In 1865, Rev. Phillips Brooks went to the Holy Land. He was especially impressed by a Christmas Eve service at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth.
Three years later, Brooks needed a Christmas song for the children’s service at his Episcopal church in Philadelphia. He wrote the song himself. For inspiration, he thought back to his experience in the Holy Land and wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
The beautiful song paints a word picture of peace and faith as seen through the eyes of those within the little town of Bethlehem. The song is sung to this day and has become one of the classic Christmas carols of all time.
Verse one: 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.
To our 21st century thinking, we may find the imagery of Bethlehem quaint, but it was confusing for the people of the 1st century. In his Gospel, St. John writes about how many people in Jesus’ day were confused. They knew the prophecy that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. But they also “knew” that Jesus was from Nazareth. The Savior was God’s Son. But they knew Jesus to be the son of Mary. Many of them just could not reconcile this paradox. That’s why St. John records these words: “Some of the people said, ‘How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived.’ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus” (John 7:42-43).
Verse two: For Christ is born of Mary, and, gathered all above while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond’ring love. O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth, and praises sing to God the King and peace to all the earth.
It seems that those who knew Jesus did not understand this paradox. The One who had no place to lay his newborn head … would have no place to lay his head as a traveling rabbi. The One the religious leaders rejected in Jerusalem … was the One praised by the angels in the Bethlehem sky. The One sleeping through a storm … had the power to still the storm. The One who could raise the dead … wept when his friend, Lazarus, died. The One who had no beauty of majesty to attract people to him … had mobs of diseased and crippled and hurting people attracted to him.
Verse three: How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heav’n. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.
Think of how God the Father loves us so much that he has sent his only begotten Son to have us children as his own. It wasn’t alchemy but the incarnation that made this possible. That is what we are still celebrating on this first Sunday after Christmas. We celebrate that God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. God entered this world of sin so meek souls will receive him. We celebrate that God lived here. God cried as an infant. God was the Son of a carpenter. God touched lepers. God struggled under the weight of the cross. God was nailed to that cross. … God died. And in the darkness of the grave, God’s body was laid.
In all this we see how much our God loves us! God humbled himself. God was born in Bethlehem. God died in Jerusalem. God rose from the grave. God is seated on his throne in heaven.
Verse four: 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 Immanuel!
Humble yourselves before the Lord. But please do not miss the significance of this – you are humbling yourself before the Lord who humbled himself before you. That humiliation began in the little town of Bethlehem. How glorious it is that you get to join your human mouth with the angelic choir to sing every Christmas “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”