.

Consider the common third stanza:

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

And dig the stanzas from the poem we don’t sing that place its context in the civil war:

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound 
The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn
The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And then, triumphantly-

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail, 
The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Like many Christmas carols, this one can be overdone; it is one of the more fiddled-with tunes (and that can be maddening)- and we do well to be specific with not only “God’s not Dead” but Died and rose again with Christ. But, borne out of tragedy and depression, it remains a favorite tune and another you might hear in the mall that delivers the good news. You can pick your favorite version- give me Burl Ives and Johnny Cash. I’ve more recently been listening to Diana Ross and the London Symphony Orchestra.

A Merry Christmas to you and yours- we’ll talk to you again tomorrow.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- let’s hear it again from Luke:

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

2:9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

2:10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

2:11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

2:12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 

2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

2:14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of December 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose beard isn’t concealing any scars but out of modesty for a jawline that makes other men jealous. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man hoping to unwrap cookware and kitchen gadgets this morning- Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.