Episode Transcript
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Well, I said I'd preach on
this what passage I just read, but
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I changed my mind. Sorry.
Instead, I'd like to read now from
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Luke Chapter Two, versus went through
twenty, and will consider this and another
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Christmas carol tonight. Silent night.
So let's give our attention to God's word
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and seek his blessing in it.
Luke's Chapter Two one through twenty. And
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in those days a decree went out
from Caesar Augustus that all the world should
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be registered. This was the first
registration when queerness was governor of Syria,
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and all went to be registered,
each to his own town, and Joseph
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also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to Judea,
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to the city of David, which
is called Bethlehem, because he was of
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the House and lineage of David,
to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,
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who was with child, and while
they were there the time came for
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her to give birth, and she
gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped
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him in swaddling clothes and laid him
in a manger because there was no place
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for them in the end. And
in the same region there were shepherds out
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in the field keeping watch over their
flock by night, and an angel of
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the Lord appeared to them and the
glory of the Lord shone around them and
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they were filled with fear, and
the Angel said to them, fear not,
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for behold, I bring you good
news of great joy that will be
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for all the people, for unto
you is born this day in the city
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of David a savior who is Christ
the Lord, and this will be a
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sign for you. You'll find a
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in
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a manger. And suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
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host, praising God and saying glory
to God in the highest and on earth
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peace among those with whom he is
pleased. When the angels went away from
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them into heaven, the shepherd said
to one another, let us go over
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to Bethlehem and see the thing that
has happened, which the Lord has made
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known to us. And they went
with haste and found Mary and Joseph and
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the baby lying in a manger,
and when they saw it, they made
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known the saying that had been told
them concerning the child, and all who
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heard it wondered at what the Shepherds
told them Mary, but Mary treasured up
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all these things, pondering them in
her heart, and the shepherds returned glorifying
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and praising God for all that they
had heard and seen, as it had
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been told them. You may be
seated. This scripture, which is given
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to us here in Luke Two,
one through twenty is described in part and
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some other things as well, and
the song silent night, holy night.
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This is a beloved song and is
somewhat personal for me. It was my,
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it was my grandma's, my grandmother's, favorite song. This is the
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first Christmas of my life that I
will have without her. She died this
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year. We actually sang silent night
at her memorial service in the middle of
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the summer because she loved this song
so much. Of all the Christmas songs,
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this was her favorite. My grandpa
told me that when they were first
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married, at all times of the
year, she would play it over and
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over and over. He thought that
she'd break the record player and I remember
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her singing it off and we would
play it for her at Christmas time,
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which is why this brings back a
lot of memories when I think about this,
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this song, and in fact,
just before she died, when she
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was in a hospice. I brought
my cello and said, you know,
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you want me play anything for you, and she wasn't speaking very much,
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but she asked for this again.
Of course I knew she would, and
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despite not being able to talk very
much, she sang it again, even
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little the first verse or so.
So it's a it's a special song to
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me, but it's I'm not the
only one, as it turns out.
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According to Time magazine, it's the
most popular Christmas Carol of all time.
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Maybe many of you here are going
yeah, it's my favorite one too.
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It's an interesting thing to think about. Why. Why is that? Why
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is this song so love so popular, that people would want to hear it
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even all year long? I think
it has something to do with a need
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that expresses and it connects with us, a hope and a longing that all
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the world would be set right,
that it would be peaceful. It's a
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kind of a Lullaby, right.
The song as this sort of quietness to
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it and, and at least I
thought, always think of it that way,
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and especially as you, you know, sing those lines about sleep and
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heavenly peace and these kinds of things. But there's something funny about the song
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that I think often goes unnoticed,
and it relates to this passage that we
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read. If you pay just attention
to just the title, you might think
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that silent night paints this perfect picture
of stillness and silence at the birth of
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Jesus, like a Glowing Nativity scene, frozen and wax that you kind of
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just walk around and observe. But
this is, of course, wasn't the
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case. Yes, Mary and her
child were are described as calm, and
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Jesus is pictured in the hymn is
sleeping in heavenly peace, and I have
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no doubt that at some point that
happened. Right even the most fussy newborns
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eventually conk out go to sleep,
even the ones that don't actually descend from
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heaven. There are there is a
moment when they rest finally and mom and
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babies get the sleep they need.
