Christmas! The World as it can be: Hope, Love and Peace!
One of my favourite Christmas stories comes from the plethora of stories of WW1, and what was called ‘The Christmas Truce.’
One of my favourite Christmas stories comes from the plethora of stories of WW1, and what was called ‘The Christmas Truce.’ In the hellish, godforsaken trenches of the Western Front, Christmas broke in, despite the leadership on both sides refusing to accept calls for a truce, even on Christmas Day. The soldiers did it themselves. Christmas breaks into the least expected places daring to show us how life and the world could be!
Jim Prince was a tall, strapping 18-year-old loved to play football in his British home. He served his country in World War I. Graham Williams, aged 21, of London Rifle Brigade, also served Britain in WW1. One night after the long day of fighting, he peered over the parapet towards German lines. Normally, no man’s land was filled with shadowy figures darting here and there: some reconnoitring, others trying to retrieve dead and wounded. Tonight, however, an eerie stillness hung in the crystal-clear air. He saw a light in the east, just above the German trenches and too low to be a star. Williams was surprised that no-one shot at it. He saw another light. And another. Suddenly, lights were all along the enemy trenches as far as the eye could see. Then, from a German trench no more than 50 metres away, a chorus of the richest baritones Williams had ever heard began singing ‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht’ (‘Silent Night’). When the carol finished, William’s regiment cheered and sang ‘The First Noel.’ The mutual serenading went on for an hour interspersed with cries of ‘Come and see us, Tommy!’ and ‘No, Jerry you come over here!’ but neither side moved.
In Jim Prince’s part of the front, a German sang ‘Stille Nacht’ standing on top of the parapet – a perfect target. Prince’s regiment responded with ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night’. Then amazingly, the German started walking towards the British, followed by half a dozen other Germans, all unarmed with hands in pockets. For a moment, it looked as if they were going to surrender, but the British started climbing out of their trenches, too. Prince was among them. Five metres from a German, he stopped. Here was one of the enemy he’d been shooting at. The German said simply: ‘I am a Saxon. You are an Anglo-Saxon. Why do we fight?’ Recalling this extraordinary moment many years later, Prince admitted: ‘I still don’t know the answer.’
Peace now swept through no man’s land. Soldiers from both sides shook hands, laughed, insisted they bore no malice against each other and vowed to continue the truce throughout the coming day. Christmas day dawned cold, clear, sparkling – and peaceful. No man’s land was soon filled with thousands of soldiers from both sides, walking arm in arm and taking photographs. Several football matches were staged, mostly knockabout affairs with a tin can for a football and caps for goalposts. One Scot managed to produce a real football. Meticulous sportsmanship was the rule. ‘If a man got knocked down, the other side helped him up,’ said one participant. Some men cut buttons off their tunics as Christmas gifts. Soldiers with skills contributed what they could. One Englishman, a former hairdresser, gave haircuts to docile Germans kneeling on the ground. A German who was a professional juggler, enthralled his audience. It was also an opportunity for a solemn task in no man’s land. Soldiers of both armies dug graves side by side. Then the chaplain, assisted by a German divinity student, conducted a burial service. By sunset, there had been almost no firing along the entire front for 24 hours, and as a result, the birds flew back. None had been seen on the battlefields in months, but now sparrows were everywhere.
The 1914 Christmas truce continued in a few sectors of the front until New Year’s Day or even later. ‘We had to have it last that long,’ one German explained in a letter home. ‘We wanted to see how the pictures they took turned out.’ The general agreement was that when one side had to break the truce, they would fire a feu de joie into the air to give the enemy time to get back to their trenches. In Jim Prince’s sector, the feu de joie came on December 29, and the men scrambled back to their trenches to cries of ‘Go back, Tommy!’ or ‘Go back, Jerry!’ Only minutes later, firing resumed in earnest. For Price, the football-lover who was to lose a leg several months later, the most wonderful Christmas he had ever experienced was over. And until he died in 1981 at the age of 85, he could never hear ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ without tears streaming down his cheeks.
In Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth, the one with which we are most familiar, it is similarly a counter-cultural inbreaking that defies the status quo and the powers that be. In a world dominated by the powerful, the wealthy and those given ‘divine’ status, God’s messenger visits a poor, simple teenage girl. Mary is the hapless, powerless figure who becomes central to the story. She has no identity except that given by her family, particularly her father. She is lowly, and betrothed to another simple, anonymous figure, in Joseph. They are literally nobodies, and yet it is to these that the angel comes, and God blesses.
