Hello OCBC family.  Christmas is my favorite season because it is very colorful, has wonderful  smells, and joyous music.  My favorite Christmas hymn is “O Come All Ye Faithful” because is full of doctrine and tells us about the mystery of incarnation.  But my second favorite Christmas hymn is “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and I want to tell you about the origin of this lovely song.

Brooks, Phillips, D.D., was born at Boston, Dec. 13, 1835, graduated at Harvard College 1855, and was ordained in 1859. He served Episcopal congregations in Philadelphia and Massachusetts.

In 1865, the year the Civil War ended and President Lincoln was assassinated, themes of peace and quiet would probably have been welcome to Americans.  In this year Phillips Brook went to the Holy Land and was especially impressed by a Christmas Eve service at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth.

Three years after this journey, he wrote this lovely hymn inspired in the calm of Bethlehem.  The message of the angels in this hymn is not a triumphal one but a silently one.  He wrote this hymn for the children of his church.

It is said that after Brooks died, one five-year-old girl of the church was upset because she hadn’t seen him recently.  Her mother told her gently that Bishop Brooks has gone to heaven.  The girl’s face brightened as she said, “Oh, Mama, how happy the angels will be!”

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.

For Christ is born of Mary
and, gathered all above,
while mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars together
proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the king,
and peace to all on earth.

How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
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!

In His service.

Israel.

Hello OCBC family.  In this Christmas season our worship in song will be incomplete if we don’t sing “Joy to the World.” The author of this lovely hymn was Isaac Watts, “The Father of English Hymnody.”  The birth of Isaac Watts to a dissenting deacon and the daughter of a Huguenot refugee was followed by fourteen years of persecution and hardships for the entire family. Perhaps this suffering was responsible for Isaac Watts’ ill health, for he grew only to a height of just over five feet and was weak and sickly all his life.

He grew up in a church where the only music accepted for worship was the Psalm in a poetic form; the words, of course, were not bad, after all it was the Word of God being sung, but the melodies were not good, and the young Isaac complained about them.  One day, someone said it was the father while others said it was a deacon, a man told him “Well, give us something better, young man.”  With God’s inspiration, he started to pen hymns for his own congregation, and many of them were a Psalm with a New Testament language.

“Joy to the World” was not intended to be a Christmas hymn, but a paraphrase of the Psalm 98:7-9. “Let the sea, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it!  Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world with righteousness, and the people with equity” (ESV).

Robert Kalis said about this hymn: “The author transformed the old Jewish psalm of praise for some historic deliverance into a Christian song of rejoicing for the salvation of God that began to be manifested when the Babe of Bethlehem came ‘to make his blessing flow far as the curse is found.’ This is one of the most joyous hymns in all Christendom because it makes so real what Christ’s birth means to all mankind.”

The melody is from a passage of Handel’s “Messiah” especially the first measures; they are similar to the introduction of the chorus “Lift Up Your Head” (Psalm 24).

“Joy to the World” might not be a Christmas hymn, but it's lyrics match perfectly with the glorious first advent of our Lord, and it points to the second one.

 

Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room, and heav'n and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! The Savior reigns;

Let men their songs employ,

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love.

In His service.

Israel.

Hello OCBC family.  Christmas season is here and everywhere we go we can see lights, Christmas trees, nativities, and a lot of people in the malls looking for gifts. But we normally forget that this season is to reflect and remember the most precious gift for humankind: Jesus the Son of God.

Before Christmas Day arrives, we Christians, have a time of preparation, a time or expectation, a time called “Advent Season.”  This is an ancient tradition that helps the souls of believers to remember that this little child of Bethlehem came to live, to die, to rise from  death, to ascend to heaven, and will be coming back for us.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of advent called “Hope” and we sang the old hymn by Charles Wesley called “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus”

Charles Wesley had eighteen Christmas songs, but he was never happy with simply painting the picture of the manger scene; with this hymn he begins by alluding to scriptural prophecies of Christ.  In this hymn, Wesley is saying that Christ is not only the “desire of every nation”, but He is the “joy of every longing heart.”

This is a beautiful hymn for Advent that expresses deeply the two-fold purpose of the Advent season – we remember the birth of Christ, and fiercely desire His coming again.

Please, read and enjoy the lyrics once again.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.

In His service. Israel