O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM 12-25-11 Sermon
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor give birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. Micah 5:2-5
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel; praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord as told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. Luke 2:8-18
Today’s sermon is based not on a scripture per se, but on a well known Christmas hymn—O Little Town of Bethlehem. Peg will project the verses of that hymn on the wall so you can follow along as we look at this hymn and hear its message to us. It’s so easy to sing the familiar Christmas hymns over and over again, year after year, without ever really hearing what they have to say to us. Too many times we sing through the great hymns of the church and especially the seasonal ones, without really meaning what the words say.
A group of neighborhood kids went caroling one crisp December night, much like some of us did a few weeks ago. And they were heard singing as they went down the streets, While shepherds washed their socks by night. Little four year old Janine went throughout her house singing her favorite song at the top of her lungs—Slick the walls with bowls of jelly! Fa-la-la-la-la…
O Little Town of Bethlehem and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear are two popular Christmas hymns that have come from America. O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by Bishop Phillips Brooks, a famous preacher from two centuries ago. Though a bachelor, Brooks was especially fond of children. It is said that he kept a supply of toys, dolls and other objects of interest to children in his study so children would be encouraged to stop in and chat with him. It was a familiar sight to see this important man of the pulpit sitting on the floor of his study sharing a fun time with a group of youngsters.
Bishop Brooks wrote this hymn in the early days of his ministry when he was rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal church in Philadelphia. He had just turned 30 and Christmas 1866 found him in the Holy Land. On Christmas Eve he rode on horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He looked around the village, visited the field of the shepherds, and finally joined in the midnight service in the Church of the Nativity.
The experience made a deep impression on him. Having spent Christmas in Bethlehem, he had a desire to record something of what he had felt and seen; and on his return to Philadelphia he wrote this hymn, explicitly for the children of his Sunday school to sing in their Sunday School Christmas program. Phillips Brooks asked the superintendent of his Sunday School Lewis Redner, who was also the church organist, to compose a suitable tune for it. Redner struggled for some time to come up with just the right tune for his pastor’s text. On the evening before the program was to be given, he suddenly awakened from his sleep and quickly composed the current melody. Redner always insisted that the tune was a gift from heaven. The hymn was an immediate favorite with the children and it soon found an established place in the worship of American churches.
Of course hymns were never written just to fill in time in worship services for smooth transitions from one act of worship to another. They were written to communicate a message. So, what does O Little Town of Bethlehem have to say to us?
Originally, the hymn had 5 verses. Each one is worth looking at in more detail. The first verse describes the scene of a sleeping town of Bethlehem.
O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Little Bethlehem was not much more than a village, situated some 6 miles south of Jerusalem. But small though it may have been, Bethlehem was by no means insignificant. It was known as the city of David, for it is the place where David was born. It had another significance as well, for it figured in an important prophecy about the coming messiah which we read from the prophet Micah this morning-- But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.
On Christmas night, little Bethlehem seems no different from usual. It is sleeping peacefully under the silent stars. To all appearances how still we see thee lie. But there is more here than meets the eye. God is working his purposes out, and all unknown to its people this is an historic night for Bethlehem. In its dark streets there is shining the everlasting Light with a capital “L”, the light of Christ. As John 1:9 tells us: The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. The hopes and fears of all the years met in that climactic moment. No less than 300 biblical prophecies concerning the promise of the messiah were fulfilled in Jesus’ coming that night. The world’s only true hope came, and by coming, conquered all the fears to which mankind, whether in the first or the 21st century, is subject to.
Where in your life do you need the Light of Christ to shine? Where do you need his guidance? Where do you need his cleansing? The message of Christmas and of this hymn is that the Light of the world has come to be the light that you need in your life.
Bishop Brooks says that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Christ. The message of the angels was Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy. John tells us that the perfect love of Christ casts out all fear. Paul tells us If Christ is for us, who can be against us; Who can separate us from the love of Christ. Jesus said, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. This Christmas allow Christ to meet you at the point of your fears. Let him replace fear with hope in your life.
What happened that night is told in the second verse:
O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth;
For Christ is born of Mary; and, gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.
Christ was born of Mary. That is the great fact of Christmas that we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed each time we say, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. But surrounding that event itself Bishop Brooks sees much activity in the spiritual world. The angels were busy when Jesus was born. They are referred to both at the beginning and the end of the verse. The morning stars which are called upon to proclaim the holy birth are in fact the Christmas angels of the fifth verse, the same morning stars that sang together at the creation in Job 38:7. It was to the shepherds that they made their proclamation and sang their anthem, ascribing glory to God in the highest and announcing peace to men on earth. Again, while mortals sleep, they are pictured as gathered all above and keeping their watch of wondering love over the holy child and his mother, like the two cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant in the Old Testament.
