Silence

Silence. It's a hard thing to come by at this time of year.  

Everywhere we go, there's noise. Everywhere we go, people are in a hurry.  

 

Have you noticed how many more car horns you are hearing these days?  

 

Have you noticed how people always seem to be rushing about?  

 

Have you noticed the noise in the malls and the shops?  

 

Have you noticed the stress on people's faces?

 

All that may well be similar to what the world was like when Christ was born. Without the malls and automobile horns, of course. People were likely busy with their lives, hustling and bustling about with the activities of daily living. Their world was not unlike ours in that regard.  

 

And into that world, with its busyness and its noise and its daily routines, Jesus came.

No one even noticed.

 

It's still the same, isn't it? We're busy and our world is full of noise. Even though we hear and sing carols about Christ the Savior being born, not many are really paying that much attention. We put out our nativity sets and we sing our carols and we send our Christmas cards, but far too often all that is only done out of a sense of habit. It's how we get ready for Christmas. It’s time for Christmas, and this is what we do.

 

We buy candy hearts for Valentine's Day. And we wave our flags in July. We buy pumpkins in October.  And we talk about Jesus in December. It's what we do.

How sad it is that in all our busyness and routines and noise, we too often lose sight of the reason we are doing all these things.

One of the carols we seldom sing, with words dating back to the 3rd century, says "Let all mortal flesh keep silence."

Silence. It's what's often missing at Christmas time. Because noise is what we do. We aren’t very good at silence.

How much better might we understand the magnitude of the Gift we have been given and the reason for our celebrating, if we would take some time for silence. Some time to be still. Some time to ponder. Some time to worship.

Pondering is often even harder than silence. To ponder is to think, to consider, to reflect. To think deeply. But in our noise and our busyness, we don’t often think take time to think. Certainly not to think deeply, yet thinking deeply, pondering, is another challenge from this Carol.

The third line is an even greater challenge than the first. The third line reads, ponder nothing earthly minded. We think that was all well and good for the 3rd century. But this is the 21sr century with its busyness and stress and noise. Yet because of that very busyness and noise, because of the stresses of modern living, is it not just as important now, as it was in the past, to ponder nothing earthly minded? Isn’t that the very essence of living the Christian life? To keep our thoughts and our minds “fixed on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).

Especially in this Christmas season.

It may be challenging to find time for silence.

It may be challenging to keep the focus on Jesus.

But it will be worth the effort.

 

 

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,  

and with fear and trembling stand; 

ponder nothing earthly-minded, 

for with blessing in his hand, 

Christ our God to earth descendeth, 

our full homage to demand. 

 

Text: Liturgy of St. James; trans. by Gerard Moultrie 
Music: French carol melody; harm. from The English Hymnal 
Tune: PICARDY

Listen to this carol here: https://youtu.be/Q8ByNT1m8V4?si=PR4ihUCE_EoZ1YG_