Sermons
Darkness In The Midst Of A Great Light
DARKNESS IN THE MIDST OF A GREAT LIGHT
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / December 03, 2017
Although I sometimes spasmodically sing and whistle Christmas songs throughout the year,
I seldom intentionally play or tune in to Christmas songs until after Thanksgiving.
Stephen has chosen the songs for this morning’s worship.
I did request that we sing, O Holy Night! - - the aim being to practice it before our December 24th worship.
Many of these songs of the season (especially hymns) express a great JOY.
When we think of the birth of Christ our Savior, how can we not sing in exultation?
We sing of peace on earth and goodwill to men and a glory to God in the highest.
Our thoughts turn to shepherds and angels and a great star hovering over a tiny town
called Bethlehem, wherein lies a manger that cradles a holy child named Emmanuel.
The arrival of God in the flesh elicits songs of adoration and praise to God.
We live in a high-tech world that often pollutes our days with lot of bad news.
It comes at us constantly via cable TV and the radio and our smart phones.
Sometimes we feel like we’d like to run away and find some quiet spot so as to retire in tranquility.
When Jeannie and I first started dating and soon thereafter became engaged, Jeannie lived in a small little town in the rolling hills of middle Tennessee - - Lynville. To me it seemed like such an idyllic place. When Samantha Brown married Anthony a couple of years ago, Jeannie and I attended their wedding in Murfreesboro. We checked into our motel the night before the wedding and decided to take a stroll down memory lane. Nearby Franklin & Columbia were both exploding with growth and Springhill had changed drastically, but Lynville seemed pretty much the same - - also like it was stuck in a time warp - - only a little more polished. The small town with its train depot seemed alive and well and the church building where Jack had preached for several years had been remodeled and expanded. The parsonage where the Glasgow family had resided seemed grander than ever. It was a really neat old house with a walk-in attic.
On line via the internet we see surveys and studies about things like, IDEAL PLACES TO RAISE A FAMILY …
Or the best small-college towns (like New Wilmington, PA) … Or the most beautiful small towns in America. Last week I did a virtual tour of Athens, OH, home of Ohio University. While I was checking out Brendan Cope’s football profile and cumulative statistics for this season, I stumbled upon this tour option. Athens is a quaint city in southern Ohio, located next door to Hocking Hills State Park. A 15-minute video (as if driving yourself) toured of all the nooks and crannies of downtown Athens and the campus of OU. It made me want to hop in my car and go see it for myself (which I didn’t do).
Another survey done just a few years ago detailed “The 100 Safest Cities in the United States” - -
#1/Hartland, WI … #2/Bergenfield, NJ … #3/Brentwood, TN … #4/Franklin, MA … #5/Newtown, CT.
Does #3/Brentwood ring a bell?
It’s the home of Burnett Chapel church of Christ where one woman was killed and six others wounded last September.
Does #5/Newtown ring a bell? It was the town where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings took place in 2012.
Twenty children and six adults were killed by a crazed young man.
On a typical quite, sunny Sunday morning, another sleepy little Texas town, Sutherland Springs (an oasis of serenity and harmony for its 400 residents), awoke in early November to a nightmare: 26, young & old, were shot to death while in worship. This month’s Christian Chronicle has the story of a neighbor man (one of our brethren) who shot the assailant.
My point in rehearsing these sad events is not to make us feel badly all over again,
but rather to remind us that our world is in a mess and that we continue to be in need of a Savior.
One Christmas hymn exhorts, O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing.
Open your Bibles to Matthew Chapter Two |
Bethlehem was located about fives miles south of Jerusalem.
In the first-century it was a fruitful rural Jerusalem “suburb” also called Ephrath (cornland).
It was a little town – a quiet place to raise a family. One songwriter opines, how still we see thee lie!
Nearby is located the grave of Rachel, Jacob’s dear wife who died giving birth to Benjamin (Gen.35:19).
Bethlehem was the town of Ruth’s in-laws, Elimelech and Naomi (Ruth 1:1-2).
It was also the birthplace of Naomi’s great-grandson, David (1Sam.17:12).
It was in Bethlehem that the prophet Samuel anointed David as a King of Israel (1Sam.16:13).
This little town of Bethlehem was prophesied to be the birthplace of Israel’s Messiah (Micah 5:2).
As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the claims of Judah, from you One
will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.
Luke’s gospel (Lk.2:1ff) tells of an ancient decree that went out from Caesar Augustus in the days when Quirinius
was the governor of Syria. It was a census that required all Jewish inhabits within the Roman Empire to register in
the city of their birth. In compliance with this decree, Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Joseph’s home city. After a journey of a few days, they arrived to Bethlehem and shortly thereafter Mary gave birth to Jesus.
Read from Mt.2:1-20
As the text reveals, in some atypical way, this quiet little town of Bethlehem was radiated by a bright star.
Magi traveled from the east to pay homage to the One born under this illuminating star.
But the beautiful and bucolic town of Bethlehem soon became a town immersed in blood.
