How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
On this Christmas Eve these words of the great 19th century preacher Phillips Brooks speak to us. On Christmas Eve in 1865 Brooks was in
“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!” Tonight we recognize that so often God’s way is to come “silently” ----- not with great fanfare, not with crushing armies, not with thunder and might ----- but rather in a “still, small voice,” just as God came to Ezekiel the prophet. Not in a palace, but in a stable. Not to the mighty, but to plain folks like a teenage girl, a carpenter, and some hired hands. Not in a fearsome warrior or powerful intellect, but in a baby.
How silently. Those of you who have been privileged to be present at a birth may think of the wonderful joy, the excitement, the first cry ----- but also the peaceful silence as you cuddled that little one and perhaps heard only the sound of sucking and gurgling.
How silently. Consider the times you have been able to separate yourself from the noise of this world and simply sit in God’s presence. Listening. Praying.
How silently. Moving through the woods on your skis. Paddling along the shore of a lake during the early morning. Sitting in silence as you await that buck to arrive. Gaining a sense of God’s presence and purpose.
Sometimes our silence is disturbed --- by the death of a loved one, loss of a job, violence of an earthquake, hurricane, or bomb. We wonder.
But silently God comes ---- even in the midst of disturbance and dissonance. This is exactly what happened on Christmas Eve 1818 in the Austrian
What was he to do? Father Joseph Mohr, the parish priest, also wondered as he sat at his desk. What could he do? What could he say? Finally he picked up his quill pen and began to write in German: “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht…” Silent night, holy night… He wrote six verses.
Then he took them to the organist and asked him to compose an easy tune, like a folk song, which could be sung at the Midnight Mass. Gruber wrote the tune, and later that evening he and the priest sang “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” while Father Mohr strummed an accompaniment on the guitar. In this quiet, humble fashion one of our most beloved Christmas carols came into being.
How silently does God come. In just a little while God will come to us in the loaf and the cup. Plain, humble food. Then a bit later God will come to us as we light candles in honor of the one who came as the “light of the world.” We will celebrate silently, just as Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber did ----- singing “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” to the accompaniment of a guitar.
How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.
