Songs of Christmas Study

Songs of Christmas
The Best Gifts Come in Small Packages: Small Group Study

INTRODUCTION
Choose someone to read this introduction as you kick off your group session.

During the Christmas Season music fills the air. Bundled carolers sing old favorites as they stroll through town. Christmas CD’s come out with the holiday decorations. And Nat King Cole plays in the background of every department store. The songs of Christmas warm the heart and get us in the holiday mood. They also remind us of the amazing story of Christmas—a child born who would save the world. This December, Community Church pastors will remind us of this timeless message through some of our favorite Christmas songs. The following one-session small group study builds on this message series. As a group you will reflect together on the heart of the Christmas story by looking at the lyrics of a much-loved carol.

GETTING STARTED

Icebreaker Question
Go around the circle and share answers to this question:

What kind of Christmas music played in your house as a child or what kind of Christmas music do you like to listen to during the holidays?

The Christmas Story
Have someone in your group read Luke 2:1-7 aloud. Invite the group to close their eyes and imagine the scene as it is read. Then answer the following questions:

1. As you listened to the story of Christ’s birth, what mental pictures came to mind? What did you see? What did you hear? What did you smell?

2. This passage begins with Caesar issuing a decree from his throne in Rome and ends with a small baby laying in a feed trough in the small town of Bethlehem. The story moves from big to small, from strength to weakness, and from visible to hidden. Why do you think the story is told this way?

3. What does this passage tell us about the power of small things?

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS
Excerpt from “Stories behind the best-loved Songs of Christmas” by Ace Collins

On December 24, 1865, Phillips Brooks was a half a world away from home and feeling like an older man than his thirty years. Already recognized as one of the most dynamic Christian voices in America, it was Brooks, only six years into his ministry, who had been called upon in May to give the funeral message over President Abraham Lincoln. That solemn honor, in tandem with leading the congregation of Philadelphia’s Holy Trinity Church through the bloody years of the Civil War, had taken its toll. Worn out and badly needing a spiritual rebirth, Brooks took a sabbatical and left the United States to tour the Middle East.

On Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, the American felt an urge to get away from the hundreds of other pilgrims who had journeyed to the Holy Land for the holidays. Although warned that he might encounter thieves, the preacher borrowed a horse and set across the desolate and unforgiving countryside. For many peaceful hours he was alone with his thoughts as he studied a land that had changed little since the days of Paul and Timothy. For the minister, December 24th was a wonderful time of prayer and reflection.

At dusk, a sudden sense of awe fell over Brooks. Under a clear sky, the first stars just beginning to emerge, he rode into the still tiny and remote village of Bethlehem. He recalled the story of the birth of his Savior, and by being present in the place in which Jesus was born, was able to add vivid detail to the familiar tale in Scriptures. The great speaker was all but speechless as he considered the heavenly King, born in such modest surroundings. There, on streets almost unchanged since biblical times, Brooks felt as if he were surrounded by the spirit of the first Christmas. He would later tell his family and friends that the experience was so overpowering that it would forever be “singing in my soul.”

One year later, Brooks described his experience in Bethlehem by writing a poem. The poem would become one of the greatest Christmas carols of all time. It would eventually be named “The Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Little Town of Bethlehem
Have someone in your group read aloud “Little Town of Bethlehem” or sing it together.

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.

How silently, how silently, the
wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven
No ear may hear this coming,
but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive
him still, the dear Christ
enters in.

For Christ is born of Mary, and
gathered all above
While mortals sleep the angels
keep their watch of wondering
love
O morning stars together,
proclaim the holy birth.
And praises sing to God the king,
and peace to men on earth.

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in,
be born in us today
We hear the Christmas angels,
the great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us,
our lord Emmanuel.


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Sometimes the best gifts in life come in small packages. The lyrics of this song remind us that God came to one of the smallest villages in Israel as a small baby. What did God communicate by coming to earth this way?



2. “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given…” Jesus came into the world quietly as the world slept. Those who discovered this gift were listening and watching for it. During the Christmas season it can be easy to miss the true message of Christmas. What tends to get in the way of you experiencing the power of Christ’s birth during the holidays?



3. Share a Christmas event or tradition that you have participated in that has brought home the message of Christ’s birth for you.


4. Phillip Brooks the author of “Little Town of Bethlehem” wrote, “It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawns on you.” What do you think Phillip means and have you known that to be true?


5. What do you hope to get out of the Christmas season this year? What small ways will you make this happen?

RESPONSE
Consider taking one of the following small action steps personally or as a small group to be reminded of gift of Jesus Christ this season.

1. Schedule a time as a small group to go caroling in one of your neighborhoods. Put on your winter hats and gloves. Grab some song sheets and spread the message of the baby born in a manger. End with hot chocolate and prayer for the neighbors you saw that night.

2. Take one night at home to turn off the television and the PS2. Bake some Christmas cookies and as you are eating the cookies read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

3. Commit to getting up 30 minutes early once a week to read the Christmas story from the Gospels and to thank God personally for his saving work in Christ.

PRAYER
Choose someone in your small group to pray for everyone to hear the voice of God this Christmas. Pray that God would do amazing things this Christmas thought the daily small things you do to give oneself to Christ.