O Little Town Of Bethlehem

Advent 2010 | Week 2: The Bethlehem Candle of Humility | Pastor Duane Smets

This year The Resolved Church is studying the subjects and text of Christmas Carols which coincide with the weeks of advent. This second week of advent focuses on the theme of humility. The sermon looks at “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” and works through aspects of Micah 5:2 and its relevant New Testament counterparts. This sermon was originally preached on December 12th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 12th, 2010

Advent Week 2
The Bethlehem Candle of Humility
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”

I. Stanza 1: A Big Event In A Little Town (Mt. 2-1-18)
II. Stanza 2: A Cosmic Person In An Insignificant Girl (Lk 1:26-38; 2:12-14)
III. Stanza 3: A Subtle Shift In The Souls Of Sinners (Js 1:21)
IV. Stanza 4: A Purifying Work In The Lives Of Believers (Tit 2:11-14)

Introduction

This year for each of the weeks of Advent we are looking at the theology of a different Christmas carol each week that coincides with the given week’s Advent theme. Today we’re celebrating the second week of Advent known as the Bethlehem Candle of Humility, so we’re going to work through four stanzas of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

We thought working through the carols this year would be a fun, creative and helpful thing for us because the carols kind of have their whole own unique genre. Once the Christmas season hits they are everywhere…we hear them in stores, on the radio…I was even in this long line at a store this week just to buy carburetor cleaner to fix my lawn mower and this freak of a dude in front of me was so happy he was just singing away…”Joy to the world, the Lord has come…” I’m glad it’s only at Christmas time that people think they can get away with being so obnoxious.

We were talking about this week at community group and I discovered that for some of you the Christmas carols bring about some of the happiest and fondest memories of your childhood. For others of you, you simply can’t stand them and are sick of them, especially if you work at a retail store or a coffee shop or something.

In part that’s because the carols have simply become common place in our cutlure. For many, there’s nothing theologically significant about them…there’s just songs that go with the occasion just like there’s a whole set of songs you hear only at weddings.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is no different. Artists who are all over the map have recorded renditions of it. Everyone from Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan to Toby Keith to Mariah Carey and even Bright Eyes and Belle and Sebastian have a version of it. I looked it up, there are 28 professional recording artists who have laid down tracks for O Little Town of Bethlehem.

It just baffles me…because the words are so theologically rich and intense. For example, you’ve got Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes singing this song which is about the town Jesus entered the world in and how we all need to have him enter our hearts…but he’s the same guy who sings in one of his other songs about going to a church one day and not being able to sing because he says there’s no God and he has no faith.

Something’s weird…it doesn’t line up. It’s made me wonder why this song is so popular even among those who are not even remotely Christians. I think it may have something to do with the theme of humility that ties this whole carol together. Humility is when you are great but don’t act like it or try and prove it. It’s a quiet strength and confidence. And it’s something everyone respects and honors. No one ever says…”man I just hate humble people, they’re such jerks.”

Well, let me give you some background on O Little Town of Bethlehem. It was written by a man named Philip Brooks. Brooks was an Episcopal pastor in Boston. In 1865 he took a trip to Israel during the holidays to go see the land where Jesus was born and walked and talked and was crucified and risen. While he was there in Jerusalem he was asked to assist at a midnight Christmas eve service in Bethlehem.

So he borrowed a horse and rose the six miles to Bethlehem. The story is that as he crossed the shepherd’s field and drew near to the church he could he the voices from the church singing and being there underneath the stars and thinking about the story of Jesus’ birth overwhelmed him, so he stopped and got down off his horse and penned the words to this carol.

Here’s how he himself described the experience: “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.”

It’s said he sat down right then and there and penned the whole hymn as we sing it today right then and there.

I. Stanza 1: A Big Event In A Little Town (Mt. 2-1-18)

Well, let’s spend some time looking at each of these stanzas. What I did was give each stanza a title that attempts to encapsulate it as a whole, sort of like I did last week. This first one I’m calling, “A Big Event In A Little Town.”

