Christmas 1915

Peace is one of the great Advent themes … Isaiah’s prophecy of ‘The Prince of Peace’… the angels’ announcement to the shepherds of ‘Peace on earth’… Jesus’ promise: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you’… ‘Sleeping in heavenly peace’.

1915 on Christmas Day
On the western front the guns all died away
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard a German sing from no man’s land
He had tenor voice so pure and true
The words were strange but every note we knew
Soaring o’er the living dead and dammed
The German sang of peace from no man’s land

The Christmas day truce of 1915 is well documented… soldiers from both sides coming out of their trenches, meeting together in no man’s land, exchanging gifts, playing football, singing Silent Night… This ‘Celtic Thunder’ telling of the story is powerful.

They left their trenches and we left ours
Beneath tin hats smiles bloomed like wild flowers
With photos, cigarettes, and pots of wine
We built a soldier’s truce on the front line
Their singer was a lad of 21
We begged another song before the dawn
And sitting in the mud and blood and fear
He sang again the song all longed to hear

Silent night, no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All’s calm, all’s bright
All brothers hand in hand
In 19 and 15 in no man’s land

The cannons of war still roar out across our world. We haven’t learnt the lessons that World Wars tried to teach us. The song of peace is still needed today… And even where there is apparent peace, many sit in their own trenches of ‘mud and blood and fear’, longing for personal peace.

And in the morning all the guns boomed in the rain
And we killed them and they killed us again
At night they charged we fought them hand to hand
And I killed the boy that sang in no man’s land

Silent night no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All’s calm, all’s bright
All brothers hand in hand
And that young soldier sings
And the song of peace still rings
Though the captains and all the kings
Built no man’s land

The next day the boy that sung of peace was dead; a no man’s land truce is good but not enough. They say that ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’. ‘Sleeping in heavenly peace’, is a message for life, not just for Christmas. St Paul wrote of ‘the peace of God, which transcends all understanding’ that can ‘guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ This is more than one day – it’s continuing for life.