Christmas: O Little Town


Minister:  Rev. Thomas Scarborough
 
O Little Town of Bethlehem.


This morning I am briefly going to take a look at a famous Christmas hymn. There are some fantastic Christmas hymns -- and very often there is a great deal of Biblical truth hidden behind seemingly simple verse.

I have chosen a hymn by a Bishop of the 19th Century, Bishop Phillips Brooks. This is a man who was canonised by the Anglican Church -- so he was a great man -- although few people remember him today except for his Christmas hymn -- “O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie”. That is no. 18 in our red Christmas supplement.

Phillips Brooks, incidentally, was a strangely eccentric man. He had huge congregations, and he was a legendary preacher. But for instance, instead of preaching from the pulpit at the front, as I am doing this morning, he walked half way up the steps, and preached from there.

He once wrote, “My only ambition is to be a parish priest.”

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Now on the surface of it, this is a song about Bethlehem -- and if you don’t have it open before you, I’d invite you to open the red supplement at no. 18. “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by ...”

But just take a thoughtful look at this hymn, and we’ll see that it contains a great deal of Biblical truth. That is always the mark of a great hymn.

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The first verse sounds its first serious note in the fifth line -- where it speaks symbolically about darkness and light. “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light”.

The dark streets is a reminder of the darkness of sin that fills the streets of the city. In Bethlehem, there was terrible darkness, because this is the place where Herod massacred the little children.

At the time of Christ, report was taken to Herod that a King had been born -- and Herod, out of jealousy, massacred every male child under the age of two.

The streets are dark -- and I myself, in the past few weeks alone, have heard stories rape and murder and greed and corruption and cruelty -- and all kinds of things that make life dark -- in conversations in our vestry here.

It doesn’t even need to be something particularly striking for the dark shadow of sin to pass over your street, or your home. The Bible says that where anything has lost its glory, that is the dark shadow of sin. If a marriage has lost it glory, if a person has lost his or her glory, if a community has lost its glory -- that is the result of sin.

The solution for sin is plainly stated in verse 1 -- again in the fifth line we read: “Yet in the dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.” And notice that this light is a Person. The word “Light” is capitalised here. He is a Person -- Jesus Christ -- who brings light where there once was the darkness of sin.

Notice that we have here the whole Christian message summed up in two lines. There is this great problem of sin on the one hand -- which the Bible tells us is sin against God -- and then we find the solution for sin on the other, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

I really like the last two lines of this verse 1: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”

So often, for people, life over the years is just so many hopes and fears. It’s big hopes -- and then it’s big fears, and “Oh my, I’m on tenterhooks now, and the next moment I’m hoping -- and them I’m fearing -- and so on.” But the fact is, when you come into a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ -- the hopes and fears come together in Jesus Christ. A whole different dynamic enters your life.

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Let’s look briefly at verse 2. Verse 2 tells us that there was a loving heavenly plan behind the sending of God’s Son -- in the second line, we read that “gathered all above ... the angels keep their watch of wondering love”. All the angels in heaven are gathered for the birth of Jesus Christ the Saviour. It is a momentous occasion in heaven.

Another vital truth of verse 2 is that Jesus Christ is born of Mary, in the first line -- and yet notice, in the second line-from last, notice that Jesus Christ is God the King.

This is another vital Christian truth. Jesus Christ was not just a prophet, or a holy man, or a good example, or whatever people say -- but He was God Himself -- God incarnate -- God with us. He was God the Saviour, who came with power to save -- He was not just another human being.

And so often in ministry I see that someone is in trouble, and human advice can’t help, and human encouragement has no power, and then the Holy Spirit breaks in from above, and everything changes. There is a great difference between having human encounters -- and having an encounter with the living God. You can have a human encounter with Jesus Christ -- you can be impressed by Him -- you can learn from Him -- or you can meet Him as the living God.

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Let’s focus next on verse 3. This hymn has told us about the problem of sin -- it has told us of Christ who is the Light of the world -- and now in verse 3 it tells us how we may receive His salvation.

One of the basic teachings of the Christian faith is that eternal salvation is not automatic. It needs to be received. Notice in the second-last line of verse 3 -- that word “receive”. There is the need to make the deliberate step and receive Christ as Your Saviour.

How do we receive Him? Verse 3 gives us some vital clues.

This verse begins with the words, “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given”. Salvation comes silently. It doesn’t happen in a Church service, with music and words -- say through baptism or confirmation. It is a silent thing that happens without any human commotion. Jesus Himself said that the Spirit is like the wind, which blows wherever it pleases.

Then, notice in the third-last line that in this world of sin -- we live in a world of sin, in the midst of it -- and we are a part of it, in the sense of being part of the problem -- He enters in wherever -- in the second-last line -- meek souls will receive Him. “Where meek souls will receive Him, still the dear Christ enters in.”

The word “meek” means “mild and gentle” -- but also “submissive”. “Lord, I live in a world of sin -- I’m part of a world of sin -- I have sinned against you. I want to humbly admit it. I need your forgiveness. I call upon Your Name for the forgiveness of my sins.”

Where there is that meekness, there the dear Christ enters in. Where there is meekness -- where there is openness and confession of my sin -- there we receive the wonderful privilege -- it is called a wondrous gift in verse 3 -- of His salvation.

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Finally, verse 4 expands upon what it means to receive the Saviour. It means to say, “Lord, my whole life is yours. “O holy child of Bethlehem, descend on us, we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in.”

I said last Sunday that salvation is ultimately about who controls my life. Is it me? Or have I released the control of my life to the Lord?

O Lord, whatever is sinful within me, cast it out. I don’t keep anything for myself. I ask you to make a clean sweep of my life. Take control of my whole life. Enter in, by Your gracious Holy Spirit.”

In fact this is an excellent prayer to pray, if you just replace “us” with “me”. “O hold child of Bethlehem, descend on me, I pray; cast out my sin, and enter in; be born in me today.”

And the result of that -- at the very end of the hymn -- is that Christ abides with us. He becomes the power and joy of our lives. It’s a very different life when it is lived together with a powerful, loving, magnificent God who has forgiven my sins, and who I know through Jesus Christ.

AMEN.