12/22/63

Scripture: read Luke 2: 1-20.

One of the truly great preachers of a century ago was the Rev. Phillips Brooks, of Trinity Church, Boston. He was rector of the Episcopal parish, but the inspiration of his preaching belonged to all the world then and since, wherever people will listen to him. Before he served Trinity Church, he was a pastor in Philadelphia. It was in the year 1865 that he went abroad while on leave of absence from his Philadelphia church. In Christmas week of that year, he was in the Holy Land, visiting the scenes of Jesus’ life and ministry. The party of people with whom he was traveling went out of Jerusalem one, after dinner, to visit Bethlehem. After about two hours of riding, they came to the town, situated on the Eastern ridge of a range of hills, and surrounded by terraced gardens. Before dark, they rode out of Bethlehem to the field where it is said the shepherds saw the great light. Brooks was not entirely convinced as to the precise location that was pointed out to them. But he was deeply moved by the realization that somewhere in this neighborhood was the field where shepherds watched their flocks on that night which brought announcement of Jesus’ birth. The stars still shine over the fields and over Bethlehem, as they do over us here in Wisconsin Rapids. And shepherds still tend their sheep in those fields very much as they used to in times of the events recorded in the gospels.

Two years later, Phillips Brooks wrote a carol which was set to music by the church organist and was sung at the Philadelphia church for the first time. It was at least twenty years before it found its way into church hymnals. But in the years since then it has become part of the precious heritage of Christmas music for all the world.

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.

Much of the true meaning of Christmas is wrapped up in the carols we sing at this season. There is wonder in them; there is a reaffirmation of faith in the power of love; there is joy and peace that passes mortal understanding. People are willing to set aside their debates and doubts, and to give expression to their faith in goodness at Christmas time!

Matthew’s gospel tells of wise men coming from Eastern lands, looking for someone whom they believed to have been born King of the Jews. They followed a special star which appeared to shine especially above the place where a babe lay in a Bethlehem manger. A group of our church people have planned a special display of star and wise men (above the tower and in front of our church) to symbolize the event of this Matthew story. The illumination of star and wise men is to be a lovely part of tonight’s Christmas program here.It was news to those who heard of it something like 19 1/2 centuries ago, and it is still joyful news, that a Savior is born! The whole world owes a great debt of gratitude for the birth of Jesus into the world at Bethlehem.

Haven’t you stood, on some summer day, beside the water of a lake on a still day, tossed a stone into the water, and watched the ripples radiate out like concentric rings, going, going until they disappear from visibility? In theory, at least, they keep on going until they break on the shores of the lake. But they do seem to get smaller and smaller as they go.

Not so with the dropping of that Babe into human life at Bethlehem. That event stirred up a small ripple of excitement at the time. Just a few shepherds and some wise men from a distance noticed it. Of course there was also a bewildered carpenter, distressed that Mary had come to her time with no place but a stall in a stable. And there was the adoring, wondering mother. But as the centuries have lengthened from Bethlehem, the ripples of interest have grown into mighty waves until millions hail the birthday of Jesus as the "day of all the year that is best."

We hear not a little about the commercialism of Christmas. And it does concern thoughtful people that there is a kind of emphasis which takes men and women away from the meaning of the festival, or even feeds the unholy side of human nature. And the true spirit of Christmas is too wonderful to be drowned in a overabundance of what they call "good cheer." But there is another side to this same thing that we call commercialization. I think it was a Methodist bishop who pointed out what a manifestation of Christ’s power it is that the Christ child reaches his tiny hand across the gulf of 20 centuries and jams the traffic of great cities for weeks before his birthday! It has been remarked that "the dark streets of Bethlehem --- do more to stimulate trade every year than a thousand Wall Streets ever could."

Some years ago, Ralph Sockman was a passenger on a plane flying from the west coast to Chicago and New York. They were flying over Kansas when the pilot called back to the passengers that he would circle over Kansas City so that they might all see the magnificent Christmas illumination. What a contrast between the dark streets of Bethlehem, illuminated only by a bright star and the occasional light of candle or lantern from an inn or stable, and the brilliant fairyland of lights in a modern American city! Yet the everlasting Light shines in both. Like ripples in reverse, the Light has grown through the years.

