Ps. 29:1, 11  “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. …  May the LORD give strength to His people!  May the LORD bless His people with peace!”

One of the Christmas movies we watch every year is “Silent Night” starring Linda Hamilton.  Based on an actual event, it tells a story from World War II.  On Christmas Eve, during what would come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge, three American soldiers and three German soldiers all sought refuge in a snow storm at the hunting cabin occupied by a German woman and her young son.  She agrees to shelter them, on one condition:  that they leave their guns – and their war – outside.  The soldiers agree, and what follows as the evening unfolds is a journey from seeing each other only as “Krauts” or “Americans”, only as “the enemy”, to seeing each other as men, with family, history, with dreams and hopes for the future.  As the woman’s son narrates, he realizes that under other circumstances, these men could have been friends, even family.  In the morning, the men part with a new respect for each other, and a changed perspective on the value of the lives lost in the war.

During the Civil War, there were times when the opposing forces were camped on either side of a river so close to each other that when one camp began singing a Christmas carol, the other joined in.  There are stories of similar episodes of peace in other wars, fragments of time when Christmas brought a momentary lull in the brutality of death and destruction.  These are moving stories.  I admit I tear up reading them.  I get misty-eyed at “Silent Night” despite having watched it so many, many times now!  Yet the sad truth is that, once those Christmas moments were over, the fighting resumed just the same as ever.  Those men who sang carols together one night were killing each other with just as much ferocity the next day.  The world’s peace just doesn’t last.

Most of us have never faced that severe of a situation, of course, but the theme of this season, even in the quotidian flow of our lives is “peace”, a laying aside of petty quarrels, of being nice to one another, of being generous and forgiving.   The Christmas movie industry is kept busy churning out new ways to exemplify it.  Our Christmas cards proclaim it.  Even Santa’s “naughty or nice” lists promote it.  Yes, we’re all for peace and goodwill.  That is, until someone says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” – then ask any store checker who is required to give the generic greeting just how much peace and goodwill they get.  That is, until there’s a sale on the It Toy of the year – then see how much peace and goodwill is exhibited in the frantic rush to empty the shelves.  That is, until Uncle Joe brings up politics at Christmas dinner – then see how much peace and goodwill is shown in the argument that ensues.  Somehow, there are a million things that can blow our “peace” right out of the water.  The world’s peace just doesn’t last.

Even many non-Christians are familiar with the angels’ line of “peace, goodwill to men”.  In and of itself, it sounds warm and fuzzy and innocuous.  However, that’s only the second half of the herald (announcement) the angels sang, and, as in so many things, without the first part of their anthem, the second is meaningless. “There appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men on whom His favor rests.”  Before the peace comes the praise; before the goodwill, comes the giving of glory.  As the Psalm today says, the mighty ones, the heavenly beings, the chorus from the very throne room of God first appeared to praise Him, to ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name.  Without acknowledging God for Who He is, there can be no true peace, for it is only FROM God that true peace comes. 

The peace the world gives from its “spirit of Christmas” is temporary at best because it is based on humanity, and humanity is a frail, unreliable foundation.  The peace Christ gives is as permanent and ever-present as He Himself, but it is only when we join the host that made the very skies ring with their “Glory to God in the highest!” that our hearts will be fully prepared for that peace in its fullness.