Work the Works of Jesus

The year was 1849, and those attuned to the times knew that the U.S. was on the brink of catastrophic consequences. African people had been in bondage in the U.S. for over two hundred years, and the prevailing winds of incremental change were blowing. War was on the horizon, and the sin of slavery would cost more lives than anyone could have ever imagined.

Dr Edmund Sears, a Unitarian pastor from Wayland, Massachusetts, was attuned to the moment. He felt lost as he sat trying to construct an uplifting Christmas message for his community. How could he inspire them when his soul was heavy, wearied and restless in light of all the brokenness surrounding him?

He was troubled, troubled by poverty, troubled by the egregious sin of slavery, and concerned at the general state of humanity in light of what God had actually shaped and created us to be. No uplifting message came as he desperately searched for the words.

Sears, then only thirty-nine years old, had been educated at Union College and the Harvard Divinity School. Though his church affiliation, the Unitarian Church, is well known for not espousing the divinity of Jesus, Sears believed and preached Jesus' divine nature weekly. He believed Jesus was the Begotten son of God and the Saviour of the world. He also firmly believed that every follower of The Way of Jesus should be engaged in meeting the needs of the lost, poor and marginalised.

Sears was a force of Gospel mercy and justice in a world that summarily ignored such tenets of true biblical faith. His burden for the hungry, sick, and marginalised demanded he reaches out daily to those Jesus called "the least of these."

As he tried to write his message that day, it was that very poverty and the hopelessness of the people that he served in the slums that sickened his heart and halted his progress.

He thumbed through his bible as he struggled and landed in Luke's record of Jesus' life and ministry. The words in the eighth and ninth verses of chapter two moved him.

"That night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified…"

After considering the miracle of that long-ago moment, Sears picked up his pen and scribbled out a five-verse poem he called. It came upon a midnight clear. He then retrieved another poem he had written years before entitled Calm on the list'ning ear of night comes heaven's melodious strains. Combined, the two poems conspired to form the start and end of his Christmas Eve sermon.

Today Sear's poem turned carol is considered joyful and uplifting. Still, when it was first delivered, it was undoubtedly received as a charge and challenge rather than the story of a miraculous birth in a land and time long and far away.

Yes, Pastor Sears desired his congregation to celebrate Christmas. Still, he longed equally for them to see the poor as valuable image bearers, address the nation's social issues, and consider what they could do as individuals to best reflect the spirit of Jesus in their lives every day.

He wanted desperately for them to look to heaven's offering and understand how God would have them love and serve humankind in His name. His hopes are evident in the poem's all-but-forgotten second verse, which reads:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world hath suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing!

You may find it interesting that I googled multiple versions of this song, but I could not find the true second verse on any site or in any version, as if it was purposefully ripped from the page to avoid the implications.

God did not intend His world to be one of war, injustice, wrong, strife, poverty and marginalisation. He is clear about this from an assortment of places in the Scriptures, but one familiar to many of us will be the one Dr King often quotes.

"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" [Micah 6:8]

God has ever and always stood for those who cannot stand for themselves.

Sears wanted his congregation and the world to hear those cries of the low as he did… and honestly, so do I.

We cannot follow The Way of Jesus until we work the works of Jesus in the world.

The rich depth of this song reminds us that woven into its lyrical fabric is both the beauty and wonder of Christmas and the truth that God, in the form of a child, entered a helpless world in need of His help.

It came upon a midnight clear that Christ's love for the world must be lived by His people.

We gather from this powerful song both the hope we have in Jesus, despite the fractured nature of the world and the call we have to work for the world as it is to more readily reflect the world as it will be.

Christmas reminds us that God kept and will keep His promises, including His promise to remake the world. It also reminds us that, as His people, we are reflections of His promise.

So what do we do until He remakes the world? If we are followers of Jesus' way, We commit ourselves to the works of Jesus as followers of the way of Jesus.

Specifically, we live from rest and not for it. We make the lives of the least of these our priority. We reveal to those far from God the promises of the future to come. We return the Angel song to them both vocally and in our actions.

Can you imagine what a gift we would be to the world if we responded to the call of Sears' song and the Scriptural promises it surfaces?

We would be influential people… and more than that, the Church would become a church without which our communities can live.