Why this perennial, and growing, appeal of Christmas? Is it the beauty, the tenderness, the joy that grows through the advent leading to Christmas? Yes, these are all there. But the gospels suggest a greater feature at the center. You remember that as told in the first chapter of Matthew, Joseph, troubled over the condition of Mary, his betrothed, had a dream. And in the dream an angelic voice said to Joseph, "Don’t be afraid to take unto you Mary, your wife --- she will bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." [Matthew 1: 18-21]. In Luke’s gospel the angel voice came to the shepherds saying, "Don’t be afraid, for, see, I bring you good news of great joy, which will come to all people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." [Luke 2: 10-11]. Reporters have been getting hold of that good news ever since then! Have you heard it? "There is born to you a Savior." It is cause for great rejoicing!

For the Sundays of Advent, this month, we have had a theme song or hymn which we have sung together four times. Each of the last three stanzas of the hymn have touched off the sermon themes of the past three Sundays. Today we find our inspiration in the first stanza:

We would see Jesus, lo! His star is shining

Above the stable while the angels sing;

There in a manger on the hay reclining,

Haste, let us lay our gifts before the King.

The wise men worshipped the Babe as a King and brought gifts appropriate to a monarch. The shepherds came to find a Savior. They searched, they found, they saw, they returned, telling others what they had seen, glorifying God for it all!

Now what are we to say about this Savior, born in Bethlehem of Judea centuries ago and born to us again at each Christmas? Well, at least three observations might be made.

1) For one thing, Christ was born to save us through a saving faith. If you and I were given the opportunity to have just one question answered by the Ruler of the Universe, what question would we ask? Would you ask, "Am I to succeed?" Or should I ask, "Will there be another World War?" Or would someone else ask, "Will there surely be an immortal life for me after mortal death?" Or would you inquire, "Will my sons and daughters grow up with such excellent character and splendid achievement that they, and we, shall all rejoice for them?" These, and other questions might flood to mind. But is any one of them inclusive enough? Some years ago, a careful thinker said that if he had just one question to ask of the Sphinx, it would be this: "Is the universe friendly?" If we could be sure that the answer to that question is "Yes," it would relieve, in considerable measure, our anxiety on some other questions.

Like the shepherds, when they first perceived the glory of the Lord shining about them and were filled with fear, we are sore afraid. This has been called an Age of Anxiety. We are probably more beset with fears than were some of our forefathers. But the Christmas event breaks through the clouds of confusion and consternation to say that the universe has some meaning, and that under God, it means well.

A saving faith can bring you to this feeling of assurance that you want to join with others who have staked their lives on the goodness of the universe. "We would see Jesus" at Bethlehem, for his appearance into the earth at that point brings assurance that the Divine enters into life and history.

Now the Bethlehem scene was most realistic! The hard facts of life were there. Joseph and Mary were going to that town to be taxed. Taxes were just as unpleasant then as they are now! In fact, they may have been more so, for it was a seriously inconvenient, even dangerous, time for Joseph to be taking the young Mary anywhere. Probably nothing but this hated government tax order could have persuaded him to go just then. The inequalities of living were there at Bethlehem. The inn was crowded with those who could pay for it. A poor carpenter and his Mary had to seek shelter in a stable. The shadow of a hostile governor, Herod, was there. No one who was in any way a possible king was safe from political assassination. Danger lurked around this Babe, and, according to Matthew, he barely escaped the violence that a little later took the lives of all other babes in that ill-fated town.

Yet, with all of these starkly real features, the general impression of Bethlehem is that of goodness. The factors stamped on our mind are not those of heartless folk. Our attention is held by the gentle, adoring mother; the wondering but loving Joseph; the humble, happy shepherds; the reverent wise men. The scene turns our minds to things that are simple, genuine, lovely -- the things that heal and build.

