Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
Hey there
So, just dropping in to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
So I've been leading worship at my church now for the last 18 months or so, and Sunday December 20th was our Christmas Services. Little different this year because of social distancing, etc, but we did an acoustic set and closed with Silent Night after taking communion. And so I took a moment and talked about Christmas 1914 before we sang.
So the story is that both sides in WWI dug into the trenches with a no mans land between them, and men would be ordered to run across the no mans land and attack. Usually ending in a hail of gunfire and almost certain death. But on that first Christmas Eve in the trenches, one side managed to communicate to the other "we don't shoot, you don't shoot, agreed?" And they agreed to a Christmas truce. I'm pretty sure the powers above them that sent them off to war did not approve.
But anyway, on Christmas Day they emerged from their trenches and met in the middle. And they exchanged gifts, food, drinks, stories, showed each other pictures of their families and even managed to kick a soccer ball around and sing songs together.
And for that one day, they didn't see each other as an enemy, but as people. They didn't see the uniforms and the patches and the badges, or hear the accents, or focus on all their differences and why they were there to destroy each other. Instead they saw each other as God sees all of us: just people. And God knows how he made us all different, but he sent a Son, Jesus, to die for all of our sins. He made us different not so we would argue and fight over who was right, but so that we could all uniquely contribute to the kingdom of God, to fulfill a role only we can fulfill in God's plan.
But the thing is, if there was no Jesus, there was no peace that day. If there was no Jesus, there was no truce. There was no Christmas. It was just another day to fight and die, not a day of peace and silencing of guns. Not a day of reaching out, but just another day of attacking each other. But it just shows how powerful a force for peace Jesus is. He silenced the guns on that Christmas Day in 1914, and turned enemies into friends, if just for that one day. It could have stayed that way if those people had chosen to. I am sure after that day it got a lot harder to want to kill the other side, since they were no longer the enemy, but people with friends, families, children, and were way more alike than different.
And I finished with.... my prayer for our community, our nation, is that maybe we can find some way to focus on making peace and reaching out in friendship to each other instead of staying in our trenches, constantly vigilant and looking for ways to attack. That we could get up out of our bunkers and walk into the no man's land that lies between us and offer friendship and fellowship in the name of Christ. That we start to try and see each other not as the people who stir our worst emotions and tendencies up by pointing out our differences want us to see each other, but to see each other as God sees us; all wonderfully and uniquely made, each with value and worth, all of us matter in God's great plan. So much so, he sent a Savior to die for our sins.
I pray that we could be more like those soldiers on that Christmas Day in 1914. Isn't that what the Prince of Peace would want us to do?
Merry Christmas. See you all next year.
Todd
