The third Sunday of Advent — in some traditions the pink candle is lit to signify the hope of the world that will come with the birth of Jesus. Traditions using other colors of candles, of course, may just refer to this Sunday as the day reflect hope. Regardless of the tradition, it is another Sunday set aside to ponder the coming of the Christ Child into an expectant and hopeful universe.
For this Sunday I've chosen to begin a transition from hymns that are purely advent in nature (foretelling) to one celebrating the place of the first Christmas. Of course, one of the more familiar is “O Little Town of Bethlehem” written by Phillips Brooks three years after his visit to Bethlehem in the Christmas of 1865.
Brooks was a rather large person being six feet six inches tall and weighing nearly 300 pounds. His fame as a preacher was even larger. Brooks, a ninth-generation Puritan born in Boston, moved from that city to Philadelphia as an Episcopal priest. After the close of the Civil War he made the lengthy trip to Bethlehem where he could celebrate Christmas. It was on Christmas Eve in the old Church of the Nativity where, perhaps, Phillips was first stirred by the emotion of actually being so close to where Jesus was born.
It wasn’t until 1868 that he composed a five-verse poem reflecting on that experience and it’s relevance for the period of time in which he lived. He wanted the children of the parish to have a new Christmas carol to sing at their Christmas service. After composing the poem he gave it to the organist, Lewis Redner, stating that if he came up with a good tune for the poem he’d name the tune after him.
Days went by with little inspiration coming to Redner. Finally, after going to bed on December 23, the tune came to him in a dream. Awaking from sleep he jotted out notes on the flow of the melody. The next day he completed the tune and the children and their teachers learned it for performance that night.
Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching, and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night ends, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
Brooks was so pleased with the Redner’s tune that he named it ST. LOUIS changing the spelling so as not to embarrass him.
In some hymnals a tune created for the 1906 English Hymnal, FOREST GREEN, is often used.
Byron Songer
December 12, 2015
