There is something severely probing about the mission of Adolf Hitler as it relates to a nation of people who have given the world such a great and timeless legacy in its wealth of theological writing.
Again, to Germany for what has been said to be ‘the song heard round the world’. Perhaps so because a ‘Silent Night’ is one where no gunshots are heard. No drones, no bombs, no gas chambers. No sirens, no shelter alerts, no amber alerts or emergency vehicle movement. No fires raging, no storm tossed seas, tsunami, typhoon or volcano eruptions. No domestic conflict with all of its intense threats of violence, bodily harm and death. No speeding cars ‘riding by’ with the threat of fear of an unknown outcome. No protests. No police brutality and injustice. No cries, no screams. No??! You …kNOw!
Joseph Mohr was a priest at Saint Nicholas Church in Austria when in 1818 he sang a song for Christmas which he had written for his guitar. He invited the Church’s organist, Franz Gruber to accompany him; and the choir joined in at the double refrain ending of each verse: “Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.” “Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.”
Young’s Analytical Concordance, one of my most important tools used in the study of all things Bible, references the 3 vastly different words for ‘silent/silence’ in New Testament: #1 hesuchia (Acts 22:2) and (I Timothy 2:11–12). #2 sige (Acts 15:12; 21:40), (I Corinthians 14:28; 34) and (Revelations 2:1. And #3 (Matthew 22:34) and (I Peter 2:15). These 3 words are so rare and so disconnected that it came to me as total surprise to see that Kittle makes no reference to any of these words. The word ‘silent/silence’ is void in his entire 10 Volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament! Women… in the Church? We have been bamboozled!!! Seeing now more clearly why there is no silence for me …in the church!
Now looking at such a vast number of modern Philosophers who have taken up the course on ‘silent/silence’. Talk of ‘imposed/mandated silence’ as power dynamics. Forcing power imbalances. Talk of coercion resulting from fear, intimidation, threats, injustice. As opposed to ‘choosing silence’; silence as resistance to systems who refuse to hear your voices. AND THEN ‘the ceasefire’… that moment of silence –no gunshots, no drones, no bombs, no gas chambers. No killing of the voices that men refuse to… HEAR!
To reverence the birth of Jesus as the Christ, this hymn has come to be one of the most sung songs of the Christmas season for the universal church and the world. Recorded by so many of the world’s greatest choirs, artists and musicians, it now has the capacity of reaching the very depth of the soul. Christmas theatricals and Christmas musicals have ended the telling and re-telling of the story with this hymn; enjoining the audiences, often with the lighting of individual candles. To share in the spiritual warmth that these lyrics give, people everywhere have looked into the lighted flame singing:
“Silent night, holy night. Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face, With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth. Jesus Lord, at Thy birth.”
And the verse that did not make it’s way into many Hymnals:
“Silent night, holy night! Wondrous star, lend thy light!
With the angels let us sing. Alleluia to our King!
Christ the Saviour is here, Jesus the Saviour is here!”
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