First Lesson: Micah 5: 2-5a Responsive Reading: Psalm 80: 1-7 Second Lesson: Hebrews 10: 5-10 Gospel Lesson: Luke 1: 39-45, (46-55) Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Let me begin by telling you the story of a gentleman named Phillips Brooks. Brooks was born in 1835 in Boston. He was the great-grandson of Samuel Phillips Jr. one of the great pioneers in American education[1]. Brooks eventually enrolls in Harvard. Upon graduation, he got a job in Boston teaching Latin. Brooks was quickly fired and this event drove him into a trigger of despair. Brooks believed himself to be a failure! Brooks proclaimed “I do not know what will become of me and I do not care much. I wish I were fifteen years old again[2]. “ Brooks with an uncertain future enrolls in Seminary. Brooks graduates and becomes a Pastor in Philadelphia. In 1865, Brooks took a trip to the holy land. On Christmas Eve, Brooks makes a horse trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. While in Bethlehem, he saw the fields where the angel visited the Shepherds tending to their flocks on the night of Christ’s birth[3]. Brooks then proceeded to attend midnight services which lasted from 10 PM to 3 AM at the Church of the Nativity thought to be the cave where Jesus was born. The service deeply moved Brooks. The memories of his time in Bethlehem never left him. Three years later, Brooks was back serving his church outside Philadelphia. His church was planning their annual Sunday school Christmas program[4]. Brooks and his organist Lewis Redner were lacking a song to tie it all together. Brooks sat down in one setting to write a reflection of his previous trip to Bethlehem. Redner, the Organist on a Saturday night before rehearsal unable to think of a tune for Brooks’ carol, went to bed only to seemingly be woken up in the middle of the night by what seemed to be an angel of the Lord delivering the perfect treble before Sunday’s church services. The lyrics which seemed to destined for the dustbin of history after the Sunday School program were soon printed by a local bookstore, and eventually picked up for a hymnal for Sunday school children[5]. Brooks’ Christmas Carol is known as “O Little Town of Bethlehem[6].” The hymn’s tale in many ways mirrors the story of our lesson from Micah 5[7]. Micah’s lesson was written at a time when the Assyrian army threatened to devour all of Northern Israel along with its ten small tribes. A town as small as Bethlehem would not even be able to muster any sort of army for resistance[8]. The Assyrians would be seeming to claim the land as their own. What the Hymn reminds us of is Phillip Brooks seemed destined for failure, the people of Bethlehem seemed destined for conquest in the eyes of men, but in God’s eyes, there was a big plan in place having to do with the Messiah eventually being born within this smallest of towns[9]. The Book of Micah tells the story of dark days in Israel’s history. Among the injustices taking place where the rich had schemed to take away land from the poor, widows have been evicted from their homes, and wicked rulers endorse the worship of not the God of Israel, but foreign gods. Israel was in dark days both socially and spiritually to say nothing about the threat posed by their great enemies in these days the Assyrians[10]. In these dark days, The Book of Micah gives a word of great hope: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah. though you are small among the clans[b] of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times[11].” Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Bethlehem was the city of David who was Israel’s greatest king[12]. David seemed to be an unlikely choice to be a great king. He was Jesse’s youngest and seemingly weakest son, in a society where older sons would claim double portions of inheritance. It was David who not only slayed the giant Goliath but would bring eventual peace and prosperity to the land of Israel like no other time in its history. So now in Bethlehem, not mighty Jerusalem several miles down the road another child would be born in a lowly and unassuming manager to usher in a Kingdom that would go beyond all the kingdoms of the world that came before it. In the Gospel of Matthew, the wise men appear before King Herod to inform him of the birth of the Messiah within these smallest of villages[13]. Micah gave the great word of hope to people that yearned for spiritual peace when it seemed unattainable[14]. Author Barbara Brown Taylor tells the following story[15]. Once upon a time a small congregation such as this one was having their Christmas Eve service. The congregation was in need of a reader. Finally, a woman signs up to read when no one seemingly would. The thing was this woman was having a hard time like the people within Micah’s day of her own. She was in the midst of chemotherapy to treat the most aggressive