Silent Night

Nativity
Gerard van Honthorst

It probably wasn't silent that night.

One of the largest censuses of the known world was being taken. People were coming and going. There were probably a lot more people in Bethlehem than normal as well as animals.

It wasn't silent that night.

Joseph and Mary were most likely reunited with distant relatives when they came to Bethlehem. Family was important especially if you could trace your family all the way back to King David (as both Joseph and Mary could). There was probably much chatter and arguments as they attempted to make room for Mary and Joseph because Mary was pregnant (and we always try and make the expectant mothers comfortable).

But there wasn't room. There were too many distant family members coming into town at one time and so Mary and Joseph ended up out back in the stable-cave.

It wasn't silent that night.

I've never seen a live birth, but I doubt it's silent. Childbirth during biblical times would have been tense. So much could go wrong. The child might die. The mother might die. The women of the family were probably calling for the nearest midwife. Mary herself would have been crying out in pain.

Groaning for the whole world as she bore the Messiah into his humanity.

It wasn't silent that night.

But it might have been rather quiet out in the pastures where the shepherds were watching their sheep. Quiet, just before the heavens burst open and angels appeared and proclaimed "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!"

Eventually, though, the city would begin to wind down for the night. People would go to sleep and the streets would clear to almost emptiness and a gentle silence would fall over the area, only broken by angels in the pasture and shepherds coming to worship.

To this day there is a stillness and a silence that comes during this holy time. It's a silence filled with anticipation and awe. A stillness before a storm. In this silence one prepares their heart, mind, and soul for the arrival of God on earth in full humanity.

It is a silence full of peace. Full of love.

Full of the grace of God.

This peace, this love, this grace becomes tangible when we let it fill us; when we let all that these things embody overflow in our dealings with everyone.

This peace, this love, this grace gives hope. This peace, this love, this grace can stop wars.

This peace, this love, this grace is embodied in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. The King of King and Lord of Lords. On this holy night he was birthed into this world, and on another holy night he will come again. This is only the beginning.

Joy to the world!

Glory to God!

Alleluia!

Amen!



*The links are to two YouTube videos. The first is Echosmith's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" written by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote in the midst of the American Civil War as a poem which was later put to music. I've been meditating on the song for the past week or so, what with all the turmoil in the USA and globally as well. The second link is to the 2014 Sainsbury's Christmas commercial which they made in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Truce of 1914 when two groups of men on opposing sides of a "war to end all wars" stopped to remember each other's humanity. 

**To all my readers here in the USA and abroad - Merry Christmas. May the joy and peace of God which passes all understanding be with you always until the end of the age.