In the Bleak Midwinter
In the Bleak Midwinter is a Christmas carol that deserves more attention that it gets. The lyric was written by English poet Christina Rossi in 1872. Gustav Holst and Harold Darke each composed music for the poem and, although the Darke version is more acclaimed, I strongly prefer Holst. The lyrics and many audio and/or visual presentations are available online. I recommend any by an English cathedral choir. I can never persuade our Christmas caroling group to sing this carol. In fairness, it is too solemn for the joyful setting of caroling but should somehow be included in the seasonal repertoire. Our local barbershop chorus, The Snowbelters, included it in our Christmas program a few weeks ago. Perhaps the best rendition is by Chanticleer and is available on various streaming platforms. Do listen to this sometime this holiday season. Also, you can find audio and pdf files of a sermon on this subject that I preached a few years ago at sermonaudio.com.
It seems that we are in the bleak midwinter in culture, in politics and even in our churches. In culture, we have the idolatry of many other gods made with men’s minds and hearts. We have the blasphemy of the true worship of false gods and the false worship of the True God. The Sabbath day is not kept holy but is treated like any other day only more so. Saturday is for home work and Sunday is for play. Our media and entertainment are filled with irreverence, murder, adultery, lying and stealing. Covetousness is powerfully promoted in advertisements. In our communities, life imitates this art. Sex and gender are in utter chaos and confusion. And the great American tradition of religious liberty is increasingly regarded as a means of oppression.
In our county, towns and cities we have broken homes including tenuous cohabitation, neglect, abuse, divorce and children who are functionally orphans. We suffer unemployment, underemployment, poverty, substance abuse and addiction. Our social service sector is one of the largest employers and still they are overwhelmed with work. In our state, abortion is legal for any one, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. Our nation is a house bitterly divided against itself and is filled with crony capitalism, predatory socialism and self-serving democracy.
In many of our churches, only a small fraction of the pews are filled and some churches are closing or consolidating. Our church leadership is aging and the next generation is moving away or, if remaining, is uninterested in the life and ministry of the church. We have few young children and fewer infants. Almost no one even considers the calling to the pastoral ministry.
But God is faithful to His promise and winter does not last forever, no matter how long and hard it may be. In His perfect time, He sends light into darkness, soft warmth into the hard cold, a still breeze into the fierce wind and waves, life into death and joy into bleakness. The bleak midwinter of our sin and death is transformed into the promising spring of Christ’s righteousness and life. And, ultimately, not for a season merely, but forever.
Turn to Christ to bring you out of your bleakness, whatever it is and whenever you are in the midst of it. Trust Him to work even in the bleakness because grace grows best in winter. And trust Him to prepare you in the winter for the spring. In Christ, as the apostle Paul says, “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Listen to the final words of In the Bleak Midwinter and make these words your own.
Kit Swartz Pastor-Teacher Emeritus RPC Oswego, NY
