Christmas
Eve Service
24 December 2005
Seven
O’Clock in the Evening
The Reverend
Jennie Ann Barrington, Minister
The
Unitarian Universalist Church of
Winchendon,
Massachusetts
Good evening
and welcome! We are glad that each of you has joined us for our annual
Christmas Eve service of lessons, carols, and candle lighting. I thank
all the people of our church, its governing board, our choir, our
organist, and our Ladies Alliance, for the work, time, and care they
have given to make this service so beautiful.
Let us join
our hearts together now in a spirit of prayer or meditation as we hear
the traditional call to worship for our Christmas Eve service:
“On this eve we gather to celebrate the gift of light which
breaks into darkness; to give thanks for determined hope which will not
be eroded by despair; we gather together in community on this evening
to offer thanks for the gift of life, and to celebrate the glories and
mysteries of this great gift.”
Christmas
Eve Homily:
“Peace means the beginning of a new world.
It means that nations are friends; it means joy to the world. Peace is
quiet and calm; it is rest; it is silence after a storm. Peace is love
and friendship. It is the world’s dream of dreams. Peace brings
comfort and happiness; it brings bread to the hungry; it brings
prosperity to the nations. Peace means the strong respect the weak, the
great respect the small, the many respect the few. Peace is like spring
after winter; it brings sunshine into the world. Peace is like sweet
music after harsh sounds.” That’s what the pupils of the
Lincoln School said, when asked what peace is. We gather together on
this night before Christmas, this night when, it is said, a messianic
baby was born. That baby grew up to herald a new gospel-- that
conflicts be resolved through non-violence; that labels must not stop
us from reaching out to all individuals; that nobody is a nobody; that
simple gifts given with a full heart are worth more than large ones
given off-handedly; that we should minister to one another, especially
to widows and orphans; that unjust political hierarchies be replaced by
a network of mutuality, a kingdom of equals; that a greater love
abounds, radically inclusive of all people, all nations all lands; and
that if we all would only practice that radical love, peace would
encircle the earth. We come together on this holy night to express
together, in song, our longing for a Silent Night, a night of Heavenly
Peace.
“Silent Night” was penned as a poem
189 years ago by the Rev. Joseph Mohr. Then, two years later, it was
set to music by Rev. Mohr’s friend, composer Franz Gruber. On
Christmas Eve of 1818, the Rev. Mohr and Franz Gruber led the
congregation of St. Nicholas Church is Oberndorf in singing it for the
first time, Gruber accompanying on guitar. The congregation quickly
learned the words and tune by heart. Before leaving the church that
night, they each lit a candle they had brought from home from the
paschal candle. Then they continued to softly sing “Silent
Night” by candlelight, as we will, tonight.
People all over the world have learned
“Silent Night” by heart. It has been translated into nearly
300 languages and dialects. Historian Bill Egan writes that, “Its
lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be heard
from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals
in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm
thatched huts in Peru.” Like the radically inclusive love that
Jesus professed as possible and necessary for the whole world, the
carol, “Silent Night” has encircled the earth. All around
the globe, on this holy eve, the atmosphere will echo with the hope for
a night calm and bright, then a “dawn of redeeming grace."
What would such a holy silent night sound like?
What would such a blessed dawn look like?
As the year 1914 was coming to an end, in the
throes of World War I, troops over miles of battlefields put down their
guns on this eve. Instead of assailing the other side with bullets,
they sang Christmas carols across the “No Man’s
Land.” Officers commanded soldiers to keep shooting-- But
generosity of heart had begun, and it spread. Soldiers who’d been
designated as enemies of each other socialized, exchanged gifts, sang
and danced. One of the carols they sang was “Silent Night.”
We know that spontaneous peace-burst as the Christmas Truce of 1914.
And we know it was true. For one blessed night, the truce was real.
What would a holy night sound like? What would a dawn of grace look
like? No more reports of suicide bombs. No more need for the Honor Roll
on the News Hour with Jim Leher. No more Palestinians and Israelis
fighting over sacred ground. No more waiting on edge for the next
terrorist attack. No one else maimed and traumatized by war. The
killing ends. The troops come home. Instead of bomb-blasts, songs of
joy. Instead of guns raised, bright light of candles held by hand.
Instead of battling, peace.
“Peace means the beginning of a new world.
It means that nations are friends; it means joy to the world. Peace is
quiet and calm; it is rest; it is silence after a storm. Peace is love
and friendship. It is the world’s dream of dreams. Peace brings
comfort and happiness; it brings bread to the hungry; it brings
prosperity to the nations. Peace means the strong respect the weak, the
great respect the small, the many respect the few. Peace is like spring
after winter; it brings sunshine into the world. Peace is like sweet
music after harsh sounds.”
The most resounding proclamation in the Hebrew
and Christian scriptures is: “Fear not--” “Be not
afraid--” On a veritable holy Silent Night, we see and hear, not
more torment, but the emanation of more Good Will to all people.
We can voice the way Christ knew the world
should be.
[Singing and Candlelighting Ceremony of Silent
Night]
Benediction [Anton Chekhov]:
“We shall find peace—
We shall hear the angels—
We shall see the sky sparkling with
diamonds.”