Songs of Adventናሙና

Imagine, for a moment, the difficult days of 1816 in a small church in Austria. Your congregation has barely survived years of war. Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and influential French military leader and emperor, sought to expand French power across Europe.

There’s been twelve years of fighting. Families mourn the loss of young sons to battle. And your community is not only tired, but weak.

Not only that, the weather is wild. This is the “Year without a Summer”. You don’t know it because there is no internet or Weather Channel yet, but the eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia is the reason there are continuous storms, including snow in the summer.

The war and these strange weather patterns have pushed you to the brink. Your congregation and villages all across the country are thrown into poverty, and because your crops have failed, there’s widespread famine.

As you and everyone you know grapples with what is taking place, life feels like a chapter out of the book of Revelation.

And it is against this backdrop, that you hear, for the first time, the sweet words of this song, on a cold night before Christmas in your little church:

Silent night, Holy night. All is calm. All is bright.

Ever since those words were sung to a small congregation of boat-builders in a little Austrian town, they have brought great hope to people around the world.

Silent Night, one of the most beloved Christmas songs of all time, was written by a young Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr, to comfort his fearful, discouraged congregation. As the darkness seemed to overwhelm his church and as hope started to dwindle like a candle burnt down to the last inch of its wick, he wrote the song to encourage.

And did it ever spark hope! The song spread throughout Germany. Missionaries sang it from Tibet to Alaska and within a few years it found its way to the Inuit people at the highest reaches of Northern Canada.

It even ministered to soldiers on the battlefield. Perhaps you’ve heard the famous story during World War I, how German and British soldiers declared a temporary truce on Christmas Eve. Gunfire stopped. Fighting ceased. And the enemy soldiers joined together to sing Silent Night together. A song of hope in the trenches.

Glory be to God! For only He can quiet our war-torn world with a message of hope.

It doesn’t take much to imagine a world in trouble, for we see evil and darkness at work all around us.

We all know people right now who, like the traumatized and frightened congregation in the small Austrian town, need to know that there is a God who loves us, a God who cares.

As we prepare our hearts for Advent, we remember today that God sent His only Son into the world so that we could truly have hope.

Response:

If you have an extra minute, read the lyrics of the song out loud and meditate on the words. If you have an Advent Wreath, you can light the candle of Hope as you do.

Lyrics:

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the Savior is born
Christ the Savior is born

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
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth