How silently, how silently

Dear Friends,

Crickey! Christmas is fast approaching, bringing many tasks such as attending many carol services and school nativities. However, amongst the stress and twinkly lights, there are many opportunities for sharing the good news. 


Out of the Ordinary is our 2023 Advent and Christmas theme. Our theme invites people to scratch beneath the surface to see God revealed. Advent and Christmas invite us to spend time with God: times when God promises to show up. Let’s keep watch, so that we’ll notice when God keeps that promise. Advent comes from Latin adventus, “coming”. As the carol proclaims: Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.

What’s your favourite Christmas Carol?

According to Classic FM website the number one Christmas Carol is O Holy Night. In the top ten is the well-known O Little Town of Bethlehem which was written by the Revd Phillips Brooks following a journey he had made from Jerusalem to Bethlehem during the season of Christmas 1865.

I am drawn to verse 3: How silently, how silently.

This Christmas, the land known for ‘holy’ is in a state of war and turmoil, focussed on Gaza some 46 miles southwest of Bethlehem. This silent town that Brooks visited back in 1865 is popular for pilgrimage tours and having cancelations will hit the local people hard.  

So, my call to you all is can you sing this well-known carol as a prayer and not just sing the words because as people called Methodists, we sing our Theology. Don Hinchley has updated the hymn to reflect the modern reality. To be honest I am praying if I should use this version in our carol service. This is the first verse:

O Little town of Bethlehem

how still we see thee lie;

above thy deep and restless sleep

a missile glideth by.

And over dark streets soundeth

the mortar’s deadly roar,

while children weep in shallow sleep

for friends who are no more.

 

It would be interesting to think what Revd Brooks would have written if he were to visit Bethlehem today. 

 

When we consider the ongoing war in Ukraine, the heart-breaking situation in Israel/Palestine, and countries forgotten by the news such as Sudan, the hope that was born into the world in a place wracked bu conflict – both then and now – feels even more emotional.

So please, as we retell the Christmas story in Bethlehem, the Nazareth, and the Jerusalem of our carols, please prayer for those same ‘dark streets’ today. 

With every blessing, 

Matt  




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