Hopes and Fears
One of my favorite things about the Advent/Christmas
season is the music. “O Come,
O Come Emmanuel”, “Joy to the World” and, especially, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Silent
Night” are songs of Christmas that have the ability to instantly change how I feel.
I
love the songs of Christmas and their power to transform my mood into a warm and wonderful feeling…like sipping hot
chocolate before an open fire, looking out a frosty window as beautiful heavy snowflakes drift to the ground. Do you have
that Christmas feeling?
At times, the pressures and expectations of the Christmas season
seem to run all over us resulting in anything but a wonderful, warm, happy feeling. In order to grab a hold of the best of
this time of year, it’s important to determine what you want this season to be.
For
me, Christmas is a time of hope. That hope is affirmed again and again as I listen to and sing the carols that tell the story
of the arrival of the Baby in Bethlehem. With every pleasant smile and every holiday greeting, with every friend and loved
one that I have the opportunity to share time with, hope is renewed.
The Christmas
feeling is something I can generate through my own expressions of gratitude and joy.
This Advent,
I want for us together to look at the great Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” and what it’s saying
to us. What is its message?
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
Phillips
Brooks, a famous 19th century American preacher, wrote this hymn for the Sunday school of his church in Philadelphia
in 1868, possibly influenced by a trip to the Holy Land he had made a few years earlier.
"Praise
be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people…to rescue us from the hand of our
enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”
Luke 1:68, 74-75 (NIV)
“Hopes”
we can probably understand. The world had been waiting in hope for the saving action of God for centuries, even as we now
wait for the culmination of that action in the Final Coming of our Lord. That is what hope is all about.
But
“fears”? Yes, there are those too. What if the Lord doesn’t come? Or what if he comes in wrath and anger?
What if we don’t qualify?
The message of Christmas confirms our hopes and
dispels our fears, for not only has everything we hoped for come to pass in the coming of “the everlasting Light,”
but everything that might have caused us fear is driven away too, as night is by the dawning of the day.
What
are your fears this holy season? Bring them to the manger of the Christ who lived and died for you and rose again to turn
all fears into the certain hope of everlasting light!
In Him,
Pastor Mark
