A Sleepless Night

A Sleepless Night

Christmas Eve 2023

Welcome…

Merry Christmas…

Tonight, before we light candles and sing, I want to take a few minutes to share a couple of stories about Christmas…

The first is about a Christmas Eve in a little European mountain village. While today we celebrate and worship on Christmas Eve, in 1818, the custom in Europe was to celebrate the birth of our Lord on the night of Christmas. Late into that Christmas Eve night, it seemed all were asleep and the village streets were dark, all but one window. Through that window shown the lamp of Father Joe. He had been lamenting the fact that the church organ was in desperate need of repair. As he prepared for the next day, all he could think of was the sadness of a day of celebration without the beauty of the organ playing the Christmas music they had grown so accustomed to.

Watching out the window as the snow fell and piled higher and higher, his thoughts drifted to an afternoon a few weeks before. He remembered sitting with his friend Francis in the church garden. Francis had his guitar and together they sang the songs of Christmas.

At one point, Francis stopped and looked at his friend and said, “You know, none of these songs we are singing really capture the true meaning of that Holy Night when Jesus was born.” Father Joe agreed and joked that maybe someone someday will write a song that does.

With a smile, Francis looked at Father Joe and said, “Why don’t you write one?” to which Father Joe replied, “and if I write the lyrics will you write the music?” Francis didn’t hesitate a second answering that he would.

It seemed the memory saddened Father Joe even more. The weeks following that conversation the priest had tried to write a song, but nothing seemed to come. Not only would there be no organ for the congregation on that Christmas Day service, there wouldn’t be a new song either.

As Father Joe was looking out the window, he was suddenly pulled from his thoughts as he saw someone struggling through the deepening snow. As her form became clear, he saw that it was the local midwife trudging through the snow. As she approached he opened the door and welcomed her in to the warmth of his home, sitting her by the fire and offering her a warm drink. Once she was warm enough, she explained that she had just come from the home of the woodcutter and his wife on the other side of the ridge. She had just given birth to her first born and she and the dad were hoping Father Joe could come and bless the child, but that was before the snow started falling so heavily. No one expected the Father to leave so late and travel in the deepening snow of the cold night.

But Father Joe said he would love to go, he wasn’t sleeping anyway. He invited the midwife to stay and get warm by the fire while he traveled over the ridge to the home. Wrapping up in his warmest clothes, he took a sturdy cane to help with his balance in the snow and began the frigid journey over the ridge.

When he finally arrived at the woodcutter’s home, he beat the snow off his boots and coat at the door, then opened the door to see the most beautiful sight he had ever laid eyes on.

Before him was a mother, resting happily in her bed, smiling at her husband kneeling next to a crude crib which held their first-born child. It seemed to Father Joe that he was looking upon the holy family on the night of his Savior’s birth.

Feeling the rush of cold air, the young woodcutter jumped to his feet to welcome his pastor into their home. He apologized for asking him to come in such weather, but Father Joe said he wouldn’t have wanted to miss this special occasion. The new father proudly led his pastor to the side of the crib where Father Joe took the child in his hands and blessed the child and the family.

What a night that must have been. The joy of that new dad, the peace that the pastor felt, the love of a mother looking on her child. It seems that in moments like that hope is born. Whether we see it in the child of a relative, or our own, there just seems to be a new hope born with a child.

But, there is no hope like the hope we find in our Savior, born on a silent and holy night to a mother and father taking shelter in a stable. I know, we can argue about when Jesus was born. We can argue about what all it meant. We can discuss the differences in the traditions through the years that have led us to how we celebrate today.

But this we can agree on… around 2000 years ago a child was born and that birth changed the world.

A few years ago a billboard was installed around the nation with a cute little nativity, a star and a message that read, “Just Skip Christmas, It’s all Fake News!” It’s meant to be provocative by the American Atheists organization. To which I say, what are they celebrating this time of year? I guess it’s the winter equinox or something like that, but even then, that is based on pagan religious practices.

The fact that this time of year causes groups like the atheists to campaign against Christmas shows the impact the birth of Jesus has had on the world.

In the 1994 classic movie, Santa Clause, little Charlie is trying to convince his stepfather, Dr. Miller, that Santa exists. Dr. Miller makes the point that he has never seen flying reindeer, so they don’t exist… but little Charlie asks,

“Have you ever seen a million dollars?” to which the good doctor replies,

“Well, no.” And Charlie says,

“Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

Now, I will not get into the reality of that argument, especially not today, but the logic is solid.

