Each year at our Christmas Breakfast, we invite The Very Reverend Dr John Shepherd AM to provide us with a Christmas Message. Please read on....
In 1914 there was a Christmas miracle. It happened during World War I and the horrors of trench warfare. Each army was hunkered down in trenches which stretched out all across the western front. In between those opposing trenches was No Man’s Land – an ugly, bloody span of ground filled with barbed wire, bodies, and near certain death for anyone who ventured out into it.
The trenches of World War I were places of deep darkness and despair. They were places of horror, pain, and suffering as armies charged their enemy’s trenches and men were cut down by rifle and machine gun fire in the hundreds and thousands.
But in the cold, snowy night on the 24th of December in 1914 –light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
As the sun went down on that Christmas Eve, the sounds of rifles and artillery began to fade along a large portion of the battlefield…until finally, there was a still calm, an amazing quiet. And for a time, there was peace on earth.
Before long a new sound began to fill the night sky. Not the sound of guns and death and dying, but the sound of singing. It was begun by a German soldier – a single voice in the cold night air, singing Stille Nacht – Silent Night. Then British soldiers began joining in - then singing The First Nowell. Then soldiers on both sides began to take up the familiar tunes of their favourite Christmas carols.
As Christmas morning broke over the battlefield, the weary soldiers began to venture out into No Man’s Land. Enemies came out of their trenches unarmed. They shook hands. Gifts of cigars, chocolate and whisky were exchanged. Photos were taken. The British helped some of the Germans bury their dead and the favour was returned. A friendly game of football was played right there on the battlefield on Christmas Day. There was peace on earth.
Erich Remarque, in his classic book about World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, made this phenomenon of ‘Peace on Earth’ very personal. He described a scene during a British advance which overran some German trenches.
A British soldier leapt into a shell hole to discover a German soldier lying there. After his first shock of fright, he prepared to bayonet him. But then he saw that this man was wounded, so severely wounded that the British soldier was moved by his condition. He gave him a drink from his water bottle. The German soldier then indicated that he wanted him to open his top pocket. He did so, and an envelope fell out. It contained pictures of the man’s family. He obviously wanted to look at them once more. And in that moment, as the German soldier died, the British soldier held up before him the pictures of his wife and his children.
Now here is something quite remarkable. The attacker undergoes a complete change in his way of seeing things. At first, in the moment of battle, the other man was for him only the wearer of a uniform. He was the representative of a hostile collective, an enemy. But the moment he saw him in connection with the pictures of his family, he realised that he wasn’t merely the man with the enemy’s uniform, but that he also lived in another, completely different dimension - that he was loved by his wife, his children, his parents, and that he himself loved. His way of seeing was transformed. His heart was changed. He saw past the uniform, and went deeper to the person beneath. And there was peace on earth.
Another example. Much older. The story of the Good Samaritan. It’s well-known parable from Luke’s Gospel. It’s entered our culture. Two thousand years later we still call someone who responds generously to those in need ‘a Good Samaritan.’ That’s true. But, funnily enough, that’s not the point of the story. The point is that the person who came to the rescue of the poor Jew who’d been mugged and beaten up and lay dying on the roadside was a ‘Samaritan’, and Samaritans and Jews were ancient, bitter enemies. They shared a hatred which was deep-seated, emotional and irrational. Which means that the ‘goodness’ of the ‘Good’ Samaritan wasn’t simply the goodness of someone who does the decent thing – it was the ‘extraordinary goodness’ of someone who was prepared to regard his worst traditional enemy as his ‘neighbour.’ The point of the story is not – ‘be a decent person and help others’, but ‘love your enemy’. It’s a story which exposes and condemns ‘racism’. And condemnation of racism is necessary if there is to be peace on earth.
And as far as Christians are concerned, we do well to remember that Jesus was a Jew, a faithful Jew, and attacks on Judaism are attacks on the heritage of Christianity. The sadness is that these moments of peace on earth can be so fleeting. As the sun set on Christmas Eve 1914, the soldiers headed back to their trenches. And by evening, it was back to business as usual – the guns roared back to life, the shells began to fall again. The place where they had played their friendly game of football became No Man’s Land once more – back to being the place where men charged and died. ‘Peace on earth’ literally went up in smoke.
And this can happen so easily.
When I was younger my holiday job was working in a menswear store in Melbourne. I was hired at the beginning of December, and the store was going to be open until 6 pm Christmas Eve. There was a huge sign in the window - “Peace on earth” – the wonderful Christmas message declared by the angels to the shepherds. But when 6 o’clock rolled around and store closed, we were told to take down all those Christmas signs and replace them with new signs announcing that everything in the store was now 20% off. The place had to be ready for the day after Christmas. And I remember thinking, ‘already?’ We’re going back that quickly? What happened to peace on earth?
More than ever this year, we need to keep the true message of Christmas going on, and on, and on. Peace. Peace on earth. And not just for one day a year. Peace on earth isn’t a nice, cheery thought we have at Christmas. It’s an invitation to a life-long commitment. We can’t have the guns of the Somme fire up again. And we can’t have the hatred, evil and racism of Bondi fire up again. Our challenge is to be a people of peace, an alternative to what we see happening in the world all around us. The angel on that first Christmas night announced good news of great joy: “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord…Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth…peace.”
Peace was born into the world, a saviour who the prophet Isaiah names as the Prince of Peace.
So at this Christmas we ask God to bless us, our families, friends, colleagues and all those for whom we care and for whom we are responsible, and that there may be peace on earth, peace that heals all divisions and hatred – not just for now, but forever
John Shepherd
Perth Rotary Christmas Breakfast
19 December 2025.