I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I have a new favorite Christmas song: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. The song is not well-known, and it’s rarely sung in churches (it’s been omitted from the United Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal hymnals), though it’s theology is as rich as any song I’ve heard:

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 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.”

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!

This is based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and was written during the US Civil War – certainly an occasion for ‘bowing one’s head in despair’.  Longfellow’s original version contains several references to the 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!

Yet in the midst of the hate that mocks the song, the bells peal even more deeply an echo of Psalm 121: “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep”. Admittedly, it’s sometimes hard to hear the “loud and deep” message of Christmas. But this hymn gives us an opportunity to listen past the hate that mocks our hope in Christ, and it invites us tune our ears to the “chant sublime” of God’s everlasting peace.

May we listen loud and deep this Advent season!