THE HEART HAS A HIGHER AUTHORITY

Back in the 60's, there was a Broadway musical called "Snoopy's Christmas." In one scene, Snoopy is lying on the ridge of his doghouse, dreaming about aerial combat. He's in his Sopwith Camel bi-plane, wearing that leather helmet and those big goggles and that scarf, that's trailing behind him. He's somewhere over the Western Front, looking for enemy aircraft. He's feeling invincible, until he notices that his wings are icing up. He could crash- and die! Just then, out of the clouds, comes the Red Baron.

He flies dangerously close, all around him and over him and under him; and, though he never fires his machine gun, he forces Snoopy to land in a cow pasture behind enemy lines. The Red Baron lands too. He crawls out of the cockpit and jumps to the ground and walks toward Snoopy's Sopwith Camel. There's something in his hand. It must be his pistol. He's going to kill me, Snoopy thinks. But the Red Baron isn't carrying a pistol; he's carrying a bottle of champagne. He raises it up over his head and shouts, "Merry Christmas, mein friend!"

That's Charles Schultz's celebration of something that actually happened, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, along the Western Front, in Belgium. There was a spontaneous truce, in spite of orders on both sides not to fraternize with the enemy. There was a documentary and re-enactment on the History Channel a few years ago. And there's a book called "Silent Night," by Stanley Weintraub, a Penn State professor. In Ypres, Belgium, there's a whole museum in which this event is commemorated. The world will not forget that there was a moment, nearly a hundred years ago, when some German and British soldiers asserted that the heart has a higher authority. A British soldier, in a letter to his parents, wrote, "The new world, for me, began with that fraternization." There were some, however, who refused to participate. One of the few Germans who refused was a corporal nicknamed "Adi." His full name was Adolf Hitler.

Here's the situation. The Germans, who had been told that, in three months, "England kapput," couldn't go one inch further. The British, who had also been promised a short war, couldn't drive them back. They dug trenches, in some places as close as sixty yards apart. There they lived, in snow, in mud, in garbage, in the own excrement' ; and there they died. More died of frostbite and gangrene and trenchfoot than were killed by the enemy. The carnage went on for fifty-two months. F or some, swift death would have been much sweeter than that slow dying. But then on Christmas Eve, the absurdity and the tragedy were suspended. These are just a few of things that happened.

The British soldiers heard some German soldiers singing. They stopped talking and strained to hear what they were singing. It was a familiar tune. Then they realized that they were singing "Silent Night," in German.

Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!

Alles schlaft, einsam wacht

Nurdas traute heilige Paar.

Holder Knab im lockingten Haar,

Schlafe in himmlischer Rub!

And the British soldiers joined in, in English.

Silent night! holy night!

Sleeps the earth, calm and quiet;

Lovely Child, now take they rest

On thy mother's gentle breast.

Sleep in heavenly peace!

The British soldiers dared to look out over the parapets and, to their amazement, saw that the German soldiers had set up Christmas trees all along theirs. And they had lighted them with candles. A German soldier, either careless of death or trustful of God, and in the sights of fifty or more British soldiers, crossed the "No Man's Land" between the trenches, carrying a small Christmas tree, the sign of peace. All lowered their rifles, and some ventured out to greet him. In response to that overture, the British soldiers put the holly wreaths that had been sent to them from home along the front of their parapets.

While doing this, British soldiers saw that the German soldiers had made a sign that read "You not shoot, we not shoot." So the British soldiers quickly made a sign that read "Merry Christmas." Then the German soldiers made another sign which read "Tonight, we sing." So, from hell, they all sang about heaven. And having tacitly agreed to a truce, soldiers on both sides climbed out of their trenches, made their way through barbed wire, and met in the middle of "No Man's Land." They shook hands, tentatively at first.

Some then embraced each other. The British soldiers shared the plum puddings that Princess Mary had sent to all the troops, and the German soldiers shared their Schnapps. It was a holy communion.

On Christmas Day, they met again. By now, they were referring to each other as "our friends, the enemy." They helped each other bury the dead, some of whom had lain there, frozen, for weeks. Alongside one of the mass graves, they had a burial service, in two languages, which began with the recitation of the 23rd Psalm.

"The Lord is my shepherd"

"Der Herr ist mein Hirte"

The British soldiers made crosses out of the wooden biscuit boxes they had received for Christmas; so, if or when the fighting resumed, British Christian soldiers and German Christian soldiers would have to shoot at each other over a field of crosses, each of which implored, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

In a day or two, the fighting did resume, under orders, over that field of crosses. But, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, some British and German soldiers had asserted that the heart has a higher authority. And that assertion was made with symbols. A Christmas carol is a powerful symbol. A Christmas tree is a powerful symbol. A holly wreath is a powerful symbol. "Merry Christmas," either as a greeting or a sign, is a powerful symbol. And plum puddings and Schnapps more than a symbol, a

sacrament. They all remind us that we are the followers of the Prince of Peace and that true blessedness is making peace. Following the Great War, we realized that "The Great Illusion" is that we can make peace by killing each other .

There was as time when I myself had become cynical about Christmas. In the stores, the Christmas decorations went up right after Thanksgiving...then right before Thanksgiving. ..then right after Hallowe' en. ..then right before Hallowe'en. The music was repeated and repeated and repeated, until even I was singing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go " But I want you to know that I don't mind any more. Put the Christmas tree up in July if you want to. Fill the house with a medley of

carols in August if you want to. Give presents wrapped in Christmas paper in September if you want to. Start saying "Merry Christmas" in October if you want to. Our world needs all those symbols. We need a day or two...or a week or two...or a month or two...or a year or two...or a decade or two of peace. We need a generation or two or three or many more of peace. "No Man's Land" exists between peoples allover our world. If there isn't warfare, there's hostility. If there isn't hostility, there's fear. As those British and German soldiers asserted on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1914, we are not impotent to make peace in spite of those who command us to make war and to make our enemies our friends and, finally, to fulfill

Christ's prayer, that "we all be one."

The Rt. Rev. John S. Thornton

St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Eugene, Oregon

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2006

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