Julie continued looking at the truths in Christmas carols, focussing today on ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem.’ The carol focuses on Bethlehem as the place where Jesus was born (see Luke 2:1-6), a town mentioned frequently in the Old Testament (especially in the book of Ruth and as the home town of King David) and one which acquired special significance through the prophecy of the Messiah’s birth there (Micah 5:2). Birth places are still recorded nowadays, but the choice of Bethlehem as the birth place of the Saviour – not the capital city of Jerusalem – reminds us that God’s ways are different to ours and that He often chooses ‘insignificant’ places (and people!) to fulfil His will (see 1 Cor 1:18-25).

The carol contrasts the darkness of the streets with the ‘everlasting light’ shining there, and this theme of light and darkness is frequently expounded in the Scriptures (see John 1:5, 1 John 1:5). We can be reassured that no matter how dark the world is, and how badly affected by sin, God’s light can still shine through.

The carol reminds us of the need for humility and does not just narrate historical fact. It makes these facts personal in the final verse, inviting us to experience the second birth Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus (see John 3:1-6) and reminding us that Jesus wants to abide with us permanently now.Jesus made it plain that whether we have eternal life or not entirely depends on our response to Him, whether we believe Him and accept Him as God’s Rescuer and Deliverer, or whether we reject Him and think we can manage on our own. We have to make a personal response, a personal choice, to the personal invitation of Jesus.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

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.

O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,

And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.

For Christ is born of Mary; and, gathered all above,

while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv’n!

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heav’n.

No ear may hear his coming; but in this world of sin,

where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell:

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.

Today (Sunday 19th December) is our carol service at 6 p.m. featuring carols, readings and a recorded Nativity play called ‘God Is With Us- Everywhere!’, written by Fay Rowland. We are excited to be able to celebrate the birth of Jesus in this way and hope many of you can come along to celebrate with us. We will be serving refreshments after the service and have two wonderful cakes and also mince pies to share!

We will also have a service on Christmas Day (Saturday) at 10.30 a.m., but there will be no further midweek services in December and no services on Boxing Day.

The message of Christmas brings hope and light to the world, and in our current situation with restrictions changing so frequently, we need to proclaim as never before that Jesus came to be the Saviour of the world! No matter what is happening, He brings light and life to all and we need not fear, for He is with us.

On our final day considering the Nativity, we must look beyond the birth of Jesus to what that birth achieved. John tells us at the start of his gospel, ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’ (John 1:11-13)

The fact is that because of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus we can become children of God. People who never gave God a second thought can become part of His family. We can be born again. It’s not just about being born once in the natural sense of the word; as the carol says, Jesus was ‘born to give them second birth.’ (‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’)

We rejoice at every birth, but we rejoice even more when there is second birth, when people realise what Jesus has done for them and turn to Him in repentance and faith. You can have a second birthday! – accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and turn to Him, believing that He has made the way for you to become part of God’s great family. That will make Christmas finally make sense to you!

One of the remarkable things about the birth of Jesus is how God spoke about this throughout the Old Testament. God does not dwell in time the way we do, and we are told that His plan of salvation was thought of even before the creation of the world. (Rev 13:8) He gave many ‘clues’ about this plan throughout history, from the first promise of a rescuer in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:15) to things which only really became clear once Jesus was born.

Yesterday we saw that Isaiah spoke of the virgin birth hundreds of years before it happened. (Isaiah 7:14) The star which features in the journey of the Magi was spoken about in Numbers 24:17. The place of Jesus’s birth (Bethlehem) was prophesied in Micah 5:2. The suffering which Herod would inflict on young boys because he could not bear the idea of another king is spoken of in Jeremiah 31:15. It’s always worth reading the footnotes in the Gospels as they often remind us of the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies and help us to ‘connect the dots’ in the Christmas story.

The birth of Jesus was not just something God decided to do at the last minute, nor was it an accident or something that was unplanned. God knew that people needed rescuing and that we couldn’t manage it by ourselves. He knew that He had to intervene. (Isaiah 63:5) The good news of Christmas is that we now can be reconciled to God, all because of the birth of Jesus; as the song says, ‘And man will live forever more because of Christmas Day.’ (‘Mary’s Boy Child’)

Having said that every birth is special, what’s so special about the birth of Jesus that we remember His birthday every year?

When a member of the royal family has a baby, there’s usually a lot of interest in the event, far beyond the ties of family and blood. When a baby is born to a ‘celebrity’, there is similarly a lot of attention given because of who the child’s parents are. The birth of Jesus is special because His birth is unique. He was not conceived in the usual way, through the sexual union of a man and a woman. An angel appeared to Mary, who was a virgin, and told her she would conceive and have a baby, which astounded her since she definitely knew the facts of life! When she asked how this could be, she was told, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’ (Luke 1:35)

The birth of Jesus is special because He is both God and man. It is this which makes Him uniquely able to save us, because He was born without sin. All of us do wrong things and disobey God, just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden, but Jesus, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was without sin and therefore could stand in the gap between all humanity and God. The ‘virgin birth’ is absolutely essential to God’s plan of salvation and was something He spoke about hundreds of years prior to it happening (‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’ Isaiah 7:14) We can’t ever fully understand this or explain it, but we can be very grateful for this miracle which paves the way for our salvation.

The Old Testament order of books in Western Bibles may well seem unhelpful in outlining the coherent story of God. The Jews grouped their writings together as ‘the Law’ (the first five books of the Old Testament known as the ‘Torah’ or Pentateuch), ‘the Prophets’ (which include some of the historical books such as Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings as well as the major and minor prophets) and ‘the Writings’ (including Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah and 1 & 2 Chronicles.) This helps us to see God’s story from the beginning of creation through to the return from exile. By ending with 1 & 2 Chronicles, we see a summary of Judah’s history with the hopeful conclusion of Cyrus’ proclamation to rebuild the temple (2 Chron 26:22-23), leaving the Old Testament on a ‘cliffhanger’, so to speak, as the people were left waiting for the true temple proclaimed in the Gospels, Jesus Christ. Just as the last book of the Jewish Old Testament begins with a genealogy, so the next book (Matthew’s Gospel) begins with a genealogy – this time connecting the Old Testament to the awaited Saviour.

The Torah contains the story of the beginnings of the world, the creation of man and the problem of sin, the story of how Israel came to be and charts their fortunes, establishing the worship of Yahweh as the one true God. The law and religious codes for God’s people are given here. The prophets show how Israel left God’s ways and were challenged to repent and return through these spokespeople from God and what happened throughout history. The Writings contain poetry, philosophy, history and stories and are still chanted publicly in the synagogue during the religious festivals of Sukkot, Purim, Passover, Shavuot and Tisha B’Av.

The scope of the Old Testament therefore covers a much longer time period than the New Testament and can be difficult for us to relate to with a modern worldview. Nonetheless, we see how the Bible as a whole speaks of God’s story in history – a story that is continuing through the ages!