I. Intro.
A. I heard about a mother who was running
furiously from store to store on Christmas
Eve … trying to get those last-minute gifts.
1. Suddenly she realized she’d lost track of
her little 3-year-old son.
2. In a panic, she retraced her steps and
found him standing with his little nose
pressed flatly against a frosty window.
a. He was gazing at a Manger Scene.
3. When he heard his mother call his name,
he turned and shouted in innocent glee:
“Look Mommy! It’s JESUS! Baby Jesus is
in the hay!”
a. The harried mom grabbed his arm and
jerked him away, snapping, “We don’t
have time for all that! Can’t you see that
Mommy’s trying to get ready for
Christmas!?!”
B. It’s easy to see the humor in that Mom’s
statement.
1. But how many of us felt the same way
about Christmas this year?
2. It’s the attitude of a lot of people at
Christmas time
a. They don’t have time for the real
meaning of Christmas
b. Instead they’re stressed out about all the
wrong things and are distracted from the
right thing
II. O Little Town of Bethlehem
A. Today I want to talk about one of the
Christmas carols - O Little Town of
Bethlehem
B. Phillips Brooks was burned out.
1. He was known as the most dynamic and
inspirational preacher of his time, but he
had lost his fervor and could not seem to
recover.
a. In his mid twenties he had become
pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in
Philadelphia.
b. He recruited a super salesman named
Lewis Redner to be his Sunday
School Superintendent and organist.
c. The church exploded in growth.
d. They began with 30 children and within a
year there were 1000.
e. The next 2 years the numbers
increased, partly because of Brooks’
dynamic preaching, partly because of
Redner’s music.
2. But then the Civil War came and the mood
in the church became somber.
a. The national spirit was dying, women
were wearing black due to a husband or
son killed in battle.
b. Darkness fell over every facet of the
worship services.
c. Brooks tried to be inspirational and
encourage his church but it was draining
him.
3. When the war ended he thought the
vitality and joy would return immediately
but it did not.
4. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and the
pain intensified. Phillips Brooks was not
the President’s pastor, but because he
was such a great orator, he was asked to
preach the President’s funeral.
a. He reached down deep and found the
appropriate words to say for the
moment but later he was so burned out
that he could not rekindle his own
spiritual flame.
5. So he asked the church for a sabbatical
and took a trip to the Holy Land.
a. On Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, he
mounted a horse and went off riding.
b. At dusk, when the first stars were out,
he rode into the tiny village of
Bethlehem.
c. The town had changed little since the
birth of Christ.
d. It lifted Brooks spirits to be with a few
feet of the very spot where Jesus was
born.
e. There was singing in the church of the
Nativity, he felt surrounded by the Spirit
of God.
f. Brooks wrote about his horseback
journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem,
where he assisted with the midnight
service on Christmas Eve, 1865: “I
remember standing in the old church in
Bethlehem, close to the spot where
Jesus was born, when the whole
church was ringing hour after hour with
splendid hymns of praise to God, how
again and again it seemed as if I could
hear voices I knew well, telling each
other of the Wonderful Night of the
Savior’s birth.”
C. Several years later he wanted to write
a hymn for the Sunday School children
of his parish because he loved the
children
1. Upon completion of the song, Brooks gave
a copy to his organist, Lewis H. Redner,
asking him to compose a simple melody
especially for children.
a. Redner, a gifted church musician and
devoted religious educator struggled with
developing just the right melody.
1) There were several stops and starts.
2) Finally, on the evening before
Christmas Eve, Redner abruptly
awakened from sleep, grabbed pen and
paper, and composed the present
melody.
b. It was an immediate hit with children
and adults.
c. Popular in US
d. Not so in England until Ralph Vaughan
Williams paired this text with the British
folk tune FOREST GREEN
D. “Not only does the hymn beautifully
describe the little town asleep in the
December night; it also gracefully
modulates from a description of Christmas
into an examination of the meaning of
Christmas: first in its encouragement of
charity and faith, and then into the coming
of Christ into the human heart.”
III. Bethlehem
A. How many of you grew up in a small town –
-- say… less than 10,000 people?
1. Grove City, PA about 8000
2. Lakeview and Six Lakes just over 1000
3. How about Amble?
4. That’s the kind of town Bethlehem was.
a. At the time of Christ it was a quiet little
shepherding community with a population
of about 150.
b. Bethlehem would not have impressed
you from any angle.
c. Only 5 miles from Jerusalem - it was kind
of a suburb
B. Jacob’s wife, Rachel is buried there
C. Ruth lived there, she married Boaz there
D. It was the birthplace of Israel’s greatest
king, King David.
E. Years later, Bethlehem (along with all of
Judea) was conquered by the Assyrians.
1. The last king in David’s family line had
been carried into captivity when the
Prophet Micah made this prophecy: "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 …”
2. 700 years later the prophecy was
fulfilled
D. God used the insignificant and the foolish to
show His power
1. Paul - 1 Cor. 1:27-28 – “But God chose
the foolish things of the world to shame
the wise; God chose the weak things of
the world to shame the strong. He chose
the lowly things of this world and the
despised things - and the things that are
not - to nullify the things that are…”
2. God still chooses the weak things of the
world to shame the strong.
3. Humility and availability are more
important to God than pride and talent
4. Have you ever wondered what God can do
through us in Six Lakes or Lakeview?
5. They don’t have all things much bigger
and more important cities have
6. But God can use them to impact the
world!
7. God often chooses insignificant people and
events to bring about God‘s great
purposes
a. like Mary (a peasant girl) and Joseph
(a carpenter)
b. a baby
8. God loves to show His strength through
human frailty.
9. God can use YOU in big ways.
a. God does not require you to be strong
or extremely intelligent or amazingly
talented.
b. The one thing God requires is
obedience.
c. Phillips Brooks once said, “It is while you
are patiently toiling at the little tasks of
life that the meaning and shape of the
great whole of life dawns on you.”
E. My prayer for you is to be obedient to the
God who loves you and to be open for how
that same God might use you to accomplish
His great purposes
