Just two hours ago we closed the church doors at the end of the first day of the crib festival. During the day visitors had come to the church to see the display of about 30 crib scenes and listen to music accompanying images of nativity scenes from around the world. Children had coloured, done puzzles and played with figures from child-friendly sets. Mince pies, cakes and biscuits had been eaten and mugs of tea and coffee had been drunk. Most importantly, people had been welcomed and conversations were shared, sometimes going deep.
One comment that I heard several times from people of all ages was, “It is so peaceful.” In the midst of all the seasonal busyness, the church was a welcome haven. People sat and reflected quietly, wrote prayers for the prayer tree, rested, and found refreshment. The noise was hushed.
The third verse of “It came upon the midnight clear” ends with the words:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
and hear the angels sing.
The hymn was written by Edmund H. Sears in 1849. He was an American pastor. He wrote from the perspective of personal melancholy following a time of illness, and shortly after war with Mexico. When he wrote there was news of revolution in Europe. Sears focuses on the song of the angels in the poem. It is a song promising peace, but the peace seems not to have come. Humans at war do not hear the love song of the angels. As we read or hear the news today we may well feel that peace is a distant dream. Two thousand years of wrong have rolled beneath the angels’ song, beneath those unfurled wings of peace which call us to respond.
In Llangollen Methodist Church we have been offering a space and time to hush the noise and hear the song of the angels. For some of those who came this was a special place, a place of welcome and a place of peace.
The poet’s prayer is “hush the noise” and “hear the angels sing.”
This is also my prayer as we wait beneath angel wings.
Ruth M Gee 241214
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