Silent Night

      When I think of celebrating Christmas, one of the images that comes to my mind is what we will share at the end of this service.  We have shared it on just about every Christmas Eve since we started this church.

      The ushers will take fire from the Christ candle.  Then they will pass it to the congregation.  The lights will be dimmed.  Then the choir will lead us as we sing those beautiful words:  “Silent night, holy night.”

       That feels like Christmas.

In fact the church organ worked just fine. And the words - well Pastor Mohr had written them as a poem two years earlier. But suddenly on Christmas Eve morning, 1818, Pastor Mohr decided that it might be nice to have a new carol for the coming service. And he thought that his poem could be set to music. He hurried off to see his friend, Franz Gruber, who was a school teacher and also served as the church's organist and choir master. Maybe he could help. He did. In a few short hours Franz Gruber came up with the hauntingly beautiful melody that is so loved to this day. At the request of Joseph, who had a special love for his guitar, Franz composed the music for guitar accompaniment.

Just short hours later, Franz stood with his friend the pastor, Joseph, in front of the altar in St. Nicholas church and introduced "Stille Nacht" to the world.

"That night, a song was born which has become an anchor for Christmas celebrations everywhere. Silent Night" has been translated into nearly 300 languages and dialects. Its lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be heard from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm-thatched huts in Peru.

       Joseph Mohr, the author, was born to an unwed mother.  He never knew his father.  His father joined the army as a musketeer, and we know nothing more about him.  The boy Joseph was to receive an education in the city of Salzburg.  The choir master assumed the role of a foster father -- the choir director was Franz Josef Haydn. 

       Take a look at the carol with me.  It’s printed in your order of service.  I want you to look in stanza three at a little phrase that occurs at the end of the stanza before the refrain. The phrase is, “...the dawn of redeeming grace.”  The dawn of redeeming grace  -- that’s what Christmas is; that’s what the Nativity is; that’s what the Advent of Jesus is: it’s the dawn of redeeming grace:  redemption which had been promised down through the centuries of the Old Testament.

        And now, finally, all the promises, all of the allusions to the coming of the Savior have joined together, they’ve come together on this momentous, holy night.  That’s what the birth of Jesus is.  It’s the dawn of redeeming grace.  It’s not the end, it’s not the culmination: it’s the dawn of it.  It’s the promise finding fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. 

      Joseph Mohr paints a beautiful picture.  Stanza three:  “Silent night!  Holy night!  Son of God, love’s pure light....”  That’s poetry.  Joseph Mohr is saying,  not literally, forget all the haloes and things like that, but from the face of Jesus, there shines radiant beams of love! That’s what the poetry is saying. 

       Theologians have spoken about a covenant made between the Father and the Son in the councils of eternity.  They call that covenant “the covenant of redemption.”  It’s when the Father and the Son agree to save a people for eternity from their sins.

       Can you imagine for a minute the Father speaking to His Son?  And He says to His Son, “Son, I want to save a great company of men and women, and boys and girls from their sins; from the fallen race of humanity.  I want to save a great number of people.  It’s going to require that Someone goes down into the world, that Someone penetrates into time and space; that Someone becomes like Adam, to do what Adam could not do: to undo the consequences of what Adam did.  My Son, will You...?  Will You do that?”

       And Jesus says, “I will, Father. I will.”  

       And the Father says to His Son, “You understand, my Son, what that will mean: You understand You will become the target of satanic attack in a way that has never been the case with any man or woman before?”

       “I understand,” Jesus says, “I understand.”

       “You understand that You will have to obey every facet and every detail of the Law?”

       “I understand,” Jesus says.

       “You understand that if You become the substitute for sinners, they will take You and they will nail You to a cross.  You understand that?”

       “I understand,” Jesus says.

       “Do You understand, My Son, that I will have to be just, and I will have to pour out My unmitigated wrath upon that sin which You assume to Yourself?  Not wrath as it’s ever been seen before, but unmitigated wrath.  You understand, My Son?  There will come a time when You will not even be conscious that I am Your Father.  You understand that?  You will cry from the cross, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’  Do You understand that, My Son?”

       And He says, “Father, I understand that.”

       “And will You still become the Savior of sinners?”

       “Yes!” Jesus says, “Yes, I will.”

       “Why?” the Father asks.

       “Because I love them.  Because I love them.”