Today on this final Sunday of Advent we celebrate small towns. How many of you grew up in a small town? Small towns are just a little bit different. As someone has written, “You know you live in a small town when . . .”

• A baby born on June 14 receives gifts from local merchants as the first baby of the year.
• You speak to each dog you pass by name and he wags his tail at you.
• You can’t walk for exercise because every car that passes you offers you a ride.
• You can name everyone you graduated with.
• You have to drive an hour to buy a pair of socks.
• You get a whiff of manure and think of home.
• Someone asks you how you feel...and actually listens to what you say.
• There is no town idiot - everybody has to take turns.

An ad for a general store in Loretta, Wisconsin, listed its location like this: "Across from the phone booth."  That's all that was needed for everyone to find it.

Each year we sing Phillip Brooks’ hymn, “O little town of Bethlehem .” Brooks wrote these words in 1868 following a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where  he was inspired by the view of Bethlehem from the surrounding hills of Palestine , especially at night.

The hymn catches our imagination. We can almost see Bethlehem in our mind’s eye. Jesus was born in a small town to fulfill a prophecy found in Micah 5:2-5, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times . . . He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.”

In Hebrew, the town is Bet Lehem, which means “House of Bread.” For believers it is significant that “House of Bread” is where he who is “the Bread of Life” (John 6:48) was born.

Bethlehem today is a city of approximately 50,000 people, but when Jesus was born it was a tiny village referred to as a “sorry, poor village, scarcely worth an apostrophe . . .”

Bethlehem reminds us that God can use ordinary people and ordinary places in an extraordinary way. Each year we have to fight to maintain the simple nature of Christmas in a world of glittering materialism.

A television reporter was interviewing people on the streets of Tokyo at Christmas time. The interviewer stopped one young Japanese woman on the sidewalk and asked her, “What is the meaning of Christmas?” Laughing, the young woman responded, “I don’t know. Is that the day Jesus died?”

We have to maintain a constant vigil to ensure that the birth of the Messiah doesn’t degenerate into the worship of material possessions.

For many it’s not Christmas unless you get to It’s a Wonderful Life with Actor Jimmy Stewart.  Reflecting on the film, Stewart said, “The character I played was George Bailey, an ordinary kind of fella who thinks he’s never accomplished anything in life. His dreams of becoming a famous architect, of traveling the world and living adventurously, have not been fulfilled.

Instead he feels trapped in a humdrum job in a small town. And when faced with a crisis in which he feels he has failed everyone, he breaks under the strain and flees to the bridge.

That’s when his guardian angel, Clarence, comes down on Christmas Eve to show him what his community would be like without him. The angel takes him back through his life to show how our ordinary everyday efforts are really big achievements.

Clarence reveals how George Bailey’s loyalty to his job at the building-and-loan office saved families and homes; how his little kindnesses have changed the lives of others;  how the ripples of his love spread through the world, helping make it a better place . . .

Today, after some 50 years, I’ve heard the film called ‘an American cultural phenomenon.’ Well, maybe so, but it seems to me there is nothing phenomenal about the movie itself. It’s simply about an ordinary man who discovers that living each ordinary day honorably, with faith in God and a selfless concern for others, can make for a truly wonderful life."  1

There are no superstars in the Christmas story. Even the Master comes into the world under the most inauspicious circumstances. A stable, a manger, shepherds in the field, a humble couple with no place to lay their heads.

Bethlehem also reminds us that we’re a part of a sacred history. Jesus was born in Bethlehem to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy. This is important. The coming of Christ was part of God’s covenant with the people of Israel , and subsequently with all people everywhere.

Bethlehem was no accidental birthplace. Bethlehem was where Jacob’s wife Rachel was buried and where Israel ’s king David was born. Samuel anointed David king in Bethlehem . David was a descendant of Ruth and Boaz, who were married in Bethlehem . The Messiah was to be of the house and lineage of David. We are a part of a sacred history that goes all the way back to Abraham and Sarah and has been handed over to the next generation time and again.

In mid-December the year before her first child was born Cathy was given a baby shower by her family. After opening what she thought were all of her presents, she found one additional box, wrapped not in baby shower paper, but in Christmas paper. It bore a card that read, “To my daughter.”

“This one is from my mom,” Cathy announced as she opened the gift. Inside was a quilt. She tried to smile as she held it up for all to see, but secretly she hoped her Mom couldn’t see her face. Her mother would know her smile wasn’t genuine.

The quilt wasn’t very pretty. It wasn’t a “baby quilt.” It wasn’t made of pink, blue and yellow materials; it didn’t have bunnies or bears. It was just a patchwork quilt sewn of materials that were of all different colors and patterns.

Holding the quilt up, Cathy noticed a note tucked in the bottom of the box. Not realizing the note was intended to be private, she set the quilt aside, picked up the note and began reading it aloud, and discovered that her mother had made the quilt for her. The unmatched materials were remnants of her life her mother had saved over the years.

Mom had cut swatches of material from items dating back to her first Christmas dress. Some of the swatches were as current as the shirt she wore to the doctor the day she found out she was pregnant. Her mother had accumulated “patches” of her life to make this quilt.

There was the “patch” of her mother’s old robe- she remembered it well.  It was fleece and she used to insist her mother wear it so she could lay her head on it when her mother rocked her.  There was the “patch” of Dad’s flannel shirt she used to put on after her bath, and each and every other “patch” and its meaning, By the time Cathy finished reading her mom’s letter there was not a dry eye in the dining room.

Cathy herself picked up the quilt and held it against herself and cried. To think, just seconds before she had thought the quilt ugly, but now it was beautiful. It was the most beautiful quilt she had ever seen. This quilt was made of her life and her mother’s love, who had sewn her love into every stitch.

Christmas is like that. We have traditions, from other lands and other cultures, all stitched together to make a holiday like no other. It’s a tradition that reaches back centuries before the birth of a child in the manger to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob - all the way back to Moses and Joshua and David - all the way back to Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah.

All the way back to the time God took the dust of the earth and created man and woman and breathed life into them. It’s a tradition of Divine purpose and love.

But most important of all, Bethlehem reminds us that God is with us. Listen again to Micah’s words: “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.”

I love those words: “He will be their peace.” Christ doesn’t simply bring us peace. He is our peace.

Perhaps your life is filled with conflict, unhappiness, emotional pain this Christmas season. That’s true for many people. All the happiness of this season of the year can mask the desperate pain many people really feel.

And we pray “bring me peace, bring me happiness, bring me hope.”  That’s a good prayer, but it’s not appropriate.  What is appropriate, as we year for happiness, hope, and peace, is to pray, “Christ Jesus, give me yourself. Come into my heart. Be born anew in me.” For where Christ is, there will be peace, happiness, and joy.

Sue Monk Kidd in her book From When the Heart Waits writes about her visit to a monastery around Christmas years ago. She passed a monk walking outside the church and said “Merry Christmas.” And the monk replied, “May Christ be born in you.”

At the time, Sue thought that this was a peculiar greeting. But she never forgot it. And, with time, she came to realize the power of that simple greeting: “May Christ be born in you.”  For when Christ dwells within, there is peace.  

My prayer for you, this day, is that Christ will be born in your heart today.

1.  Cited by Jim Hammond, http://vvchristianchurch.net/Sermons/B2S15.htm.