You Do Not Want to Leave Too, Do You? ...
Littlefield’s First United Methodist Church
“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:68 I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m going to say that I believe all of us long to have a wonderful Christmas. When this season comes around each year, I know that I hope for the very best. I hope for people to love one another. I hope for the hungry to be fed. I hope for health for those I love, and for those I don’t even know. I hope for our country to be a beacon of light and truth to the world. I hope for the world to experience peace and prosperity. That’s a lot of hope!! Sometimes though instead of hope, another feeling comes into my soul. That feeling is fear.
Maybe you know that feeling all to well. You know, fear that hatred will consume all people even you. Fear that not only will there be lots of people without, but maybe even you will be one of them. And don’t even get me started about health. We fear COVID, Flu, Cancer, you name it, and wonder if something is going to happen where we don’t have our health anymore. We fear our country is slipping away and that our world is just in a mess, and we fear that there will never be any peace.
So this season of Christmas, what do you feel the most, fear or hope? In a lot of cases, if we are honest, we might see that we have both of those feelings deep inside. And yet, here is the season of Christmas. Isn’t this the season of Hope? Isn’t this the season of Joy? I say to you that it is indeed!! But in order for us to have hope we must see the truth of what happened long ago in Bethlehem.
There was once a man named Phillips Brooks who journeyed to the Holy Land and came away with a wonderful understanding of the meaning of the birth of Jesus. He wrote these words that you might recognize: “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.”
The very last line of that verse is the secret of Christmas and how to handle whatever is going on in our hearts whether it is hope or fear! The hopes and fears of all the years, I think can be defined as the hopes and fears of all humanity were met in thee tonight. Well, who is the (thee) then? We know that answer as well. We know him as Jesus. The prophet Isaiah described him with these names, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. O the adjectives we can use to describe this Jesus. The name of above al names is one of my favorites. But, the one thing that is certain, it is through Christ that our hopes and fears are all put to rest. Just like the disciples following him figured out, there is no other place for us to go, as He is the one who has the words of eternal life!
It is my prayer that you will sing that wonderful song ‘O little town of Bethlehem this season and be reminded that through Christ our fears are gone, and through Christ, hope lives forever. May you and yours have a Very Merry Christmas!
(Editor’s Note: This column is written by a different Littlefield pastor for the Leader-News each week. The columns are published on this page on Wednesdays.)