Dear Friends,

   I was joking the other day and suggested that one way to become rich would be to write a really popular Christmas song.  Good enough to be sung by several artists, every year.  The royalty cheques would keep rolling in. What a brilliant scheme, but on further reflection, was an adventure in missing the point…exclamation mark! The greatest message ever told, the message of Jesus, and I’m trying to see if I can finagle some money by exploiting it. It is personifying everything that is wrong with modern Christmas entrapments. I appreciate that most of the older Christmas hymns have become what is known as “public domain.”  When something becomes public domain, it is no longer copyrighted material, meaning that anyone can use it for their purposes without cost. They simply and freely bring us the message and beauty of Christmas.

Many hymns that were written originally for children have captured the imagination of everyone. Such is the case with “O little town of Bethlehem.”  Phillips Brooks, the composer of this famous Christmas carol, was the minister of Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia and had visited Bethlehem in December of 1865. The itinerary included a horseback ride from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. Back then, it truly was a small village, far removed from the bustling city it would later become. By nightfall he was in the field where, according to tradition, the shepherds heard the angelic announcement. After he attended the Christmas Eve service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Something about the beauty and simplicity of that visit stayed with Phillips Brooks when he returned to America. Several years later, when he wanted a new Christmas song for the children to sing at his church, he reached back in memory for inspiration from his Holy Land visit. The poem he then wrote painted in words the sights and sounds of that little town of Bethlehem he had visited.

Writing to the children of his congregation, he recalled that first visit:

“I remember especially on Christmas Eve, when I was 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 the 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.”

What came from his pen was a Christmas carol that has become a traditional favourite:

O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see the 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.

We seem to be living in the phrase, “Yet, in thy dark streets…”. It certainly feels like a cloud is hanging over this little piece of our history. The last couple years have been taxing on all of us, no matter your opinions or choices.  The New York Times has described it as a societal malaise.  A heaviness that is almost palatable. In the days before Jesus was born, it was very similar.  The prophet Isaiah described it as, “The people walking in darkness…”   Thomas Fuller said it well when he penned these words in 1650, “It is always darkest before the dawn”.  Isaiah finished his prophesy with the statement, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” Philip Brooks said, “In the dark street shineth the everlasting light.”  God never leaves us in the dark.  Through Jesus, hope shines bright.

 I pray this Christmas, you and your family experience the light of Jesus shining His hope into the dark corners of your world, filling you with His Peace, Joy and Love!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor John, Jennifer and Family

“For there is born to you this day in the city
of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:11