Christmas Silence And Song Series

Paradox is simply the recognition that opposites can both be true. The Christmas story is

loaded with paradoxes. The most profound revolving around the Christ-Child Himself: The

eternal Son born into time and the Infinite Spirit embodied in finite flesh. The creator of all

space having no room in the inn; the invisible made visible; the perfect made incomplete and

the limitless made limited.

The list goes on and on even to the most minor details like the paradox of that first

Christmas being both a night of silence and a night of song. If you read through the

Christmas hymns in a hymnal you will see these two themes stand out often, some with a

focus on the silence and others with a focus on the song. For example, O Little Town Of

Bethlehem, specializes in silence. "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.

Above thy deep and dream-less sleep the silent stars go by." The third stanza goes, "How

silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the

blessings of His heaven." Then there is, of course, the most famous of all, "Silent night, holy

night, all is calm all is bright. Round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and

mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace."

The other focus which is on sound, shatters the silence of that holy night with loud songs of

jubilant joy. You have for example, Joy To The World, where the heavens and nature sing.

You have, Angels We Have Heard On High, sweetly singing o'er the plains and Hark, The

Hearld Angels Sing, and in Come All Ye Faithful, the second stanza, "Sing, choirs of angels,

sing in exaltation, o sing all ye citizens of heaven above."

This duel focus on both the silence and the sounds of Christmas should clue us in to the

duel nature of Christmas. It is a day and a season for both contemplation and celebration.

It is a time for both reflecting and rejoicing. It is, in other words, a season that is meant to

have an impact on both our minds and out emotions; Our thinking and our feeling. Let's

focus first on-

I. CONTEMPLATION.

This simply means to meditate, think about, study spiritual things. This was the focus of

Mary on that first Christmas. In the midst of high emotions with the angels and the

shepherds making a lot of noise about the birth of Jesus, verse 19 tells us, "but Mary

treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." She represents the quiet and

thoughtful side of Christmas.

Mary was not in on the anthem of the angels. She did not hear all heaven ring as the

angels sing. The focus of Mary was on the baby in her arms and all the implications of being

a mother to the Messiah. If the challenge of parenting makes you worrisome at times,

imagine how Mary must have felt. The wheels in her mind were turning rapidly as she

wondered, what now? How do I enter into what God is doing in the greatest event of all

history-the Incarnation? This calls for contemplation and not just celebration.

It takes some profound thinking on the part of all us to make the coming of God into

history relevant to our purpose for living. Much of the meaning of Christmas is wrapped up

in the way God came into this world. An unknown author wrote,

"Christ could have come riding on a rainbow,

the winds driving His chariot, the Milky Way

serving Him as a heavenly boulevard, while the

glittering stars like so many jewels clustered around

Him. He could have advanced upon this world with

great pageantry, accompanied by innumerable

bands of trumpeting angels, with bright, shining

cherubim His attendants, so that every eye would

have seen His true glory.

"But instead he choose to arrive on this planet

almost unobserved. Silently, wrapped in the swaddling

clothes of humility, He willingly shared the

poverty of a humble family, content to be cradled

in the foul-smelling stable of a little obscure town

called Bethlehem! He stooped so low that He might

reach us in our depravity, lift us out of the mire of

sin, and set our feet on the heavenly pathway. What

condescension, bringing us redemption!

The song writer says, 'Out of the ivory palaces, into a world of woe, only His great eternal

love made my Savior go.'

Paul in Phil. 2 says this is to be the Christian attitude in life. We are to contemplate on the

condescension of Christ and do likewise by forsaking selfishness and striving to focus on the

needs and interests of others. We are to be little Christs trying to demonstrate anew to the