When talking about God to an atheist, I once made a similar point. They said they couldn’t “see” God so they wouldn’t believe in anything they can’t see, touch, feel, smell, or taste. To which I asked, “do you believe in air?” Pure air has no feel, no taste, no smell. You can’t touch it. You can’t see it. We can see other things like water vapor in the air. We can feel the wind blow. We can smell pollution. But not air, and yet without air we could not exist. We don’t have to see something for it to be a reality. To which they argued, “but I can feel the effects of air. I can experience air.”

And I said, “That’s right, and I can feel the effects of God on my life. I can experience God, and that is how I know God is real.”

What no one can deny is that a man, named Jesus, was born around 2000 years ago. His teaching, his life and death, and the resurrection told by those that followed him changed the world.

The point isn’t that we celebrate on December 25 because, even Scripture reminds us that he was born near the time of the Passover, in Spring. The date isn’t the important part. The important part is that we celebrate the reality of the birth of Jesus. We celebrate that the prophecy was fulfilled, and a virgin gave birth to a son, and Joseph named him Jesus, just as the angel had told him.

We celebrate that on a silent and holy night in a barn outside of Bethlehem, with the lights of Jerusalem visible in the distance, a child was born and laid in a manger. He was visited by angels and shepherds, and later by Magi coming from the East.

We celebrate a birth, that we are reminded of each time a child is born into our lives...

Much like the scene that Father Joe saw as he opened the door to the cabin of the woodcutter, his wife, and their newly born child. Such an innocent and peaceful scene.

The family tried to get Father Joe to stay, but that scene had given him a new sense of purpose. He couldn’t wait to get back to his desk and begin to pen the words that were flooding his soul. The snow had stopped falling but the bows of the pine trees bent low under the weight of the heavy white mantle. The silence and stillness of the forest was awe inspiring as he reflected upon what he had just seen. Truly it was a holy night.

In his home he quickly warmed his fingers and began writing, completely unaware of the time. It was about 4:00 in the morning when he finally laid down. But he didn’t’ rest long. Soon, he awoke with the energy and excitement of a school boy, had a quick breakfast, dressed for the day, and rushed to the next town and the home of his friend. As the door opened, Father Joseph Mohr handed his friend, Franz Gruber, the lyrics to the song they would sing that evening.

We too will sing these words in a few minutes as we celebrate the Silent and Holy Night of our dear Savior’s birth.

The lyrics capture the true meaning of Christmas so well,

Silent night, holy night,

Son of God, love’s pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace.

Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

For 2000 years, people have been trying to deny the birth of our Savior, yet, today we celebrate.

We celebrate that love came down.

We celebrate that the light that shines on all people is coming to earth.

We celebrate that God became flesh and dwelt among us, the dawn of God’s redeeming grace for each and every one of us.

We celebrate the reality of peace on earth, a peace that only Jesus, the Christ could bring. A peace we dream of today.

It was nearly 100 years after the words of that hymn were penned that British and German Soldiers were freezing in the trenches of World War 1. All around them, the stench that comes with the bloody battles filled their senses. No one is really sure how it started, but at some point, the German soldiers began fashioning little Christmas Trees and decorating them with Candles and placing them on the edge of their trenches.

The next thing the British Soldiers heard was the tune they knew, but with German words…

“Stille Nacht! Heil’ge Naght! Alles shlaft, einsam wacht…”

Soon the British began to sing The First Noel… and the Germans O Tannenbaum…

Then the British began to sing O Come Let us adore him, but this time in Latin. Finally, they could sing together, I cannot imagine the juxtaposition of the beauty of the night and the ugliness of war that surrounded them.

Eventually a German fashioned a banner that read “You no shoot, we no shoot.”

The British created a banner reading “Merry Christmas.”

Much to the chagrin of the generals on both sides, the soldiers began to climb from their trenches and meet in the middle. The first order was to bury the dead they had not been able to reach. Then, they began to share from their care packages and give gifts to one another.

A game of football broke out in the place of War… there was peace at least for a little while.

The Christmas truce didn’t last forever, the generals eventually pushed their men back into the trenches and commanded that they begin to fight. Over the next few days, many rounds were wasted shooting into the air before the combat actually resumed.

But for a few precious moments, there was peace on earth.

There is just something about this time of year that we need, the sleepless nights of Christmas, that bring us back to the peace that Jesus offered on that silent and holy sleepless night that changed the world.

That is the true meaning of Christmas… that love came to us, that peace was brought to earth, that joy is made known… that hope was born.

So, as we go and share a meal with family, or exchange a gift with a friend, or gather to sing carols around the fireplace… we do so knowing that we celebrate because of the Birth of Jesus.

But, before we go, we have one more thing to do. Thanks to Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber, we can gather and sing of that silent and holy night where the holy infant slept so tender and mild, where shepherds quaked and angels sang for Chrit the Savior is Born.

Let us sing!