Message 12-03-06

 

Series:            Christmas Living Room

Scripture:            Psalm 33:16-22

 

Title:                                        When Hope Meets Fear

 

Some hundred and fifty years ago a large man was riding a horse through the countryside. This wasn’t just any countryside. He was riding through the low hills just south of Jerusalem. And this wasn’t just any man. At 6 foot 4, this was an Episcopal priest named Philipps Brooks. Rev. Brooks was away on an extended vacation. He was the pastor of a large church in Philadelphia and they had given him a chance to take a break.

 

As he rode upon his horse he would have come over a rise, probably and caught sight of a village, a small town in the distance. As he got closer he would probably have been thinking about this town and what it meant to him and to the world. It was the town of David, the king of Israel. It was where he was born and raised. It was in the countryside where he was riding that day that David would have shepherded his sheep as a boy. The town was also known as the birthplace of Jesus. It was the little town of Bethlehem.

 

When Philipps Brooks got back to his home in Philadelphia he was thinking about how to describe some of his experience to the people of his church and our song for the day, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” came together as a poem. The music minister of his church wrote the music.

 

I thought it would be fun to look into the words of some of the favorite Christmas songs as we go through the next few weeks and how they reflect the truth of Scriipture.