“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.”

First off, Bethlehem has always been a little town. Even now, it only has about 30,000 people who live there. Guestimates for the first century are around 3,000 people. Just a tiny little village about 5-6 miles south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem’s reputation has always been known as a small little town…it’s just like a little blip on the map.

It’s sort of like Fallbrook or something. You don’t even realize it’s there until you’ve driven past it. But if you actually drive into the town there’s like one street with a few stores on it and usually people riding around on horses. If you’ve never heard of Fallbrook, that’s just a sign of how small it is…it’s this little tiny town about thirty minutes north of here.

Bethlehem is an infinitesimal insignificant little place…really until Jesus is born. People knew it was where King David was born but other than that nothing really notable ever happened there. This prophecy then comes along. Micah 5:2 “You, O Bethlehem who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”

About 700 years go by…and no ruler of Israel is born in Bethlehem, especially not one whose “origin is from of old, from ancient days.” Then Jesus is born. Here’s the story of what happen. Fast forward 700 plus years to Matthew 2. Let me read from verse 1 to 18.

Matthew 2-1-18 “1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

So Jesus is born in Bethlehem. These “wise men” from the east, which is code for astrologers from China or somewhere in the orient are hyped up on some mystical belief about a great ruler from among the Jews who is supposed to be born. It’s not likely that they knew or believed in the Jewish Scriptures so this probably more akin to like old school horoscope fanatics only they were respected and esteemed back then.

These wise men get to the land of the Jews and start asking to see if there’s any word about a new great king being born and they tell them about their special Jewish prophecy from Micah that hasn’t come true yet, at least for the past 700 years…that out of tiny Bethlehem is supposed to come a ruler.

You’ve got to have a feel for that. You know what year it was 700 years ago from today? 1310. Does anybody here even know about anything that happened in 1310?

By the time the wise men find Jesus it’s up to two years later. You might have missed it but Jesus is called a child, not a baby and he and Joseph and Mary are living in a house when the wise men get there. We also know this because Herod, the current Jewish king feels threatened by this “new Jewish king” the wise men are seeking so he orders a slaughter of all the male babies two years old and under.

So I’m sorry…if you thought the wise men were at the stable with the animals and baby Jesus they weren’t. That’s why we put the wise men from our nativity set on the other side of our piano. My daughter asked me why and I just said, “They’re on their way!”

Jesus is born in Bethlehem and because of it there’s a slaughter of children in little ole Bethlehem. Jesus birth puts Bethlehem on the map. Nothing significant has really happened since. This is a big event in a little town.

Let’s look back at the words of this stanza. “How still we see thee lie…silent stars go by.” What are one of the byproducts of big cities…an inescapable thing that happens, something you can’t get away from even in the night in a big city? Noise. But Bethlehem is small…no noise, it’s quiet.

And in the middle of the little small quiet village, something from eternity…an everlasting light enters in to it’s midst. The word “everlasting” is clearly a reference to God because he is the only thing that is truly everlasting…the one whose origin is of old, ancient days.

You try to imagine this in your head. I’m sure my visuals are coming from Harry Potter or something. But I imagine in my head I picture this little ball of light which comes straight from the source of light itself…and then it whizzes down from out of the stars in the sky and makes it’s way down into a house or into Mary’s belly or into the stable…and immediately bright light. God has come to earth!

It’s a fantastic idea. There’s a Creator God who made everything. He is holy. And from his holy being naturally exudes both physical and spiritual light. Then one day out of thousands in all of history, he makes a move he has never made and descends to earth.

The carol says the “hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Hopes and fears…the things which have gone wrong with the world the creator made…the very reasons why there is fear and the need for hope. And so the Creator comes to his world to fix things. And He, the everlasting light decides to do it by coming to perhaps the smallest town of all.

