In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
This nineteenth-century carol has never felt much like other Christmas songs. Indeed, both tune and lyric feel too morose for the season.
This year, however, another phrase captures my imagination:
“…with the dawn of redeeming grace….”
As I ponder these two notions: bleak mid-winter and dawning grace, I wonder if perhaps they work together.
One emphasizes the warmth of motherly tenderness surrounded by cold realities. The other anticipates newness – a dawning of the gifts of grace which brighten and roll back “bleak mid-winter” despair.
I further thought about our Ohio Conference, and all our congregations in West Virginia, Northern Kentucky and Ohio, your congregation among them. We could easily list despairs.
But Advent is an occasion for thanks-giving and celebration. In spite of “bleakness,” awesome ministries and mission energies mark the work of our congregations. There are impressive and faithful service projects and advocacy efforts growing as a result of sermons, Bible studies, discussion groups, imaginative worship times, prayer circles, caregiver projects, and more, which feed the souls in each congregation. Thus nourished by the spiritual life of the congregation they witness to the dawning of God’s redeeming grace.
So, as Advent leads us toward this year’s Christ-birth celebrations, I thank you for your efforts as pastor and congregation to share the Christ-Spirit of love, hope, joy, and peace. In gratitude, I offer this prayer:
May the silence of the holy night which promises a dawn of redeeming grace so fill your ministries with joy and witness that the bleakness and challenges of the times around us are lightened as we work together to love neighbor, love children, and love creation – in Christ’s name!
John M Gantt
Interim Conference Minister
Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ.