Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Midnight Clear, Lasting Peace
A beloved carol hides a bold surprise: it leaves out the nativity while aiming straight at the heart of Christmas—peace on earth. We unpack the story behind It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, written by Edmund Sears in 1849, and explore why its focus on the angels’ proclamation in Luke 2:13–14 still hits home in a fractured world. The result is a five‑minute guide to hearing the angelic song above the static of outrage and anxiety.
We dive into the hymn’s historical backdrop as the United States lurched toward civil war, highlighting the often‑omitted third stanza that names two thousand years of wrong and pleads for a hush to the noise of strife. That missing verse shifts the carol from sentiment to summons, reminding us that spiritual peace is not passive; it is a courageous, lived response to conflict. By restoring this context, the carol regains its prophetic edge and invites us to practice reconciliation where we live, work, and scroll.
The thread across time is clear: when angels sing of glory and peace, people are meant to echo it with patience, kindness, and resolve. If you’re longing for a calmer, truer cadence this season, this reflection offers both grounding and a gentle push toward action.
Here is the youtube link to today's song.
https://youtu.be/LYDa4Kht6Eo?si=sEND4cOrJrtUXbgl
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the first week of December. Hope your month is off to a great start. And today for your Music Monday episode, we're going to be talking about the only commonly sung Christmas carol in our hymnals that does not mention the birth of Christ. And this song is It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, written in 1849 by Edmund Sears. The song is based on Luke chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. Suddenly there were with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And if we take a look at the time in which Edmund Sears lived, we can see why he was focusing on that particular message of Christmas. Carlton Young, who was an editor for the first hymnal that published this song, puts it this way. He says The hymn's central theme contrasts the scourge of war with the song of the angels, peace to God's people on earth. The context in which Sears was writing was the social strife that plagued the country as the Civil War approached, and the original hymn contained a third standard which is missing from many of our hymnals today, and this verse sheds more light on the poet's concerns about the social situation in the US in the mid nineteenth century. Here are the words from that third stanza. But with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long. Beneath the angel's strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong, and man at war with man hears not. The love song which they bring a hush of noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing. I believe it's really unfortunate that we don't have that verse in our hymnals today, because it speaks to much of what we are seeing and what's going on around us. People have forgotten that the message of Christ is the message of peace, and yet we continue to fight against it by creating division, antagonism, and war. We need peace. We need that message of peace to resonate within us and for us today. And that's what this song declares for us. It is a message of peace that came upon that midnight clear. This song resonates throughout the ages because of its timeless appeal. The song's call for peace in the midst of turmoil strikes a chord that transcends generations. Over the years, various artists have lent their voices to this classic carol, from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald in church congregations all around the world, each one of them ensuring that the message of peace and hope continues to reach the hearts of people everywhere. As we remember the historical context of this song, we can all appreciate how this carol served as a source of healing during times of upheaval, offering solace and a reminder of the enduring spirit of Christmas. And the legacy of the song extends beyond the music sheets. It stands as a testament and reminder of God's message of peace that came when Jesus was born, a message of hope for the world. I'm going to leave you today with a short clip of the song sung beautifully by the group Celtic Woman. In your show notes, there will be a YouTube link where you can go and watch them sing it and listen to the whole thing. It's beautiful, it's wonderful. And the song itself is a powerful reminder that Jesus came to bring peace. Peace to you and me, and to everyone in the world who will accept him. Because without him, there can never be peace. Have a great day, my friends, and here's Celtic Woman with It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.
