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
If Victorian’s over sentimentalized Christmas in the 19th Century, the baby boomers have trivialized Christmas in the 20th . Naïve romanticism led to cynical commercialism.
This evening I want us to explore “The Dark Side of Christmas”. I want us to discover the raw, authentic, genuine, real Christmas under three headings – in Bethlehem then, Bethlehem now and Bethlehem here.
1. Christmas in Bethlehem: Then
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (John 1: 9-11)
The Christmas story begins in darkness. Pitch darkness. Darkness comes in various forms.
The Dark Side of Christmas from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.