Her peaceful byways and side roads soon became “DARK streets”, a darkness caused by more than just nightfall.
This King Herod was a wicked man. There are several Herods in the New Testament,
but this king is known as Herod The Great. His name should have been Herod The Terrible.
At this point in time (Mt.2) Herod had become old, very sick, and very nearly dead.
He had been ruling with an iron fist for over forty years. He was quite clever but also extremely cruel.
Any and all who got in his way were eliminated. He was no respecter of persons.
He killed his brother-in-law ... he killed his mother-in-law … and he even killed his wife.
This last despicable deed pushed Herod over the edge. Josephus, the Jewish historian, spoke of him as being “barbaric”.
Another referred to him as “the malevolent maniac”. And still another dubbed him, “the great pervert”.
In 7 BC, as an old man, he catches wind that his sons were plotting to overthrow him.
He quickly put his own sons to death - - by strangling.
Caesar Augustus is quoted as saying, “It is safer to be Herod’s sow than his son.”
Herod excelled at killing. Thus, when we come to Mt.2,
we should not be surprised to read that Herod would give a order to murder all of the baby boys of Bethlehem.
It is estimated that at that time there were probably about 20 baby boys in Bethlehem who were 2 years old or younger.
Ray Pritchard has written:
“Contrary to the sanitized versions we prefer, the birth of Jesus was messy and troublesome, fraught with
difficulty and surrounded by people who either didn’t known, didn’t care, or actively opposed this little baby boy.”
After the visit by the Magi, an angel warned Joseph to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
They escaped and we able to evade “the slaughter of the innocents”.
Christmas is a time of great joy but it can also be a time of sadness for many.
Holidays are noted for family gatherings. When a holiday arrives and we see that empty chair, our hearts are grieved.
This past Thanksgiving, I was remembering that first thanksgiving after my father passed away (back in 2004).
I remember bowing my head to lead our family in prayer around the table and for a few moments, all I could do was cry.
As we read Matthew 2 we realize that the birth of Jesus, that first of all Christmases, also brought hardship & sorrow.
Mary was “expecting” under the strangest of circumstances. She had never “known” a man.
Joseph and Mary made a dangerous trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem while Mary was “heavy with child”.
When they arrived in Bethlehem there was no room for them in the inn (Lk.2:7).
Joseph and Mary’s newborn son was laid in a feeding trough.
And worst of all - - King Herod flipped out and ordered the wholesale slaughter of all of Bethlehem’s baby boys.
This turn of events prompts us to ask hard questions.
Why didn’t the angel warn all of the Bethlehem households with baby boys to flee for safety?
Did God not care for these others?
None of us know why these things happened the way they did.
We rejoice in the birth and safe-keeping of baby Jesus, but our hearts break at the sadness that impacted others.
As humans we are seldom ever able to properly discern the ways of God.
Many babies of Bethlehem died that day. The baby named Jesus would grow up to die another day.
Ray Pritchard notes: “Seen in the broadest perspective,
Jesus escaped the first time so that He wouldn’t escape the second time so that we would escape for all time.“
What happened on that day in Bethlehem can better be fathomed some 33 years later.
Outside the walls of Jerusalem a man named Jesus was dying on a cross, giving His life for the sins of the world.
If Jesus had died in Bethlehem, He could not have died for our sins in Jerusalem.
While we may never comprehend it all - - this was part of God’s eternal plan.
We must not allow that which we do not understand to nullify or obfuscate that which we do understand.
At my mother’s funeral I quoted a verse from a poem, Splendor In The Grass, by William Wadsworth Longfellow.
Longfellow wrote many poems, one of which we know as a Christmas carol - - “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day”.
Longfellow’s first wife died during a miscarriage. Two years before writing this poem, in 1861, Longfellow
was again shaken deeply when his beloved second wife (of eighteen years) died when her dress caught fire.
He tried to save her. He wrapped himself around her to try to smother the flames. His face was burned and from
that day forward he chose to grow a beard to cover his scars. In his journal dated December 25, 1862, he recorded,
‘A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me’. In early 1863, Longfellow’s son joined the Union army and that November was severely wounded in the battle of New Hope Church, Va. Out of a great sadness
and in response to the carnage of war, he penned this pessimistic verse: And in despair I bowed my head;
‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!”.
On Christmas Day in 1864, when after four bloody years the Civil War was drawing to a close, he completed this poem. Some 500,000 soldiers had died and many more would die before the war would finally end.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day their old, familiar carols play, and wild and sweet, the words repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men! Inserted near the end of the song are his journal notations: And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!’
He then ended his poem with these profound words: Then pealed the bells more loud and deep;
‘God is not dead, nor does He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.’
If and when we are confronted with sadness and sorrow in a the midst of a season often filled with light and joy,
may God grant us the faith to reprise this all-important verse:
God is not dead, nor does He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.
Note: Many of the ideas and thoughts of this sermon have been borrowed from Ray Pritchard’s, The Boys Of Bethlehem.
