A Midnight Clear?

It came upon the midnight clear, 
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold,
'Peace on the earth, good will to all,
from heaven's all-gracious King!'
The world in solemn stillness lay
to hear the angels sing.

 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,[b] praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

Luke 2:8-14 NRSV

I presided at a lot of Christmasy Advent 4 and at least 70 Christmas Eve services during nearly four decades of pastoral ministry. I even did a half dozen or more Christmas morning services when Christmas fell on a Sunday. I just couldn't bring myself to say, "oh well, it's Christmas, so we'll ignore Jesus!" 

My relationship with the later service was kinda love/hate, especially in the earlier years when it began at 11 and we were getting home after midnight. I was a zombie through too many Christmas mornings with our kids.

Just the same, I loved the contemplative nature of the service. We nearly always celebrated communion and concluded indoors with candle-lighting. We did sing It Came Upon a Midnight Clear at least one service every year, and usually at that one. For nearly 30 years we also went outside at the conclusion to sing Silent Night., a tradition I inherited from St. Andrew's UC in Sudbury where it was thirty below some years! If we were fortunate or blessed the sky would be clear and we could see the stars above. That was the circumstance for my last service at Bridge St. UC in Belleville.

It has occurred to me that in a time when light pollution and air pollution are on the increase around the planet we can't take the "midnight clear" and "calm and bright" for granted. I'm assuming that the heavenly host described in Luke's gospel were not light-polluting even though the glory of the Lord shone about them. 

I doubt that Mary and Joseph would have been looking for the Milky Way or the alignment of planets as Jesus was born, but I hope in was dazzling for certain poor shepherds!

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.