Christina Georgina Rossetti

Luke 2:4-7

Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

 In the Bleak Midwinter

 1    In the bleak midwinter, 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 midwinter, long ago.

2    Heaven cannot hold him, nor earth sustain;
      heav'n and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign;
      in the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
      the Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ.

3    What can I give him, poor as I am?
      If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
      if I were a wise man, I would do my part;
      yet what I can I give him—give my heart.

Text: Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1830-1894

            My wife was raised a devout Catholic, she remained so even as her own parents joined the Lutheran congregation.  Eventually they wore her down, and she joined the choir where I served as the director. We fell in love and became the 1980’s version of a “mixed marriage” – Catholic and Lutheran.  People who pooh pooh such a thing as inconsequential have no idea how deeply such passions run.

Christina Georgina Rossetti was an Italian Anglican engaged to Catholic who promised to convert, but before the wedding had second thoughts and bailed.  It broke her heart, and in response to her sorrow, she wrote a simple and elegant poem retelling the Christmas Story. Twelve years after her death in 1894, it was set to music. Its simple language contains powerful emotional images, demonstrating the dire reality of the stable - “blowing wind, the earth frozen hard as iron, snow on snow in the bleak midwinter …and also a remarkable felicity of phrase to relate of the wonder of the Christmas story, where at the stable shepherds and wise men present gifts, Mary greets her newborn son with a kiss and we are invited to leave our own broken hearts.

Prayer:  Incarnate Lord, you came in humility as a baby in a manger, we come to you in the poverty of our lives, offering only what we have, our hearts.  Revive them, shape them, set them on fire, and then, turn us loose to proclaim the wonder of your birth in this wintery world.  Amen.