Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Luke 1:74 ... to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear ...
O LITTLE TOWN
When Mary went to visit her relative Elizabeth, it was no doubt in one of the small villages in the Judean hills that she found her. Yet even that small village was too big for Elizabeth, and she had secluded herself there for the previous five months. But not even the smallest village could stop the Lord from raising up there the forerunner of the Savior!
Bethlehem was also a small village of Judea both in those days and when Phillips Brooks, a clergyman from Philadelphia, sat on a hillside watching Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, 1865. Three years later, he remembered the town in a hymn written for the Sunday School children. The organist came up with a melody on Christmas Eve Day, 1868, and the children sang it first on December 27 that year.
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie! ...
Do you think Bethlehem was lying so still the night Jesus was born, filled as it was with pilgrims driven there by the hated Roman Emperor? Even if it was a calm, still night, the shepherds from the surrounding countryside were not going to let it remain so, and neither was King Herod who would soon slaughter the young children there.
Small town or large, there is much to fear in this life, isn't there? Thieves, snow-storms, accidents, power-outages, hunger, sickness, death. Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." He who lay helpless in a manger is the answer to our greatest fears and the foundation of our greatest hope.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met (answered) in thee tonight.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 647:1)
