December 17th, 2014

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.