But if you remember the other verses in
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this song and, even more importantly, the scriptures themselves, which the song
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testifies to, there's a lot of
other things going on. It's not just
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this perfect picture of stillness, of
the baby Jesus being sort of this perfect
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child. No, if you think
about the other verses we read about shepherds
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quaking, angels singing and, as
we know from the scriptures, there were
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other various guests, shepherds, wise
men. The little drummer boy is not
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in the Bible, that's not part
of it. But there were activity right,
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there were visitors, there were people
coming. And then, of course,
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remember that if human nature holds true, as it must in the case
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of Jesus, if we are to
be saved, then Jesus cried, Jesus
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got hungry, Jesus needed to be
changed. He was fully human, just
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like you and me. You don't
want to come away from Christmas denying the
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incarnation. That would be exactly the
wrong thing that you would want to have
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happened. Jesus became man so that
we men can have our sins forgiven who
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have fallen into sin. And it
wasn't it wasn't all quiet either, not
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only in terms of the visitors and
the animals and the baby and the birth,
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but we might remember, there was
a lot of darkness in this night
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too. Herod was plotting the murder
of Jesus. Kill squads were being instructed
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and marshaled and sent out. So
what is the silence about? Right the
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way that this Christmas Carol describes this, the silence of this hymn, and
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is describing not a literal silence but
something else, what we might just simply
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call peace, the very peace that
the angels joyously and maybe even noisily proclaimed
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when they flashed onto the scene with
the shepherds. Peace to men, they
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cried. They proclaimed peace to men
because, through the son of God that
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had come into the world, God
would reconcile himself to men. The Bible
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says that when we are born,
we are born into death. It's a
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remarkable thing to say, but it's
true. Says that we're born in our
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but we're born dead in our trespasses
and sins, effusion too, and effusions
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to it. In fact. It
even says that we are without peace in
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the world. And of course you
know what it's like to not have peace,
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to be filled with anxiety and trouble
and worry and noise and clamor and
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we just can't get away. You
feel the world closing in on around you.
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Jesus came into the world to do
away with all of that. That's
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what the angels proclaim. Peace on
earth, peace to all the world.
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Sin Strife, everything that stands between
us and God, Jesus came to put
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aside. He accomplished that. The
Bible says that Jesus made peace by the
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blood of the cross, and it's
because of that blood, blood that was
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fully human, that we celebrate and
we think about this night as being so
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peaceful, not because it was inhuman, but because it was divine, because
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when Jesus came into the world,
he came to do something that no human
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could do. No mere human.
Jesus is fully God and fully man.
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Brings this good news, good news
that, in the midst of a world
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of filled with suffering and death,
grief and loss of family members, friends,
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important relationships, wealth, honor many
things, God is telling us,
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the whole world, as he says
to the to the shepherds, it's going
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to be okay, peace on earth. Put Your faith in my son and
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you will be saved. Put Your
faith in my son and you will have
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peace. And so that's what this
song is about. All is calm,
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all is bright. Why? Because
light had come into the world, peace
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had come into the world. Shepherds
are quaking glories or streaming from Heavens Afar
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this heavenly host singing Allelujah. Why? Because, as it says, Christ
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the savior is born. Jesus came
into this world to bring peace and in
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doing so he brings us all out
of darkness, the darkness of night,
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and into his light. An amazing
thing is is this heavenly peace that is
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described here. These glories from heaven
are ultimately realized when Jesus ascends into heaven
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in his body and promises to come
from there again, ushering in a new
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heavens and the earth at the end
of days. And this place is very
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remarkable because it is described as a
place where there is no night in the
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song, silent night, and in
the event of the incarnation, Jesus comes
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into a world and into the darkness
to bring light. When Jesus comes again,
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there will be no more night and
that's it. And this is where
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we live our lives now. We
live them by the light of his glory.
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The night he was born he brought
peace into the world, but in
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his mission wouldn't end there. It
would end on the cross, but would
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augurate the Kingdom of God, and
it will be consummated when he comes again.
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Our Lord and our Savior was born
to bring peace into this world,
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pure radiant light, and this he
will accomplish finally and once for all when
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he returns again. So, as
we look back, we think about the
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Lord's working in history, the things
would is he has bought about, remember
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them as the beginning of things that
are yet in the future, things that
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we are looking forward to hanging on
to and enjoying even in our deaths,
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to enjoy his peace, and was
certainly even more at our resurrections. Let's
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stand together. Oh, let's pray
first, and then we'll stand and sing
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silent night.
