The Story Behind "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day "
Date:   December 25, 2011
Minister:  The Rev. Susan Bjork

Lesson:  John 1:1-14

 

On this Christmas Day, we hold in our arms the precious gift of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

We hold in our arms the gift of hope… hope that outshines doubt and fear; hope that keeps our eyes on the prize, striving for justice, peace, wholeness, and neighborliness. 

We hold in our arms the gift of peace… peace that does not give up in the face of violence but resolves to persist in peacemaking; peace that can quiet even the cacophony of war.

We hold in our arms the gift of love… love that cannot be conquered by hate, love that “endures all things and bears all things” as Paul once said.

We hold in our arms the gift of joy… joy that is deep within us, joy that is resurrected, even when pain and suffering attack it.

These are the true gifts of Christmas which we celebrate year after year.  But even so, we may feel at times that it is hard to celebrate these gifts.  Things happen in our lives sometimes that make it difficult for us to proclaim the joy of Christmas.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the 19th century American poet and abolitionist felt this way when he wrote the poem, Christmas Bells, part of which was later set to music to become the beloved carol we sang this morning,

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

Christmas had not been an easy celebration for Longfellow for a few years.  The painful injustice of slavery was deep in his heart in 1861 as the first shots of the Civil War were fired between South and North, and the sorrow of brother fighting brother weighed heavily upon him. 

In the same year that the Civil War began, Longfellow lost his wife Fanny in a tragic accident.  While sealing envelopes with wax, Fanny’s skirt caught fire.  Henry tried to save her with a small throw rug, but by the time he succeeded in putting the flames out, Fanny had been badly burned and did not survive more than another 24 hours. 

Longfellow himself sustained burns, including some on his face, while trying to save her and as a result could no longer shave.  His long iconic beard was a result of this tragedy. 

The first Christmas after Fanny’s death, Longfellow wrote in his journal: “How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.  I can make no record of these days.  Better to leave them wrapped in silence.  Perhaps someday God will give me peace.”

The violent realities of the Civil War hit close to home when Longfellow’s son, Charles, who was fighting in the Union Army, was seriously wounded by a bullet that hit his shoulder, close to his spine.  Remarkably, Charles did survive and eventually healed fully from his wounds.

It was in this mix of emotions and experiences that Longfellow wrote this poem, a few years after Fanny’s death. 

The poem begins with three stanzas that reflect on the bells that have chimed every Christmas all across the world to remind all hearers of the “good news that shall be to all people.” 

In the next three stanzas, however, the realities of the Civil War and his own grief challenge Longfellow’s ability to affirm this good news.  Instead, in these verses he likens the cannons of war to mouths which spew forth death and destruction, resulting in earthquakes of division, suffering and hatred.

But sorrow, war, and injustice do not have the final word in this poem.  Instead, Longfellow leaves us not with despair, but with hope. 

His final stanza proclaims once more, as the bells peal ever more loudly and deeply, that God Emmanuel is with us, that God’s ever-present gift of hope, peace, love, and joy was given to us this day in the City of David when a tender and meek baby boy was born to poor parents and laid in a manger in Bethlehem.

Let us now hear Longfellow’s own words in his 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!

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 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!"

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!"

Amen and Merry Christmas!