It’s a big event, a historical one, a total game changer and it happens in a tiny quiet little town. It’s interesting…everything God is in his character gets exemplified in the way he does things. He’s a big God and he chooses to come to a small town.

It’s not the way we do things. The last time the president came to San Diego I don’t think he made a stop in Fallbrook. But it’s the way God does things. He does them upside down to show how truly great he really is.

I think that what this first stanza is meant to provoke in us. The upside-down nature of God that is truly wonderful. Hope and fears of all the years that can only be fixed by the everlasting God and when he comes, when God comes…he does it in stealth comes to a lowly town.

II. Stanza 2: A Cosmic Person In An Insignificant Girl (Lk 1:26-38; 2:12-14)

The next stanza notes not just the little town God comes to but the little girl he enters into. So I titled this stanza, “A Cosmic Person in An Insignificant Girl.” Let’s read the lyrics and then go read the story from the Bible.

“For Christ is born of Mary, And gathered all above, While mortals sleep the angels keep, Their watch of wondering love. O morning stars together, Proclaim the holy birth, And praises sing to God the King, And peace to men on earth.”

Now let’s read the story of Mary and angels straight from the Bible.

Luke 1:26-38 “26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel (a famous angel from the Old Testament) was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

Nine months go by and on the day Mary gives birth Luke 2:12-14 picks up the story with another angel, maybe Gabriel maybe not, who says there is “‘a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And (then) suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

So basically we’ve got Mary and this supernatural being, an angel, named Gabriel telling her she is going to give birth to the son of God and that she is going to get pregnant without ever having sexual intercourse with a man.

Sidenote, both Mary’s question and the angel’s response rules out the possibility of virgin meaning “young girl” as some have tried to say. “Virgin” here means “virgin” just in the same way “40 Year Old Virgin” meant it. Sorry Rob Bell, for those of you who know of him. He’s whack.

So we’ve got Mary first encountering a supernatural being, an angel, before she gets pregnant then again after she gives birth, a whole multitude of supernatural beings, angels…praising God that he was born.

Okay. The next week of Advent, next week is the Angels candle…so I’ll leave the question: “what the heck is an angel” for next week. For now, just for a minute, let’s just look at this as a story and consider at base level what it’s telling us.

Maybe there’s some of you here who really are not sure about all this Christianity stuff and especially when it comes to things like angels really existing. But even without being sure about that what we do pick up is the sense of there being a drastic difference between humans and angels.

From the Bible story we just read we can pick up a few things. Angels are really old. You first hear about Gabriel in the book of Daniel about 600 years before he shows up to Mary and the book of Job tells us God made all the angels, these “morning stars”, before he even created the world (Job 38:7). So angels are really old, they are as the carol says, “immortal.” “While mortals sleep the angels keep.”

Then, there’s these little side details that they can appear in the middle of the room where Mary is and then later a whole host of them appear in the sky, apparently just floating there in shining light. What I’m wanting us to get a sense for is the vast difference portrayed in the Bible between humans and angels. They are a higher class of being.

Now usually when there is a higher class of being, the lower class is seen as less significant. For example, I, as a human being am of a higher class of being than an ant. I have a lot more power and capabilities than an ant does as well as a much longer life span. What ants do as I look down on them is largely insignificant to me. That’s kind of what we got going on with angels.

But what’s happening in the story here? All these angels are gathered together and are stunned by the birth of Jesus and erupting forth in praise to God because of it!

Why? Is it because of Mary. No, she’s just a little, sixteen year old girl from a poor family. There’s nothing significant about her. What has got the angels going is that Jesus was born.

Now that tells us something about Jesus, about who this Christ is that’s born. He is so significant he causes multitudes of cosmic beings to stand at attention and sing praise. The carol gets it right, they’re there and they are singing because Jesus is “God the King” who entered earth to be among men by being born of Mary. God, the greatest of all, became an ant.

