2006 Songs of Christmas Series –
“O Little Town of Curwensville”
Micah 5:1-5
Sermon preached at Curwensville Presbyterian Church – December 24, 2006
[Christmas Eve Morning]
Prayer Introduction: We have been looking at some well-known Christmas carols, which are windows into Scriptures that are also well-known. We have noticed that well-known, isn’t the same thing as well-understood. I don’t know about you, but I am amazed how little I have understood these Christmas songs, which I’ve sung all of my life. I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these songs at much as I have.
This morning we come to the song, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and the prophecy from Micah 5:1-5a. We don’t get to Micah very often (in fact, next year my personal devotions are going to focus on the prophets); so let me encourage you – if you have your Bibles – to turn to Micah, chapter 5; and also turn in your hymnals to #44. Before we read, let’s pray…We pray now for the preacher in the pulpit. He is not worthy, but by your grace he is able. And so it is through Jesus Christ that we pray – Amen!
READ Micah 5:1-5a
I. The Light Shines in the Dark Streets – The First Verse/Stanza
The prophet Micah, predicted that Bethlehem would be ravaged by a foreign nation. When Jesus was born, the Romans were busy conquering Jerusalem and all of Israel.
It was a dark time in Israel when Jesus was born. It has been said, “It is darkest just before dawn.” These were the darkest of times, and the people of Israel were desperate for the promised Messiah, the promised King, who would lead them.
When would God bring this great King; and from whence would he come? Surely not in Bethlehem, of all places – the little town of Bethlehem. That would be like suggesting that the King of the universe would come from Curwensville.
Isn’t that just the way God works? When we consider God, we realize that he does great things with the smallest of places, the smallest of people. God uses a stuttering murderer – Moses – to lead His people across the Red Sea. God uses an adulterous shepherd – David – to lead His people. God uses an 8-year-old – Josiah – to lead His nation through a great reformation. He uses a mischievous monk – Martin Luther – to lead His church through a great reformation.
The God who comes to earth as an infant in a manger in Bethlehem is the same God who uses men and women, boys and girls, from Curwensville.
Bethlehem is a place of rich heritage. The name Bethlehem means “house” (Hebrew: Beth) “of Bread” (Hebrew: Lehem). It was the “house of bread” – meaning a fertile land. Today they grow mostly olives and grapes there. However, in biblical times there were rich grain fields. You remember the Old Testament account of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz? They were in Bethlehem, gleaning in those fields.
It’s in Bethlehem that Jacob buried Rachel. It’s in Bethlehem that King David (Ruth and Boaz’s grandson) would look after sheep – perhaps in the same fields where the shepherds were keeping watch over their flock by night; perhaps those are the same fields in which David composed the 23rd Psalm – “The Lord is my Shepherd...”
Today, Bethlehem is part of the West Bank with a network of trenches, barbed wire fences, walls and military checkpoints closing off the holy city of Bethlehem.
This formerly little town of Bethlehem is the place where the High King of Heaven was born (the promised son of David, born in David’s hometown – the ultimate fulfillment of Micah’s (and Isaiah’s) prophesies – made over 700 years earlier. “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.” Could this really be the one? Could this really be the promised King? “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
Could this really be our Savior and Lord? Could this really be the one to fulfill our hopes amidst our fears? Could this little baby really be God in the flesh?
Yes! In the midst of your deepest darkness know that Jesus is the everlasting light. In the midst of your deepest fears know that Jesus is the everlasting hope. Turn to Him. Trust Him. Follow Him. He is the King, sent from Heaven. Let Him be your King. Let Him rule your heart and life.
II. Angels Gathered Above – The Second Verse/Stanza
The second verse/stanza begins, “For Christ is born of Mary; and gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.” While mortals were sleeping, the angels were gathered above watching and proclaiming the birth of the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.