Christmas is a revelation of God’s goodness coming to man. But it also reveals a divine spark of goodness in the human heart. It is a time when truth takes on its loveliest forms, and speaks its simplest language; when love is most easily understood by little children. Christmas not only brings the world around to the day when Christ was born, but it brings to birth the Christ-spirit in man. It reminds us that the universe is friendly, and this renews our faith in God. It reminds us that man is better than he often seems, and thereby it revives our faith in Man.

2) Secondly, at Christmas we think of Christ as our Savior through a saving hope. Christmas not only restores our faith that God can come to us in Christ, but also imparts the hope that we can come to God through Christ. All of us know the strength that comes with hope. The prisoner’s cell is illumined by it. The hospital patient leaps toward recovery when the doctor assures him of hope. Hope puts light in the lover’s eyes; dries the tears of the sorrowful. The apostle Paul said: "We are saved by hope." [Romans 8: 24]. Certainly we need hope in days of cynicism, assassination, aftermath of war and dread of more war. But there are signs of hope. The cold war seems to have thawed a bit; our government continues to function despite the blow of one month ago; families that have been separated for 28 months are having at least a Christmas holiday together.

And the Christ brings us further hope --- the hope that the kingdom of righteousness, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven (to call it by several Biblical names) will eventually triumph for us and for all mankind. Luther voices this hope in his great hymn:

Did we in our own strength confide,

Our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side,

The Man of God’s own choosing;

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth His name,

From age to age the same,

And he must win the battle.

III. And also Christ was born to save us not only through a saving faith, and a saving hope, but also through a saving love. There is great significance in the fact that Christmas is a great home-coming day. The atmosphere of home and children is most congenial for celebrating the birth of Christ. Our cities contain many places of entertainment. Some of them seem to be maintained by adults who are trying to keep each other from growing up. They do not provide quite the spirit of youth that is desirable and desired on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The genuinely youthful spirit, whether it is found in the grandfather or the teenager, it perhaps like that of a little child. Such a child was riding on a New York subway with her mother. Car seats were pretty well filled with people on that noisy mid-afternoon train. Some were reading papers; some were just vacantly staring into space while the train roared on. Generally speaking, the scene on a subway may be one of "glumness, gum and grouchiness." As the train reached their station the mother and the little girl rose to get off. In that moment of comparative quiet, while the train was stopped and the door was opened, the little tot turned to the other passengers and said quite loudly, "Thank you, I’ve had a nice time at your party." To her innocent eyes and radiant spirit, that subway crowd was a party, and she was pleased to be there. How we all crave such an unspoiled spirit at Christmas!

The manger at Bethlehem was the beginning of the world’s greatest love story. The child who was cradled there grew up in the love of a Nazarene home. Out of his own love for people, he left the carpenter shop for the career of an unpaid teacher and healer. In love, he lifted the broken bodies and hearts of the poor and the sick and the sinful. He even loved people enough to pray for them while he hung, tortured and dying, on a cross.

And that love did not end on a cross! It has continued and spread and grown through the world ever since. Out of his love has come an increased care for childhood, a greater reverence and respect for womanhood, a better understanding of manhood, a heightened sense of humaneness toward the suffering, a quickened conscience regarding social justice.

All of these can be seen as sequels to the love story begun at Bethlehem. The story is not a popular success story; nor is it a tragedy. It is the record of love triumphing through tragic suffering. It is the career of One who could say: "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." [John 16: 33]. It is the revolution of the God who "so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life." [John 3: 16].

Shepherds saw Jesus at Bethlehem, long years ago. Wise men found him there. Bethlehem still stands. The birth of a Savior still stands. "We would see Jesus!" "Haste, let us lay our gifts before the King."

Prayer: O thou Father and Giver of Love, let some star --- any star of Thine anointing --- lead us to the Savior. Amen.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, December 22, 1963.

Also at Imiola Church, December 21, 1969.

Also at Waioli Hiu’ia Church, December 24, 1971.