Silent Nights

Sermon by Youth Pastor Nathan Walter

During this time of year, we are supposed to reflect on the birth of Jesus and what it means to us. I know that gets lost most of the time in everything else that Christmas has come to mean, but even when we do reflect on this amazing gift, this new covenant with God, it is difficult to grasp what it meant at the time. When we sing songs like "O Holy Night" or "Silent Night" we tend to get an image of peace. Peace is often paired with quiet, and I think that we have come to believe that silence is synonymous with peace. But in Israel, there had been many quiet nights before the birth of Jesus that provided no peace. God had been silent for 400 years. No prophets to proclaim, no word from the Lord. And it is into this desperate silence that Jesus is born. This Sunday, we will look into why God was silent and what Jesus came to do about it.