"When Hopes And Fears Meet Jesus”

Christmas Eve

“When Hopes and Fears Meet Jesus”

{Audio File: https://mega.nz/#!WM11RKba!XcZIelewoOgfqgXM_c2CG3svENvLdvejiaB2NXuS8CI}

The beginning lyrics of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

“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.”

What caught my attention was this last lyric; “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” What does that mean?

The “thee,” not being in capitals, would indicate that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Bethlehem that night. This could only be the case because the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem on that night.

So, how do our hopes and fears meet in Jesus and in His coming?

Now I know this Christmas carol isn’t Scripture, but it still caught my attention to where I wanted to know more.

The text was written in 1868 by Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal priest of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia. He was inspired when he visited Bethlehem in 1865. He arrived in Jerusalem on Christmas Eve and traveled six miles south where he was struck by the stillness and darkness of that town. Hence the lyrics, “In thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.”

And then he wrote how hopes and fears met that night in Jesus.

Hope and fear are probably the two most common emotions we have. And to think that both were resting on Jesus that night.

Every generation has known both hope and fear. And as we get ready to celebrate this Christmas, which will be stronger: our hopes or our fears.

If we look at the Christmas story found in both Luke and Matthew, we see the same thing, two stories about the same event, but from a different viewpoint. Luke’s gospel deals with hope, while Matthew’s gospel with fear.

In Luke’s account we see the shepherds who were keeping watch over the sheep when they were surrounded by God’s glory. And while they were afraid, the angel told them not to be, telling them good tidings of great joy, of how the Savior, the Messiah, Christ the Lord was born that night.

The angel said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11 NKJV)

Matthew’s gospel, however, is filled with the darkness of men’s fear, as King Herod, after he heard the Wise Men’s account that the king of the Jews had been born, ordered the execution of all male children in Bethlehem up to two years old.

Matthew describes this horror quoting the prophet Jeremiah, “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15 NKJV)

And while Matthew’s gospel shows these fears realized, there is something greater at work, something that brings nothing but hope. It is found in what the angel told Joseph that the child conceived inside of Mary is from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20).

And so what was and is happening at Christmas was something beyond all of our fears, and it was that the Holy Spirit is at work, and when the Holy Spirit is at work, powerful things happen.

Consider the first church and how dark it was for the disciples. Yet into this darkness on the Feast of Pentecost came tongues of fire, along with the wind of the Holy Spirit, and new life was breathed into the disciples and the church was formed.

And so, no matter how dark and dangerous the world is, no matter how afraid and disappointed we may be, and where it seems like darkness is creeping into our souls, all we need to do is to ask Jesus and He will send the Holy Spirit, and He will bring hope from out of our fears.

The birth of Jesus takes place in a world of fear and without hope. The Jews lived under the ruthless reign of the Roman Empire. It was also a place of backstabbing and intrigue, as both political and religious leaders jockeyed for position, leaving their adversaries dead in the streets. Everything they had put their hope in had failed. Religion failed. Uprisings failed. Politics failed.

And I think we can say the same thing about the world we live in. We live in fear over threats of terrorism and economic collapse. We fear that the Lord’s hand will be taken off our nation as our society systematically removes God from our schools, courthouses, and money.