Singing of the Soul

The journey of Advent starts at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry with him teaching in the Temple about the coming of the kingdom of God just before the Passover and his arrest. So, why do we begin at the end? Advent is all about preparing for the coming of Christ. As we celebrate his birth two millennia ago, we also look forward to his return by preparing to welcome him. And when he comes, the Kingdom of God will be fully present.

Of course, we have had predictions of when this will happen…the earliest between 66-70. The most recent this year with the Blood Moon between April and September 2015. The next prediction right now is 2020. But, if we make it past 2020, there are more…2021, 2026, 2060, 2120, 2129, 2200, 2239, 2280, 11120, 500 million, 5 billion, or 10 to the 100th power. The truth is, we don’t know, and we can’t predict. Jesus was clear that he did not know the day or the hour and that only God does. But while predictions are pointless, being ready is not. Jesus does give us signs to watch for: First, he says that there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars.” Just like at his birth there was a star in the sky, and at his death the sky was dark from noon until 3 in the afternoon, when Jesus returns, the lights of the world will reveal that the true light of the world is come. Second, Jesus says that nations will be in anguish…war, economic distress, rebellion…man-made governments will be falling apart. And people will be afraid. Jesus says, “People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world” and the word translated “faint” basically means “will stop breathing.” People will be so afraid, they won’t be able to breathe. The good and bad news is that every generation has seen these signs. Comets, asteroids, eclipses, wars, tragedies, depressions, uprisings, and widespread fear are not uncommon to experience in a lifetime.

The signs are vague enough that we can point to instances and events that could be signs. And I think that’s by design…we aren’t supposed to figure it out. And the possible signs keep us alert. So, our reaction to the signs and Jesus’ instructions for the faithful in the midst of the signs are more important, I think than predictions. Jesus says, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near…..Be careful not to get caught up in short-term pleasures and the worries of this life, stay alert to the gifts God gives you to be able to do God’s work in the world. Be careful that God’s purposes guide your life, so you will be ready to stand before the Son of Man at his return.”

Just like Jesus told Pilate in our Scripture last week, he was born for this…we are born with gifts and abilities to use for God in this world. Because while the Kingdom of God isn’t fully present yet, glints of it shine in our lives, it is the song our soul sings. And as our soul sings, hope bubbles up. As hope bubbles up, the things that weigh us down lighten, and we are able to stand, prepared to welcome the Lord and his kingdom.

That was Phillips Brooks’ experience. He had been a pastor for 6 years…6 long years… leading Holy Trinity Church in Philadephia through the bloody years of the Civil War. Everyone in the congregation was grieving the death of someone they loved from battle. He felt a responsibility to be inspirational, to broadcast hope that the darkness would lift. Throughout the six years, his popularity soared, and his spirit sank. Then when the war was over, when he hoped that healing could begin, President Lincoln was shot…and then he was asked to officiate the funeral.

The song of his soul was in danger of being muted permanently. So, he took a sabbatical, and traveled to the Holy Land for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Jerusalem was bustling. He wasn’t the only pilgrim who had come for the holidays. So, he rented a horse and rode through the countryside, alone with his thoughts he reflected on how little had changed since the first Century as he prayed.

“At dusk a sudden sense of awe fell over Brooks. Under a clear sky, the first stars just beginning to emerge, he rode into the still tiny and remote village of Bethlehem.” Here, in this place, the Savior of the world was born. He did not have words to describe his awe…the King of kings born in this modest, unlikely place. “There, on streets almost unchanged since biblical times, he felt as if he were surrounded by the spirit of the first Christmas. He would later tell his family and friends that the experience was so overpowering that it would forever be “singing in my soul.”

After he got home, he tried to put his experience into words. For three years he said “the ‘singing in his soul’ remained strong, but his inability to share the stirring imagery haunted him.” He wrote in his journal, “Before dark we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it, in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds…somewhere in those fields we rode through, the shepherds must have been. As we passed, the shepherds were still keeping watch over their flocks.” And he wrote, “I was standing in the old church in Bethlehem, close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with the splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I know well, telling each other of the Saviour’s birth.”

Finally, as he prepared for Christmas in 1868, he didn’t try to capture the experience in words. He simply relived it in his mind. Lines of poetry seemed to float into his thoughts, and he jotted them down. He shared them with his music director, who tried but struggled unsuccessfully to set the words to music. Finally on Christmas Eve, as he went to bed, he admitted failure. In the night, a tune came to him. As he rubbed his eyes awake the next morning, he realized that it fit the words of Brooks’ poem perfectly.

On Christmas morning, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was complete. Phillips Brooks is recognized as the greatest American preacher of the nineteenth Century, but it is the song of his soul that we know.

Phillips Brooks was spiritually empty after six years of funerals and mourning the spirit of our nation. The signs of God’s Kingdom are always present; sometimes we are more aware of them. Sometimes they seem to be harder to ignore, but nature always has anomalies, the nations of the world always have unrest, and we are afraid, always trying to control through worry some aspect of our lives. The good news of hope is that these signs are not indicators of what is to come, but they point us to a new reality. These signs are the birth pains of a new creation. And we live in the midst of labor. The Kingdom is surely coming, and we even experience it – like a child in the womb, we imagine what it will be like, even as we experience the hope of its coming.

It’s a lot like feeling a baby kick in its mother’s belly. You don’t know exactly where it will kick, or when it will kick. But, you wait, alert.

For those moments when your soul sings like Phillip Brooks on the back of a horse alone with God on Christmas Eve as the lights of Bethlehem chased away the darkness. For moments like his music director, Lewis Redner, experienced as he reluctantly went to sleep without the lyrics set to music and awoke with a melody.

Moments when you stand before the Son of Man and lift your head, knowing that he is your hope.

*The story of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” is told in Ace Collin’s Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas.