It’s Tuesday, and Christmas Eve. As millions of people prepare for Christmas, many of them, like us, will do so with friends in fellowship at a Christmas Eve service. Our Christmas Eve service always ends with what is the world’s most loved Christmas Song: “Silent Night”
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 Al-le-lu-ia!
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born!
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, oh, 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
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth
In 1818, Joseph Mohr was a parish Priest in a tiny village in Austria preparing for a Christmas Eve service. As he readied for the service, panic struck - the organ was not working. He did everything he knew how to do, but no matter what he did, it would not work. He prayed, and suddenly remembered a poem he had written several years before. It was a poem he wrote after a walk on a star-lit winter’s night that he entitled in his native German: "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" - Silent Night, Holy Night.
He needed a melody to sing it, and so he rushed to his friend Franz Gruber. He asked him if he could help and Gruber said he’d try. Alone with a guitar, Gruber began to create a melody...a melody that worked well. He wrote out the tune, took it back to Pastor Mohr who had just enough time to rehearse it with his church choir, and it was sung on Christmas Eve, 1818 to a small Austrian Christmas Eve church gathering.
The song trickled through the Austrian countryside picked up here and there by congregations and choirs for several years. Then in 1832, a choral group debuted “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” in a concert hall in front of the King of Prussia. He was so moved by the words and the beauty that he asked that the national choir sing it in their Christmas Eve service. From there, the song began to spread over all of Europe.
In 1859, an Episcopal Priest, John Freeman Young, picked up the German song and translated the first three verses of it into the song we sing today. It has remained the most popular Christmas song to this day.
Several years ago I reflected in writing when “Silent Night” became a part of my own story.
“One Christmas Eve, many years ago, I was pastoring a small rural church in Randolph, Wisconsin. Our church building was an old tall white clapboard church building with beautiful old stained glass windows that reflected brilliantly at night when the lights were on. We had an organ that was electrically wind-driven - a bellowed organ with pipes that filled up part of the altar area. When the organ played, it filled up the room with a sound that made everyone want to sing.
I came to our Christmas Eve service with great expectations. By this time I had fallen in love with Advent and Christmas Eve was the penultimate of our celebration of Christ’s birth on Christmas Day. As It came time for the service our small congregation of fifty or so were gathered.
Then just before the service was to begin, the power went out.
I stood there in disbelief, “No. Lord, do something.” But nothing happened… now what?
It was time to begin our service, so I made a quick decision: “Get the candles out, pass them around, and we’ll do the service without instruments.”
Then just before the service was to begin, the power went out.
I stood there in disbelief, “No. Lord, do something.” But nothing happened… now what?
It was time to begin our service, so I made a quick decision: “Get the candles out, pass them around, and we’ll do the service without instruments.”
It was amazing.
Our voices took over and filled the space. The darkened building was lit up with candlelight. No stained glass could come close to the beauty of well-known faces of people aglow in the candlelight, worshipping our Savior. No organ could emulate the sound of voices singing in celebration with more certainty.
Our voices took over and filled the space. The darkened building was lit up with candlelight. No stained glass could come close to the beauty of well-known faces of people aglow in the candlelight, worshipping our Savior. No organ could emulate the sound of voices singing in celebration with more certainty.
Several years ago, my son reflected back on that evening. Now a grown man, an Assistant Pastor, with his own family, his reflections are from more than thirty years ago. Then he was not even ten years old, but he remembered it. My son, Chris penned these words:
Darkened trees stood glimmering In their icy bridal gowns
large station wagons with Wisconsin plates
mimicked foolish children who,
clinging to their parents’ hands
slid their dress shoes across freshly shoveled sidewalk
and into the unlit and heatless sanctuary
magic had perched like a bird on the sill of every stained glass window
the voices of the saints unmuffled by winter coats
soon joined flickering candle flame
and we remembered the eve
we’ve given to the King’s birth
redeeming the powerlessness of a small farm town
with the spirit of our Redeemer in mind
Silent Night my friends...Merry Christmas is here!
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