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.”
* * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * *
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.