There is probably also a reference here to 1 Peter 1:12 where Peter describes the gospel mysteries as things into which angels desire to look. His words indicate the angels’ intense interest in the salvation of sinful human beings while at the same time implying that the work of redemption is ultimately beyond their comprehension. God sent his Son at Christmas not for fallen angels, but for fallen human beings, like you and I. The angels cannot understand the depth of God’s love for human beings, a love so deep that he would send his Son into a world that would kill that beloved son; a love so deep that it would allow that crucifixion to happen in order that God might offer you and I eternal life both here on earth now and later in heaven.
In the third verse, the hymn writer reflects that it happened so strangely, this amazing thing, this coming of God into his world in our human flesh and blood.
How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still, the dear Christ enters in.
The miracle of God taking on human flesh takes place so quietly. There is no pomp and show. No fanfare announces the event. How silently God comes. How silently the wondrous gift is given. Who would have dreamt that the phenomenon of God-become-man would have taken place in so obscure a fashion?
In the words of Dr. J. Patterson Smyth—Simply, ordinarily as the coming of the dawn, happened this tremendous thing in the history of the universe, the coming of the Lord of Glory into human life. On the earthly side just a stable, a manger, the cattle in the stalls, a woman wrapping her baby in swaddling clothes, nothing of wonder in it. Nothing of awe, until the world from which he comes flashed in upon the scene, where high over the stable, outside in the starlight, was the heavenly host stirred to its depths at the coming of the Christ child.
God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. And it was so in the supreme wonder of the Word made flesh. In a similar manner he fulfills his purpose in human lives today and imparts to us the blessing of his heaven; and though no ear may hear his coming, Christ still enters in wherever meek souls will receive him.
Jesus says in the book of Revelation, Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and answers the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.
Have you invited Christ into your heart and life? Have you invited him into that problem area, that trouble spot? Do you wonder if he’s working there, do you wonder if he’s answering your prayer? Remember how silently the greatest miracle of all human history, God taking on human flesh, took place. Most of the world missed the event. Most of the world missed the miracle. Most of Bethlehem was asleep. Some shepherds knew about it. Some wise men knew. It wasn’t obvious to the general public but it took place nevertheless. How silently God can work his miracles. Trust him to bring to completion the work that he has begun in your life. Trust God to fulfill his purposes in your life.
It is the fourth verse of this hymn that is omitted from most hymnals. No doubt it can be argued that the hymn is complete without it. Nevertheless it does convey a message and adds something other than length to the hymn. It goes like this:
Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed child,
Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
The key to this verse is in the last two lines—the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more. Where does the glory of Christmas break into human life? In a number of situations, the fourth verse suggests. It comes where, in their happiness, children pray to the blessed child of Bethlehem. It comes where in its misery humanity cried out for help to the compassionate Son of the mother mild. It comes where charity stands watching over the needs of the poor and underprivileged, and faith holds wide the door to welcome them in. Christmas comes again, so to speak, in all these situations for at such times Christ himself draws near to listen, to nourish and to bless.
So we make our own prayer to him in the last verse:
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell:
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.
The hymn began with Christmas in Bethlehem, it ends with Christmas in the heart. It begins with Christ being born of Mary; it ends with Christ being born in us. The Christian poet of the 17th century, Angelus Silesius, wrote:
Should Christ be born a thousand times anew,
Despair, O man, unless he’s born in you.
This spiritual birth happens when, after our sin has been cast out, we allow Christ to enter in and take possession of our lives. Christmas thus has for each of us a contemporary message and a personal meaning. Amid the festivities of the season we must take time to pause and listen to the grad glad tidings of the Christmas angels as if they were speaking directly to us, and then ask our Lord Emmanuel to come to us and abide wit us—God with us forever.
Paul writes in Galatians 4:19 that he yearns for Christ to be formed in the Galatians. That is the message of this last verse of the hymn—that Christ would be born in us. Paul’s great definition of a Christian is that of a person being “in Christ.” He used that picture over and over again. If anyone is in Christ, he says in 2 Corinthians, he is a new creation. In Colossians he says, And the secret is simply this, Christ in you. Christ in us and us in Christ—that’s the message of this Christmas hymn.
Have you asked Christ to cast out the sin in your life? Has Christ been born in your heart? Have you asked him to enter into your heart and life?
The important news at Christmas is not who came down the chimney, but who came down from heaven. The greatest gift of Christmas is not found under a tree. It was found in a manger. And yet any gift that is given does no good unless that gift is received, opened and used. Some gifts are received but never opened. Some are opened but never used. Unless the gift is used, it might as well not have been given at all. What will you do with God’s gift to you?
Gove gave you his Son at Christmas. What will you give HIM for Christmas? In the words of Christina Rosetti, in another Christmas hymn:
What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part; yet, what I can I give him;
I give him my heart.
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel. Let us sing O Little Town of Bethlehem as our closing hymn of commitment to God this morning.
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