The story is like this perfect juxtaposition of two opposite worlds. You’ve got angels and God on one hand! And on the other hand mortal humans little poor Mary. I mean you would expect that if God were going to come into the world he would choose to be born among a well off, respected, powerful and probably royal ruling family. But instead he chooses to be born among one of the lowest of the low in one of the littlest of towns.

The astoundingly humble character of God coats this entire story and we are simply moved to awe at how great and good God is.

III. Stanza 3: A Subtle Shift In The Souls Of Sinners (Js 1:21)

Now the next two stanzas make a shift in their focus. The first two stanzas are focused on the Biblical story of what happened at Jesus birth, the third and the forth stanza look at those events and turns them into a metaphor for how God works in our hearts here and now.

So let’s look at the third stanza here. I’m calling it “A Subtle Shift In The Soul Of Sinners.” Here’s its words, “How silently how silently, The wondrous gift is given, 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.”

When we sing “how silently, how silently” and what comes to mind? The first verse we sang. How Bethlehem is quiet and still and the “silent stars go by.” But now the subject has changed because in this stanza its no longer talking about God descending into Bethlehem but now he is imparting himself into “human hearts” and there the “dear Christ enters in.”

So I think this stanza is really talking about conversion, about how and what happens when someone becomes a Christian.

Now has anyone ever heard anyone say and maybe you yourself have said it, “I received Jesus into my heart” or maybe you were trying to share the gospel with someone and you said something like that, “you just need to pray to receive Jesus into your heart”? Does anyone know the Bible verse that says we are suppose to receive Jesus into our hearts?

No one. Good. That’s because there not a verse like that. There’s no verse in the Bible which says we are supposed to pray to receive Jesus into our hearts. Now there a ton of verses about receiving Jesus and there’s a ton about loving and believing in him with our hearts. But not those two together. The closest we get is in Colossians 3:15 it says we are to let the “word of Christ dwell in (us) richly.”

So I was reading my Bible and trying to think of what passage may have inspired this stanza in “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and James 1:21 came to mind. Here’s what it says, James 1:21 “Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” That almost sounds like, “in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.” Now let’s think about this for a moment. What does this mean?

Well…meek is a sister word to humility. It’s Greek word that gets translated as meek is “prautes.” It almost sounds like it’s opposite, proud. Here’s a definition of prautes: “mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness.” One Bible scholar said, “it is not weakness but a strong and decisive move to give way when they know they must.”

Now for those of us here who are Christians we’ve all had different kinds of experiences in how we became a Christian. But there may be this one commonality. That for everyone of us there was a point in which there was a giving way that took place…a subtle shift where we were in a place of humility and admitted need and sin and received the word of Christ personally.

For some that giving way was like the breaking of a levy, and there was this wide open full release of control and fighting. For others it may have been more like a door being initially and slowly opened. Either way I think what the Scriptures and this Christmas carol is getting at is that subtle shift that happens in the heart…where we become meek and humble and open to Jesus where before we were closed off.

The analogy in the carol is this. The earth, the world, is sinful and gone bad…full of fighting and wickedness, and God comes to this world of sin and is born in Bethlehem. In the same way our hearts are sinful and gone bad…full of fighting against God, conflicting desires, and always seeking and serving ourselves…and Christ can enter our hearts and our lives just as he entered the womb of Mary and the stable of Bethlehem.

And that’s beautiful. I’m always so amazed anytime anyone becomes a Christian. To tell you the truth I feel a little guilty about being so surprised about. It’s just that I know it requires such a great humbling of the heart to be broken down to a place before God where you simply give up, quit fighting it and say okay Jesus, I surrender.

Once that moment happens there is a glorious flooding of the soul as Jesus begins to pour out all of his goodness into our hearts and lives. It might be a quiet flood and it might be a tumultuous one…but it’s a saving one. The hymn we’re looking at calls it a “wonderous gift” and the “blessing of heaven.”

