The Many Moods Of Christmas

Please open your Bibles to Luke 2:8-20 which we will read in a few minutes.

In this part of the narrative of the Christmas story we read of the encounter of the angels with the shepherds on the night of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

With that in mind lets go ahead and read Luke 2:8-20.

In this very passage we see such things as:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

And …

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those on whom His favor rests.”

And …

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

And when we read these things and other things like the arrival of the Wise Men we get the feeling of everything being all warm and fuzzy like a comforting children’s story.

It is tempting to disconnect the birth of Jesus from the difficult parts of His life and when we do that it disconnects His birth from the real reason why Jesus came to earth.

Kind of like in this little video … (play The Christmas Connection video from Sermon Central)

Don’t we sometimes get the manger disconnected from the cross; the beauty of the birth of the Son of God disconnected from the gruesome crucifixion of the very same, the one and only Son of God?

Many people struggle at this time of year.

Christmas is supposed to be bright and cheerful but that manufactured cheerfulness just seems to increase the darkness in the lives of many.

That was how life seemed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1864 when he wrote the words to the poem, “Christmas Bells” which later became the Christmas Hymn known as, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.

But before we read the words to that poem please allow me to read a little bit about the story behind the poem.

Tragedy struck both the nation and the Longfellow family in 1861. Confederate Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard fired the opening salvos of the American Civil War on April 12th, and Fanny Longfellow was fatally burned in an accident in the library of Craigie House on July 10th.

The day before the accident, Fanny Longfellow recorded in her journal: "We are all sighing for the good sea breeze instead of this stifling land breeze that is filled with dust. Poor Allegra is very droopy with heat, and Edie has to get her hair in a net to free her neck from the weight."

After trimming some of seven year old Edith's beautiful curls, Fanny decided to preserve the clippings in sealing wax. Melting a bar of sealing wax with a candle, a few drops fell unnoticed upon her dress.

Just then a beautiful breeze from the ocean gusted through the window, igniting the light material of Fanny's dress - which immediately engulfed her in flames. In her attempt to protect Edith and Allegra, she ran to Henry's study in the next room, where Henry frantically attempted to extinguish the flames with an undersized throw rug.

Failing to stop the fire with the rug, he tried to smother the flames by throwing his arms around Frances-- severely burning his face, arms, and hands. Fanny Longfellow died the next morning. Too ill from his burns and grief, Henry did not attend her funeral.

The first Christmas after Fanny's death, Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year after the incident, he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." Longfellow's journal entry for December 25th 1862 reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me."

Almost a year later, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and taking off a fragment of his spine. The Christmas of 1863 was silent in Longfellow's journal.

Finally, on Christmas Day of 1864, he wrote the words of the poem, "Christmas Bells."

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day - Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet - The words repeat - Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along - The unbroken song - Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

‘Till, 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!