Silent Night -
John 1:4-5,12 – “In Him was life, and that life was
the light of all mankind. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
“…to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God.”
Here is the story behind “Silent Night” as recorded on Wikipedia:
“Stille Nacht" was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at
St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire on the
Salzach river in present-day Austria. A young priest, Father Joseph Mohr, had
come to Oberndorf the year before. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, he
had written the poem "Stille Nacht" in 1816 at Mariapfarr, the
hometown of his father in the Salzburg Lungau region, where Joseph had worked
as an assistant priest.
The melody was composed by Franz Xavier Gruber, schoolmaster and
organist in the nearby village of Arnsdorf, now part of Lamprechtshausen. On
Christmas Eve 1818, Mohr brought the words to Gruber and asked him to compose a
melody and guitar accompaniment for that night's mass, after river flooding had
possibly damaged the church organ. The church was eventually destroyed by
repeated flooding and replaced with the Silent-Night-Chapel. It is unknown what
inspired Mohr to write the lyrics, or what prompted him to create a new carol.
According to Gruber, Karl Mauracher, an organ builder who serviced
the instrument at the Obendorf church, was enamoured with the song, and took
the composition home with him to the Zillertal. From there, two travelling families of folk
singers, the Strassers and the Rainers, included the tune in their shows. The
Rainers were already singing it around Christmas 1819, and once performed it
for an audience that included Franz I of Austria and Alexander I of Russia, as
well as making the first performance of the song in the U.S., in New York City
in 1839. By the 1840s the song was well
known in Lower Saxony and was reported to be a favourite of Frederick William
IV of Prussia. During this period, the melody changed slightly to become the
version that is commonly played today.
Over the years, because the original manuscript had been lost,
Mohr's name was forgotten and although Gruber was known to be the composer,
many people assumed the melody was composed by a famous composer, and it was
variously attributed to Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. However, a manuscript was discovered in 1995
in Mohr's handwriting and dated by researchers as c. 1820. It states that Mohr
wrote the words in 1816 when he was assigned to a pilgrim church in Mariapfarr,
Austria, and shows that the music was composed by Gruber in 1818. This is the
earliest manuscript that exists and the only one in Mohr's handwriting. [end
quote from Wikipedia]
Although Silent Night is the nearly undisputed favorite Christmas
Carol of all time, we know that that night Jesus was born was anything but
silent. We know that all was not
calm. And the world in which Christ
entered as a helpless babe could hardly be described at bright. Deep in our souls we want it to be that
sentimental serene nativity that sits on our mantle (or wherever it sits in our
home) because deep in our souls we need Christ to come into our anything but
silent, calm, and all-is-bright lives and bring that serenity. Perhaps we need that more this year than any
year before.
The good news is that Jesus can and does do that. But we have to make room to receive this
gift. In the midst of the noise all
around us, in the midst of all our chaos, and in the midst of our darkness, we
have to make space for Christ to make his home within our soul. We have to intentionally invite him to come
in. And then we focus the whole of our
being on the light and warmth Jesus brings when He takes up residence within
us. It isn’t that the noise, the chaos,
and the darkness has gone away; it’s that we’ve chosen to focus on something
else – Someone Else to be precise. It’s in the midst of that focus that we can
sing “Silent Night” and know that it is true.
Question: What could you
intentionally do this Christmas to “make space” for Jesus?
Prayer: Jesus, we know you
are the Light that is the “life of all mankind.” Shine into our darkness, bring
calm to chaos, quiet us in the midst of the noise. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray for all
our elected officials at the national, state, and local levels.
Song: Five for Fighting - Silent Night
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