There may be some today who need that subtle shift in your heart to take place. There may be some here and you know God is drawing and calling you to himself and you simply need to become meek and receive him. And there may be some who perhaps have been in a place of meekness and humility before but pride, arrogance and fighting has crept back in and you need that humbling grace to cover you once again.

IV. Stanza 4: A Purifying Work In The Lives Of Believers (Tit 2:11-14)

It’s this last stanza we’re looking at today which really presses that one, the ongoing work in our lives as believers where we are continually changing and becoming more and more loving like Jesus and less and less sinful like Satan.

Here’s the words to the last stanza, “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 Emmanuel.”

Okay so follow my thinking here…this is kind of a tough one. The whole thing’s a prayer right? It’s directed to Jesus, the “holy child of Bethlehem.” It’s asking him to do a few things, descend, cast out sin, be born in us and abide with us.”

Now when I see “be born in us” I immediately think it’s talking about regeneration, when we first become Christians and as Jesus says in John 3, it’s like being born again. But the problem is the whole thing all together is a personal prayer from an insider to their God…people who are not Christians do not pray to Jesus this way and it even calls him “our Lord.” So it sounds like the person here has already sort of, “crossed over the line” and is recognizing the ongoing need for Jesus to work in them.

That is what led me to title this stanza, “A Purifying Work In The Lives Of Believers.” And when we look at it that way there’s a couple beautiful parallels it draws out. I’m not sure what Scripture passage this one could have been inspired by. It’s really all over the place and is probably just a mix of four or five different passages or Biblical ideas.

The one I put up next to my title for this stanza is from Titus 2 which basically says Jesus came to redeem and purify a people for himself. So here’s where I want to go with this. I don’t know exactly what Philip Brooks had in mind in composing this stanza but two things stand out to me about it.

One, how it more than any other verse in the carol pierces through to the heart and meaning of Christmas. It blatantly takes the physical, historical event of Christ’s birth and says the whole point of that, what we need most and are most supposed to learn by hearing the tidings of the Christmas angels…is that we need Jesus. We need Jesus. We need a work of God to come, from the outside, into our lives to cast out sin in us because it’s too great of a thing for us to do on our own. Christmas is about the need for Jesus and the grace he provides.

The second thing that hits me hard is the last two lines, “come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.” In John 15 Jesus talks about talks about abiding with us and in us. Last week we looked at his name Emmanuel meaning he is “God with us.”

To abide is to live with or in. With Jesus, he is here. He is with us and in us. God with us. But we need more of an awareness of that. We need to feel and know him and his goodness more and live out of that. We need more of him and less of us. Jesus is good and we need more of him.

I’ll be real honest. I feel like I blow it a lot. Sometimes I’m just an insensitive jerk. Sometimes I’m so wrapped up all into my own agenda and my own life. Sometimes Jesus and his Spirit and his kindness and love is the farthest thing from my heart and my life I’m just going a hundred miles an hour. I’m not abiding. I’m not living in the presence and assurance and humility of Jesus.

I need more of Jesus. I need my sin to be cast out. I need Jesus to enter in. I need to abide in him. This last stanza is my favorite maybe because it’s the most personally humble. It’s a gentle plea and cry for God to work in me.

Where do you need God to work in you today? Where does sin need to be cast out? Where are you needing to abide in or live in the love of Jesus instead of love for yourself? Where do you need to be made more like Bethlehem, to be humbled.

Conclusion

Well, we’re going to receive the Lord’s supper now and I think the overriding emotion of this carol is simply humble awe. So as we sing it and come forward to receive Jesus in the bread and wine, the elements of his life and death, let’s come in humble adoration.

Take in the greatness of God in this cosmic event of being born in Bethlehem and how he works that same cosmic shift in our hearts in humbling us and turning us toward him and coming to abide with us.

The gospel is that Jesus and only Jesus good, he came in the world to save us because we can’t save ourselves. And that is what Christmas is about.

Let’s pray.