A Weary World

Week 3: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Our devotional focus on carols turns to “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” this week. The writer, Rev. Edmund Sears had suffered a breakdown after several years at a large church and returned to a former congregation in Wayland, Massachusetts to recuperate. In 1849 when he wrote this carol as a 39 year old, overwhelmed by the revolution in Europe and the Mexican-American war, he felt that life was full of “sin and strife.” He was an ardent crusader against slavery and was dismayed by hints of a war between the States. Perhaps he experienced the German state of weltschmertz, the “deep melancholy about the state of the world.”  Even the tune “Carol”, written in 1861 by Richard Storrs, evokes a bit of melancholic reflectiveness.   

In his opening line, “It came upon the midnight clear,“ Sears suggests that he might have had some sleepless nights of worry. And who among us hasn’t experienced a restless night when unbidden and unwelcome thoughts keep us awake? Who has not reflected on the “weary world” in which we live or felt “life’s crushing load?” Who hasn’t wished for “solemn stillness” in a world of endless news feeds and discord?  

In his nocturnal reflection, Sears recalls, “That glorious song of old” perhaps with nostalgia for the recent past but more likely with a longing to hear good news of great joy like that the angels brought to shepherds on a hillside in Bethlehem two centuries ago. “Peace on earth, good will to all”, they said. That song still rings out today.

REFLECTION QUESTION(S):

1.This Advent season, take time to listen. Can you tune in to the song that swells beyond the noise of this world?  

2. What does peace look like for you?  How might you bring it into your life this Advent season?

Shepherds, John August Swanson, 1985.  Used with permission from the artist’s estate.

WRITTEN BY

Garrell Keesler