Theirs is a world animated by the spiritual and stories of angels and Divine blessing are expected, just not to impoverished, lowly people. Yet this is where we discover the promise of God! Mary is pregnant with a child who represents the ‘face of God’ and she is surrounded by the mystery, wonder and grace of this God-filled moment. When Mary visits her older cousin, Elizabeth, another recipient of grace, there is a mutual rejoicing at the blessing both have received from God and Mary sings! She sings a song of how the world can, and should, be. The rich and powerful are brought down and the humble, poor, like her, are lifted up. Mary sings of God’s goodness and intended way in the world. It is a song that rattles the powerful and wealthy. It turns things upside down and dares the lowly and disadvantaged to believe that they are of worth, known and loved in God!
As Luke’s story continues, we travel south to the small town, perhaps village, of Bethlehem, Joseph’s family’s birthplace, to register in a census. Of all the places in their world that are worthy of this Christ-child – Rome, Jerusalem, for example – it is the simple backwater, insignificant town of Bethlehem that is chosen. The story plunges deeper into simple lowliness as the couple, tired, weary and dirty after their trip, find nowhere to rest – there is no room for them! They eventually take rest in a smelly, dirty cattle stall, where Mary gives birth to this Christ-child. The angels spread the news and again, the powerful and wealthy are overlooked in favour of outcast, marginalised shepherds. They hear the news and go in search.
In every way, this simple story defies the logic and expectations of the world. In every way, this story reveals the deep truth about life and the world and where God should be expected. It shows us a world that could be, where the lowly and marginalised are brought to the centre, where love and grace lift up the poor and simple, giving them dignity and it is through them that God is revealed and present. Christmas breaks into our world where we least expect it, with the promise of hope, peace and life for all, in God’s love and grace.
A Christmas Poem
It’s hot and humid and the air is still.
A change, they say, is on the way…
I wonder what it will bring – will it be a breeze, wind, a storm?
What do I expect after such a hot, humid and draining day?
There’s red and green, white and gold strewn around the neighbourhood.
Strange blow-up creatures and figures seem all the rage…
…even if I can’t make out what they are!
Santas and reindeer are obvious, but then there are dragons, ginger-bread men
and other strange iterations of fairy-book life imposed on the season.
What do I expect from this Christmas season?
A ‘Season’ is what it is, filled with paradoxical images and juxtaposed themes.
An occasional Nativity reveals the ‘Christ’ part of Christmas
and pulls us back to a place of meaning. Well sort of…
In a secular world devoid of transcendent belief,
of eternity breaking through time and space…
What does this simple story offer? Is it simply naïve sentimentality?
Does it carry any impetus in a world of rational insight?
In a world of performing people, seeking magnificence in their own right,
does this simple story mean anything?
It turns all upside down, inviting us into counter-intuitive wonder.
It reverses the order of the world, where power, might and wealth rule!
The ones on top are ignored, overlooked for the simple.
A poor man and powerless teenager star…
Mary is chosen amidst a world adorned with grandeur and opulence.
The story set in outback town, dusty and dirty
– now rubble, in a war zone!
A cattle stall, with its stink and filth, is the birthplace for the Christ-child.
Such a ridiculous story that no-one seems aware
– except poor shepherds in their fields.
What is this story telling us?
In a world of power, might, and unlimited wealth, what is this story saying?
That Christmas will arrive where we don’t expect it?
That Christ is born in unseen or rejected places?
That the respectable may miss it completely?
That Christmas will dawn into a dark and struggling world?
Will Christmas wend its way through the glitter and tinsel,
the Santas and reindeer, the blow-up characters adorning our neighbourhood?
If it doesn’t, what then?
If Christmas doesn’t raise its simple face through the décor and expectation,
the challenges and competing forces of our lives…
what then?
As I ponder the implications, the scenarios,
the impossibility that we miss it again this year
and the world descends further into chaos and conflict…
I am licked by a puppy, followed by an older dog.
I look at the flowers in the garden and tress along the creek.
I hear stories of people reaching out in love and care,
picking up and supporting those in need.
This week we will play music for a ‘street party’ of mega proportions,
A meal to feed the homeless, the lonely and bring the joy of Christmas…
I will come face to face with the Christ
in the grime and struggle of those on the streets…
I will see in their faces, the joy of those given hope and love
I will experience the community that comes in sharing,
in welcoming, in being one, together.
Christ will come, as Christ does, into the dark and dangerous places of life.
Christmas comes when I least expect,
when I am clueless and confused, lost or longing…
Christmas comes in the flicker of a light in the darkness of life,
Radiating possibility, hope and promise.
Christmas comes, through the hubris and mess of life
through the arrogance and strife,
individualism and greed.
Christmas comes, breaking into a world where people hurt and break,
are torn apart with desperate despair or weary waiting.
Christ is born into the world as a humble promise of new life,
of hope, peace, joy and love.
What do we expect this Christmas?
Whatever it is will inevitably be turned upside down -
and surprise us.
It will come in the least places to bring hope and love from God!