There is so much more going on then what we mortals see. While we are sleeping, and even when we are awake, there is a spiritual reality happening around us – and within us – that we do not see. Yet, God wants us to see it. God wants us to know what He is doing. God has revealed Himself, first through the word of the prophets, then through the Word who became flesh (Jesus) and then through the completion of His written Word (the Bible) made known to us as the Holy Spirit works in our inward heart bearing witness to the Word.
If you don’t know what God is doing around you, and within you, it isn’t because God hasn’t revealed it; but because you haven’t allowed the Holy Spirit of God to reveal it to you. We are such a rebellious people that we often don’t want to know what God has revealed. We don’t want to hear about the sin dwelling in our hearts. We don’t want to hear about how our sinful actions are affecting us and others around us. We put our head in the sand, or fill it with the sounds of people telling us what we want to hear, rather than praying the words of Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The author of this hymn knew about stopping and listening – especially at Christmas. Standing 6’ 6” and weighing almost 300 pounds, Philip Brooks was a pastor in Philadelphia from 1862-1869 (the years of the Civil War). He preached the funeral sermon of Abraham Lincoln. At the end of the Civil War, Brooks went to Israel where he attended a five-hour worship service in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, 1865. In his diary he wrote: “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.”
3 years later he wrote this hymn, largely based on his remembrance of that time in Bethlehem. Brooks loved children and wanted this song to have a tune that would make it easy for children to learn the words, and so he asked his organist – Lewis Redner – to compose a tune; which he did while lying in his bed the night before the children’s Christmas pageant. A group of 6 Sunday School teachers and 36 children sang it the next morning.
There is a fourth stanza, which is omitted from most hymnbooks, “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.”
III. The Dear Christ Enters In – The Third Verse/Stanza
This theme of God revealing Himself to our hearts is really shown in the third verse/stanza. “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!” Don’t you wish, sometimes, that God would say it louder?! Don’t you wish that God would be more obvious with what He is trying to say to us? Let me suggest that sometimes God is speaking plenty loud, but there is too much noise to hear Him.
In a world of busyness, we need to stop and meditate on God’s Word – allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of the sin within – that He may bring us to the manger, and the cross, to set us free to live in thankful obedience.
The
Christmas season has become a season of busyness – the opposite of what
Christmas is really about. Christmas isn’t about shopping and presents and
concerts and pageants and, and, and…Christmas is about the incarnation – God
revealing Himself in the person of Jesus – that God might dwell within us,
shining His revealing light to expose our sinful darkness; thus setting us free
from it.
“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.” Have you let the Christ enter in to
your heart? Have you received Him? Then let Him shine His revealing light to
expose the darkness.
Let Him bring
you to a place of confession and repentance – and the accompanying forgiveness
and freedom in sanctification. Let Him set you free from gluttony, gossip &
greed, drunkenness, deceit & dissention, anger, idolatry, self-centeredness,
self-righteousness, pornography and pride
Isn’t this
exactly why Jesus came? Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor,
but the sick… For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”
(Matthew 9:12-13).
IV. Cast Out our Sin and Enter in – The Fourth Verse/Stanza
Isn’t this exactly what this Christmas song is all about? Look at the fourth verse/stanza: “O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin and enter in, Be born in us today.” Jesus didn’t come so that we would have nice music to sing. Jesus came to be the truth who sets us free. Jesus came to cast out our sin and enter in. Jesus came to be born in us – to bring us rebirth – to cause us to be born again of the Spirit.
Let Jesus be born in you today. Let Jesus cast out the sin today. Know that God created us to know Him fully. Yet, because of our sin we don’t know Him – we don’t understand what He is doing around us and within us. That’s why Jesus was born. That’s why Micah’s prophecy was made – and fulfilled.
That’s what Christmas is about – God coming to us, to be one of us, subjected to every trial and temptation, but to endure it perfectly; so that if we would let Him in, we would be able to resist temptation and endure trials – like Christ – and know Him, just as He created us to do.
Do you hear Him calling you now? “We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.” Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us. He wants to be “God with you.” He wants to live in your heart. He wants to rule your heart, so that you can know Him, gratefully obey Him and experience the full joy of Christmas.
MAY THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE – AMEN!