Dec 7th: Peace in Unexpected Places, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.
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Rev. Dr. Steven Koski
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Peace in Unexpected Places with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Journeys Through Advent A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Luke 2:14, Isaiah 9:6, John 1:5.
Curious about the story behind “Silent Night” in the trenches? Join us this Sunday (online or in person) for a message on peace, hope, and unexpected connections. Everyone’s welcome!
Transcript:
Steven: One of my favorite moments of the entire year is Christmas Eve, when we light the Christ candle, celebrating the light of God’s love that has entered the darkness of the world in the birth of Jesus, a light we are promised that the darkness can never extinguish. We pass the light of a candle, one to another, singing, Silent night, holy night. All is calm. All is bright. In that moment, the world is still, and it’s as if we can hear the voice of the angels as recorded in the Gospel of Luke saying, Peace, peace on earth and good will to all in that moment, even just for a moment, we dare to trust that, contrary to all of the evidence the world offers, otherwise, that peace and good will are possible, peace, good will that seems like an impossible and even irrational dream. Madeline go wrote, This is the irrational season when Love Blooms bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason, there’d have been no room for the child We lit the second candle of Advent, the candle of peace. This is the irrational season. Can we make room in our hearts for the child we call the Prince of Peace, it’s my tradition during Advent too, to share a story about another time that Silent Night was sung a battleground full of death and despair became a holy ground, in a way that no one would have imagined possible. For a brief moment, there was peace on earth and goodwill to all this year seems like a particularly important time to remember this story. It was December 24 1914, two great armies, hundreds of 1000s of British, French and German soldiers faced each other along a front that extended along the border between France and Belgium. It was a terrible war, as if there was any other kind. Troops were dug in deep trenches cut into soggy, muddy soil, lit up by candles and flashlights. It was a constant struggle to keep the mud walls from collapsing and the trenches from flooding. Just 50 yards away was the enemy trench. Each side’s trench was protected by rolls of barbed wire. In between was called no man’s land. Each side posted snipers to shoot anything that moved in the opposite trench. Hand grenades were thrown, artillery shells were lobbed, occasional charges up out of the trenches were launched, almost always resulting in death. The trenches were close enough that men in one trench could hear their enemies voices as the first Christmas of that war approached. Troops on both sides received packages from home to boost morale. British troops received a Princess Mary packet containing cigarettes, pipe tobacco, and a greeting card from the King. Each soldier also received a plum pudding at Cadbury chocolates the German soldiers received packages that contain tobacco and a pipe. Separately from this, German troops also received gifts of sausage and beer and one thing more, the German government sent a lot of Christmas trees to the troops in the trenches as the sun moved across the sky on december 24 1914, something strange, unbelievable, unimaginable began to happen, the shooting slowed down and then came to a halt. No one issued an order. Soldiers on both sides simply stopped shooting. As the late afternoon dusk turned to darkness. The British troops, peering through the gloom, saw the most amazing thing, Christmas trees with lighted candles lying the edges of the trench, all up and down the line. German troops displayed the Christmas trees their government had sent to the front, displayed them so that their British enemies could see them. The stillness of the night, the silence of the artillery, the peculiar light of Christmas tree lights up and down the trenches where all the angels were singing that night, a German voice called out into the silent darkness, a gift is coming now. The British dove for cover, expecting a grenade, what came across was a boot filled with sausages and chocolate. The British scurried to find one of the Princess Mary packets, a plum pudding and a Christmas card from the King to send in reply. And then the singing started. Patriotic songs, military songs, drinking songs at first one side, followed by applause from the opposite trench, and then the other side. And then it was eerily quiet, the lighted Christmas trees, the darkness one soldier wrote in a letter home, my dear sister, Janet, you won’t believe this. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I would scarcely believe it was possible. Just imagine, while you and the family sang Christmas carols in front of the fireplace there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France. I could never have imagined such a god forsaken place with such despair and death, seemingly devoid of all hope, could all of a sudden become so holy, yet it was as if the holiness swept over us awaken something within us, and for A few moments, we didn’t see each other as enemies, into a darkness pierced only by the lit Christmas trees, came a familiar sound from the German side of the trenches, still a knock. I like a knocked. A German soldier began singing, silent, night, holy night. All up and down the Western Front. It spread for miles and miles, still a knocked, high like a knocked. All is calm, all is bright. The British troops were spellbound. Many joined the singing, and as they sang silent night together, the two languages merged into one, a language of peace, a language of hope, a language that came from that more beautiful world each heart knows is possible but is sometimes hard to imagine. They continue to sing into the night and as the sun rose on Christmas Day, voices from both sides shouted, you no shoot. We no shoot. And brave soldiers emerged from both sides unarmed, walked slowly, ever so cautiously, up out of the trenches into no man’s land, and they met in the middle, shook hands awkwardly, and exchanged Christmas greetings, up and down the line, spreading north and south South as spontaneous Christmas truce, gifts of cigarettes, Candy sausages, Plum puddings, chocolates were exchanged, and then uniform insignia, brass buttons, belt buckles, more singing and drinking and at several places along the western front, soccer games. Came for played the spirit of peace and good will prevailed over fear and the demonic spirit of war. This truce continued Christmas night into the second day and and then, after a week or so, those in power ordered the soldiers back into the trenches, and the shooting resumed once again across no man’s land, 6000 deaths. Per day for the next 46 months. But even for a short while, the improbable became possible, the unimaginable became a reality on a silent night and holy night in the trenches, the birth of the Christ Child, the Prince of Peace, interrupted the violence and drew hostile forces together as brothers and for a few moments, gave weary soldiers a taste of peace at good will. Again, as one soldier described it, I could never have imagined such a god forsaken place with such despair and death, seemingly devoid of all hope, could all of a sudden become so holy. Yet it was as if the holiness swept over us awaken something within us, and for a few moments in time we didn’t see each other as enemies. This is all in a book called Silent Night, the story of the World War One Christmas truce, by Stanley Weintraub. I know it’s not Christmas Eve, but in a moment Silent Night will be sun. May we remember something awakening in those soldiers, interrupting the violence, causing them to come out of their trenches, sharing an improbable peace, and even for just a few moments as this song is sung, may something be awakened in us. May we come out of the trenches of our despair and cynicism, assuming things in this world and in our own lives will never change. May we experience a peace within our souls, a peace we didn’t think possible. May we be the ones who see the darkness know it’s real and choose to light a candle anyway, and dare to hold that fragile candle up against the wind and pass along the light wherever it’s needed. Remember, this is the irrational season Where Love Blooms bright and wild. Had Mary been filled with reason? There had been no room for the child? Let’s make room. Let’s make room for the Prince of Peace and.
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