Christmas
Homily
The Christmas Truce that occurred on December 24, 1914, during the war to end all wars, is still, a hundred-years later, considered a miracle. Along two-thirds of the thirty-mile front guns fell silent. The first signs that something strange was happening occurred at 8:30 p.m. as an officer of the Royal Irish Rifles reported to headquarters: “Germans have illuminated their trenches, are singing songs and wishing us a Happy Xmas. Compliments are being exchanged but am nevertheless taking all military precautions.” Further along the line the two sides serenaded each other with carols, as the German sang Silent Night being met with a British chorus of The First Noel. Soldiers then cautiously emerged from their trenches, walked into “no man’s land,” greeted one another, exchanged gifts, and even played soccer together.
The event is dramatically described by British machine gunner Bruce Bairnsfather who wrote about it in his memoirs. Like most of his fellow infantrymen of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he was spending the holiday eve shivering in the muck, trying to keep warm. He had spent a good part of the past few months fighting the Germans, and now, in a part of Belgium called Bois de Ploegsteert, he was crouched in a trench that stretched just three feet deep by three feet wide, his days and nights marked by an endless cycle of sleeplessness and fear, stale biscuits and cigarettes too wet to light.
Bairnsfather wrote, “Here I was, in this horrible clay cavity, miles and miles from home. Cold, wet through and covered with mud. There didn’t seem the slightest chance of leaving – except in an ambulance.” At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise, and continued his rendition, “I listened. Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices. Suddenly, we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again. Come over here.” Bruce Bairnsfather and his comrades emerged from their trenches, and greeted their foes in the holiday spirit of Christmas.
Several factors combined to produce the conditions for this Christmas Truce. By December 1914 the men in the trenches were veterans, familiar enough with the realities of combat lost much of the idealism that they had carried into war in July of that year, the beginning of the hostilities and most longed for an end to bloodshed. The war, they had believed, would be over by Christmas, yet there they were Christmas week still muddied, cold, and in battle. Then, on Christmas Eve, several weeks of mild but miserably soaking weather gave way to a sudden hard frost, creating a dusting of white snow along the front that made the men on both sides feel that something spiritual was taking place.
This incident really demonstrates the absurdity of hate. How can human beings who have so much in common place themselves in a position to destroy one another. German legionaries and British warriors both enjoyed playing soccer together. On this improvised football field, pocketed with shell holes, spanning stings of barbed wire, the Garden of Eden emerged. Both groups relished the tranquility of joined comradery that transgressed a political divide. Differing nationalities shared the same culture that desired an absence of conflict and the serenity of harmony.
The Christmas truce of 1914 highlights, like nothing else could, the message of Christmas. Peace, not hostility, is a most basic human desire. Trenches were emptied that evening in Belgium, with both sides moving forth in a spirit of reconciliation. For a short thirty-six hours, a day-and-a-half, just a meniscal of time in a war that spanned four years and eliminated nine million lives and disabled twenty-three million more, there was, for just a moment, peace on earth.
When I was a student attending Slippery Rock State College, located sixty-miles north of Pittsburgh, our Christian fellowship group, sponsored by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, often sang the song Let There Be Peace on Earth at our Wednesday evening gatherings. It is a touchy-felly song, and my sing-along memory of those evenings away from my studies still resonates with me this day.
At the time the origin of the song really wasn’t important to me as I was enveloped by a collegiate fellowship that I was participating in. I didn’t know that the song was written by Jill Jackson-Miller. She wrote the song to express the “life-saving joy of God’s peace and unconditional love,” that she experienced from having suicidal ideations after the failure of her first marriage. In her words, “When I attempted suicide in 1944 and I didn’t succeed, I knew for the first-time unconditional love – which God is. You are totally loved, totally accepted, just the way you are. In that moment I was not allowed to die, and something happened to me, which is very difficult to explain. I had an eternal moment of truth, in which I knew I was loved, and I knew I was here for a purpose.”
The song, since then, has been recognized as a Christmas hymn, and has been included in many denominational hymnbooks.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth
The peace that was meant to be.
With God as our Father
Brothers all are we.
Let me walk with my brother
In perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me,
Let this be the moment now.
With ev’ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow;
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.
One of my favorite Bible verses is when Isaiah announced what the coming Savior will mean to the world, and particularly to me. This is my Christmas Jesus: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Christmas is peace. The truce of December 24, 1914 expressed a universal longing of mankind, as envisioned throughout the dawn of creation, when disharmony was infused upon society. Yes! Christmas is a message of peace! & harmony! & reconciliation! Christmas is peace!
Christmas 1862. On the northern bank of the Rappahannock River, opposite the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, several Union bands began playing some favorite songs, such as When This Cruel War Is Over, Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground, John Brown’s Body, and The Battle Cry of Freedom. Thousands of blue clad soldiers sang in groups on the hillside as the gray clad foes listened, bivouacked along the southside of the mighty gorge. Enjoying the festive music, the Southerners asked that some of their favorite songs be struck up. Absent of any hesitation, the Yankees bands played Dixie, The Bonnie Blue Flag, and Maryland, My Maryland. The concert ended with both sides, 150,000 soldiers, singing, in unison, Home Sweet Home.
Let there be peace on earth – and let it begin with me.