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Perhaps you have heard the story of the origin of the carol, “Silent Night, Holy Night” before. In the winter of 1818 at St. Nicholas’ Church at Obendorf, a village near Salzburg, Austria, Pastor Joseph Mohr, faced a dilemma. It was just days before Christmas, and the church organ broke. Since an organ repairer was of a significant distance of travel it would be months before the organ repair could be made, and Christmas would be long past. Mohr along with his friend, Franz Gruber, improvised that Christmas Eve to create an anthem for the worship service without the use of the organ, “Silent Night, Holy Night” and used only a guitar and the choir to lead the singing.
There are many times that things don’t go as planned. Maybe that job that you planned and worked towards for years went to someone else, or was eliminated because of the economic crisis. Maybe that girl or that guy you thought was perfect for you turned out not to think the same thing about you. Maybe the son you hoped would excel in sports like you did is talented in music instead. Maybe the coach you hoped would bring improvements to your team’s record leaves after only two years and a very disappointing record. In many ways, our lives don’t always go the way we’d planned. Our families seem scattered or not in the place of life that we had anticipated or thought.
Life did not happened as planned for the shepherds in the field, instead of keeping watch over their sheep, an angel tells them to see the Savior of the world wrapped in a diaper in a barn animal feeding trough. And while Emperor Augustus was planning to make an accurate census of his kingdom, he forgets to count the one that centuries after him will worship … a baby that had just been born in a barn. And life did not go as planned for Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph hadn’t planned to be visited by an angel, or for the decree from the emperor to make the trip to Bethlehem, or to find birthing quarters in a stable nor had they even intended to have a pregnancy or a family and now they themselves are the holy family. As Jewish people, they were anticipating the Messiah to come, but God coming as an infant wrapped diapers in a manger was not what they had exactly planned or anticipated. God hidden deep in the flesh and working “under the sign of opposites” (as Martin Luther called it). As a child born in poverty to common parents taking a trip they had never taken together away from home, God’s Son would go on to recruited tax collectors and fishermen, social misfits and despised sinners in a rescue mission that culminated in the ultimate opposite of the cross. God takes the unexpected and unplanned to us in order to accomplish God’s redeeming purpose.
And it keeps happening with God: the creation of all things, wrestling with Jacob, a child born to Zachariah and Elizabeth, Israel’s escape from slavery, and when Christ would die on the cross no one expected God would raise him on Easter morning. We had thought God had finally decided to abandon us surely now, but instead God finds our life and redeems us in a way that we never could have planned.
As the winter weather and the storms of life make us change our plans, remember that God’s plans are bigger and better than we can ever imagine. God took the hopes and dreams of a young couple in a small town and made them the parents of the Savior. And God takes all of our plans and dreams and tells us, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” To the darkness of our lives and the darkness of the world, comes the light of Christ. Isaiah announces that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Paul reminds us that the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. In the familiar account of Christ’s birth, the sky is bright with the heavenly host singing, “Glory to God in the highest.” Amid our broken world we proclaim that the prince of peace is born among us. God comes to us in human flesh—in Christ’s body and blood—so that we may be bearers of divine light to the entire world.
The carol, “Silent Night, Holy Night” or “Stella Nacht, Heilege Nacht” in Germany was first sung without organ on Christmas in 1818. It did not instantly receive the worldwide recognition. It was not until 1825 when Carl Mauracher was rebuilding the organ at St. Nicholas that a handwritten copy of the words and music was found in the organ loft. Mauracher directed several traveling folk choirs who performed throughout Europe. He carried the carol back home, and it became a popular song with the choirs as they traveled and spread its popularity wherever they went. Tonight, we too, are part of the same movement sharing the news of God’s surprising reversals and grace, as we, too join the chorus of the ages in sing praise to this infant baby in a manger – the Christ. We, too, bear Christ’s light to the world. We, too, go forth throughout the years and places to come to share the news, Jesus Christ is born today! Alleluia!
The Rev. Jason Bense
Christmas Day
Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer
Sacramento, California
