The Weekly Perspective
by Burke Shade, Associate Pastor
Stille Nacht (Silent Night) and The First Noel were the first two Christmas hymns that stopped the first World War briefly during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1914. First the Germans serenaded their enemies across the trenches, and the British soldiers responded with The First Noel. Shortly thereafter white flags went up, soldiers from both sides started crawling out of the trenches and exchanging goodies from home, laughter, stories, drinks and food. Dead comrades were removed and buried without withering machine gun fire. This was only the latest example of Europe’s Christian heritage influencing even the engagement of warfare: for centuries various Christian kingdoms wouldn’t allow warfare during Christmas or Easter and other holidays, and regulated burials and ceasefires and treatment of prisoners.
Secularists, in treating this Christmas truce, reduce it to sentimental rubbish: “The truce was a brief tantalizing flash of individual humanity, in a war of bureaucracies, machines and high explosives.”
No, No, No, No! When did this happen? On Christmas Eve! What were the troops singing? Christmas hymns, not beer-drinking ditties! What brought this temporary truce? The worship of Jesus and the peace that he brought to the world in his incarnation. In fact, worship of Jesus (by two Christian armies) preceded the truce. The worship of Jesus lifted even these hardened soldier’s eyes heavenward to gaze for moment on what the angels heralded so long ago:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2.14). What a brilliant example of Jesus’ reign on earth affecting the conduct of men! May it do the same for you this coming year!