Silent - Calm - Redeeming Grace

I do love Christmas music. I have been known to listen to it at seemingly inappropriate times of the year – like pre December 1^st!

It seemed necessary to say that in order to say this: some of it I really don’t get.

It’s not even necessarily an entire song. It may be just a line or two. In this case, it is a favourite song … a treasured song – but when I think about the birth of a baby I just wonder…

“Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright.”

Really? With what we know and what we suppose from the record in scripture…really?

Hear me out. The Bible tells us that Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem because they had to be. For a census. For taxation. And lots of others were there too, for the same reason. Lots of others. So many, in fact, that there was no room in the inn.

So – let’s put more people in a town than that town can accommodate. Let’s put them there for a reason that will make most of them unhappy – even angry, and then consider, how silent, how calm do you think it actually could be? How silent are you when you know that your taxes are going up?

Let’s add to that mix the fact that it is not just about taxes but it is about taxes to a government that is oppressing them, occupying their land…and I wonder…

Silent night, holy night…all is calm…I doubt it.

And then I try to put myself in Mary’s…sandals…About to give birth and not only away from home and all that is familiar but also away from the comfort of her mother’s touch or the support of a sister or a friend…perhaps with only Joseph present…Did anyone come to help? As the pains of labour grew stronger, did anyone hear her cry?  Do silent and calm fit with any birth you have experienced?

And then, this isn’t just any child…this child…nothing will be the same after this child…

Would you be calm?

Silent night, Holy night. It paints a nice picture…it fits neatly on the mantle…but I wonder…

From the time that it was announced to Mary that his birth was coming and that she would be part of it…to Joseph’s dream… to the trek to Bethlehem… to the noise and uproar of that town… and even to the skies exploding with the angelic announcement to the shepherds…not much silence…not much calm.

Even looking forward – a life lived that disrupted everyone around him…especially a disruption to those who obeyed the simple command “follow me.”

So, how do we get to “silent night”?

How do we get to “all is calm”?

Further verses in this song proclaim “Christ the Saviour is born!” Not a saviour. The Saviour. My Saviour.

And then there is this: “dawn of redeeming grace.”

Ah, grace…redeeming grace…grace that silences all the noise and calms all the turmoil in my heart.

Silent night. Holy night. I am left with only wonder!

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’” (Luke 2:10, 11)

Ruth U.