“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” -Phillip Brooks
These days my primary office is in my home. But for several years I was stationed in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square community in the church I was serving in. Not too far from there, stands another historic church called Trinity. Shortly after it was built in 1859, the residing minister Philip Brooks penned the words to the famous Christmas carol, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. He wrote it as a poem for his Sunday School class in the aftermath of the Civil War. His inspiration came from a year abroad in Europe and the Holy Lands, in which he spent some time in Bethlehem. Trinity’s organist, Lewis Redner then put music to Brooks words, and the rest is history.
Any time I walk by Trinity Church today, I think about this song. “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” may be its most famous stanza. When Brooks penned these words, Philadelphia wasn’t the bustling city it is today. Our world was quite a different place. Then and still today people walk the streets of Philadelphia and every other town in the USA for that matter, filled with hopes and fears; hopes for a brighter future; hopes for something more. Fears that their hopes will be dashed by the harsh realities of our world.
Oftentimes, people place their hopes in the wrong things or in misplaced aspirations. They build their lives toward vanity that ends in disappointment, if their hope is not found in Jesus. Brook’s carol describes a sleepy town, where God’s everlasting light shines in the dark streets, reminding us of the paradox of God’s salvation, where our loving heavenly Father offers us salvation not through money, success, or prestige, but through a small child.
God’s Divine Son is being born in the stillness of our world. Many sleep through it and miss Him. But in the hustle and bustle, God still seeks all through His Son. He doesn’t do it with fanfare in the daylight. He does it in the stillness of evening. And He desires to use each of us to share His story.
Our mission is to proclaim the Good News that Jesus has come. Immanuel, God is with us. May the Good News of God’s Son fill your home. And may He give each of us the opportunity to make Him known to others in our lives.
