Silent Night, Holy Night: Calm and Bright
Silent Night, Holy Night: Calm and Bright
Matthew 1:18-25
Advent Series - Christmas Carols: Songs of Hope on the Way to Bethlehem
December 21, 2025 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA
PDF OF SERMON LINKED AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25
Matthew tells the Christmas story starting with Joseph’s remarkable family tree. And then focuses on Joseph and his dream at night. And then the birth. For Matthew the birth of Jesus comes to fulfill the prophets and to confront the real dangers of living under the oppressive Roman Empire. The story moves quickly to King Herod – this king who feels threatened by any mention of another king. So he concocts an evil plan – infanticide.
As we sing Christmas carols and move through this season, my guess is that we have not always felt “Calm and Bright” as we sang this morning. “Silent Night” is such a beautiful carol and it has an amazing story and it is connected to other stories. And you probably have some memories and stories of this carol – candlelight at Christmas Eve services.
Let’s enter into these stories, remembering the angel’s words to Joseph – the child born to Mary will be Emmanuel – God is with us. How might the Holy One be with us today, in this season of hope and uncertainty, wonder and worry? How can we find that place of calm and bright?
History of Silent Night, Holy Night
In 1816, twenty-five-year-old Joseph Mohr was a young priest in Austria. He loved music and poetry. One winter night he was walking to his grandfather’s house and was inspired to write a poem about that beautiful night. No melody came to him so he kept it in his files. The following year he was assigned to the position of assistant at a different parish – St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria. He oversaw all the music of the parish. In 1818 during a particularly cold winter, Mohr was making the last preparations for Christmas Eve mass. His good planning was coming together after many months - everything from the music to the message. When he was in sanctuary, he made a terrible discovery: the organ would not play. He tried everything – crawling behind the console, looking in the organ loft. Still the organ remained silent.
He paused and prayed about what to do. He asked God how to bring music to his parish. Suddenly he remembered the poem he had written two years before. He dug through his papers and found it. Written in German of course. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. The words rang true. But what could he do? Then the Spirit inspired him again.
He walked to the home of schoolteacher and part-time church musician Franz Gruber. He knocked on his door. Franz was shocked to see Pastor Mohr there. Mohr sat down, showed him the poem and spoke quickly. “Franz, can you write music to these words that can be easily learned by our choir? Without the organ, I guess the song will be played on the guitar. We don’t have much time!” Gruber nodded his head and he got to work.
A few hours later the two friends met at St. Nicholas Church. There, in the candlelit sanctuary, Gruber shared his music with Mohr. Gruber learned the guitar chords and then rushed to teach the song to the choir, including four-part harmony. “Silent Night, Holy Night” was sung and heard for the first time.
2018 was the 200th anniversary of the carol. This special carol with the melody by composer Franz Gruber and the original text by Joseph Mohr has been translated from the original German into over 140 languages. It is among the most recorded songs in the world.
Franz Gruber took a stressful and difficult moment and was able to find a way through an impossible situation. There was calm and bright and beauty for that congregation and for so many since. The story of its origin reminds us the ways the Holy One is with us.
WWI
In 1914, just four years shy of the 100th anniversary of “Silent Night,” another amazing story emerges in history.
The Christmas Truce has become one of the most famous and mythologized events of the First World War. According to various historical sources, late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and other songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches. Then they sang “Silent Night” in English and German together.
The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football. They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts. After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out. The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front.
But it is a telling story that in midst of war, some of the soldiers remembered their true humanity, part of the human family, instead of being enemies. Calm and bright, a hope for peace.
The story of Gruber and Mohr and the story of the soldiers remind us to look for and remember others who are with us in the midst of uncertainty or fear or loss.
When have you been a companion to someone through a fearful and challenging time?
When has someone offered you the gift of accompaniment?
These are challenging times. Many people are hurting. The world feels broken, and we live with impossibility every day. You and I can’t fix what’s broken. We can’t bring redemption. But we are here. We can be with each other, ready, waiting, open to God whose presence comes to us as gift.
This past week has been full of heavy news. There have been moments that I have struggled to feel Christmas joy and to say “Merry Christmas” like I mean it. Many of us have been sad and mad about what certain leaders of our country are doing and saying – things that are unethical, shameful, unjust, cruel and corrupt. What do we say and do? How might the words of “Silent Night” be an invitation in this complex time?
It is a carol that helps us acknowledge that we’ve been brought into this story, the Christmas story, the Cosmic Christ story. God with us. Our lives have been commandeered by love. We are recipients of God’s grace. We are becoming insiders in God’s scheme to heal and redeem the world.
We too are invited to recognize that it is by our actions and prayers, our words and silence, our tears and laughter, that God comes into the world. In our own living and being present Christ is born among us.
And we’re not in it alone. We too are welcomed into the community of the cosmic promise, drawn into the now vast and timeless group of that includes people all throughout God’s beloved world, and these ancestors, and Mary and Joseph and shepherds.
So, today, as we practice being present and open, to notice miracles and wonders, we respond with gratitude, with awe, with joy, with silence, with love.
Close with one of my favorite poems by Madeline L’Engle
"First Coming"
God did not wait till the world was ready,
Till ...nations were at peace.
God came when the heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
God did not wait for the perfect time.
God came when the need was deep and great.
God dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine.
God did not wait till hearts were pure.
In joy God came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
God came, the Light that would not go out.
God came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
From The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle
Resources
Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (2001: Zondervan)
Imperial War Museums, “The Real Story of the Christmas Truce,” https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce
Rev. Kara Root, “Presencing, and those in it with us,” Dec. 14, 2025
https://kara-root.blogspot.com/2025/12/presencing-and-those-in-it-with-us.html