of cancers. Her body was weak and she was required to bring an oxygen tank with her to the lecturn. She began then to read the great word of Gospel hope of what was to come, no different than Micah, as her oxygen tank is humming along with the reading loud enough for everyone to hear[16]. The story reminds us that it is in the harshest ravages of this world that our Lord truly comes with a word of promise for the new creation that soon is to be born in Bethlehem. To illustrate this further, let me close with one final story[17]. Once upon a time, there was a town in Europe with a beautiful cathedral known far and wide for having a beautiful stained glass window behind its altar. On one winter day, a great windstorm came to the land shattering the window into thousands of pieces. The window is cleaned up, placed in a giant box, and brought down to the church basement. Everyone within this cathedral expected that this window would forever remain memorabilia of the church’s glory days. Sometime later though a stranger got word of the cathedral’s broken stained glass window[18]. He asked if he could have the fragments. The request was strange, and the church’s custodians told him to take the seemingly worthless box. The custodians figured they would never hear from this peculiar gentleman ever again. The church thought at this point, good riddance with the broken glass. Well about two years later, the custodians were invited to a craft show in a nearby village featuring the works of a famed artisian. The most beautiful piece at the craft show was a stained glass window; only this window was made for the broken glass off the cathedral window[19]. The custodians had never seen such a beautiful sight before their eyes within their entire lives. A child born in a manager in Bethlehem! Probably didn’t look like much at first sight no different than the broken glass out of which little good could come. No great hosts were awaiting this child’s birth. He was born in the presence of a teenage bride and the first century’s equivalent of long-haul truck drivers in Shepherds. With the exception of King Herod, the rest of the world failed to take notice[20]. Jesus’ lives some thirty years on Earth with followers coming and going like any other ordinary life. Jesus dies virtually alone on Calvary[21], just as the women with the oxygen tank appeared to be without hope on Christmas Eve. On the third day, the words written by Phillips Brooks for his Sunday school program show brings us all to Bethlehem. How we are the purpose of God’s plan revealed on that night some 2000 years ago. I close with words from the third verse of Brooks’ hymn which we will soon sing: “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.” For it is this child soon to be born in Bethlehem who will be our peace.” Who will not only remove warfare from the Earth but remind us to whom we truly do belong. Amen [1] “Phillips Brooks.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 10.Sept.2018. Web. Nov.27.2018. [2] Phillips Brooks.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. [3] Hawn, C. Michael. “History of Hymns: “O Little Town of Bethlehem” . Discipleship Ministries. United Methodist Church. Web. Nov.27.2018. [4] Matthews, Diana Leagh. “Behind the Christmas Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Diana Leagh Matthews. 15.Dec.2018. Web. Nov.27.2018. [5] Matthews, Diana Leagh. “Behind the Christmas Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Diana Leagh Matthews. [6] LBW #41 [7] Micah 5:2-5a. [8] McFadden, Dave. “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” Sermon Central. 5. Dec.2006. Web. Nov.27.2018. [9] McFadden, Dave. “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” Sermon Central. [10] Quirvik, Melinda. “Commentary on Micah 5:2-5a.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 23. Dec.2012. Web. Nov.27.2018. [11] Micah 5:2 [12] Donovan, Richard Niell. “Biblical Commentary:Micah 5:2-5a.” Sermon Writer. 2009, 2010. Web. Nov.27.2018. [13] Matthew 2:6. [14] Stewart, Anne. “Commentary on Micah 5:2-5a.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 20.Dec.2015. Web. Nov.27.2018. [15] Hoezee, Scott. “Micah 5:2-5a.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. Calvin Seminary. Grand Rapids, MI. 14.Dec.2015. Web. Nov.27.2018. [16] Hoezee, Scott. “Micah 5:2-5a.” Center for Excellence in Preaching. [17] McFadden, Dave. “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” Sermon Central. [18] McFadden, Dave. “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” Sermon Central. [19]McFadden, Dave. “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.” Sermon Central. [20] Stier, Leon. “Where is Bethlehem?” Email Mediatations. 24. Dec.2015. Web. Nov.27.2018. [21] Stier, Leon. “Where is Bethlehem?” Email Mediatations. Comments are closed.
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