In 1861, just as the Civil War was getting underway, Reverend Philips Brooks was called to lead the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia.
Under Pastor Brooks’ leadership, the church grew significantly, but the work of wartime ministry wore the young cleric down. We rightly mourn our modern wars, but the losses we’ve seen in recent global conflicts pale in comparison to what happened in the US between 1861 and 1865, when over six-hundred twenty-thousand soldiers died in battle. That doesn’t include the untold numbers of civilian deaths related to the War, and there were many. Even so, the number of soldiers who died in the Civil War was equal to more than two percent of the nation’s entire population. For reference, two percent of America’s population today would be 6.6 Million people. Can you imagine 6.6 Million American soldiers being killed in battle in a four-year span? That was reality when Pastor Brooks led the Holy Trinity Church. Every Sunday morning, another handful of women showed up for church dressed in all black, mourning their brothers, husbands, fathers, and sons. It must have been miserable. To make matters worse, when the war was all but over, President Lincoln was assassinated. And who did the White House tap to offer the eulogy at Lincoln’s state funeral? A certain talented, young, worn out preacher from Philadelphia. Stretching over sixteen-hundred miles from Washington, DC, to Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln’s funeral procession was extraordinarily grim. The president’s coffin was laid on a westbound train, and throughout the four-day journey, the tracks were flanked by thousands of somber Americans paying their respects to the man who’d guided them through the deadly fog of war. Rev. Brooks was on that train, bearing witness to the grief and exhaustion of middle America. Like a good pastor, he pulled himself together enough to offer condolences to the mourners, and then to eulogize America’s greatest president, but soon after, he was completely spent. Feeling that he had nothing left to give to his parishioners, Brooks applied to his denominational superiors for a sabbatical in the Holy Land, and on Christmas Eve, 1865, after the worst year of his life, Pastor Brooks did what they tell every traveler in the Holy Land not to do. He left his tour group and wandered out into the Judean wilderness alone. At dusk, Rev. Brooks found himself in a field overlooking the town of Bethlehem, and a sense of awe came over him. Thousands of miles from home, far removed from the unbearable burdens he’d quietly shouldered for years, in the same fields where “shepherds watched their flocks by night”, the young pastor was overcome by an unfamiliar feeling. For the first time in years, he did not feel alone. Somehow, he knew that God was with him at that moment, and that God had been with him all along. It was then that Rev. Brooks wrote the first verse of my personal favorite Christmas carol, 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 was it about Bethlehem that inspired this classic hymn? Pastor Brooks claimed it was the absurdity of it all. Why would Almighty God choose to get the whole world’s attention by staging the birth of His Son in Bethlehem, of all places? This world runs on money and power, so why did God choose to come into the world as a baby born to a teenage mother…and in Bethlehem of all places? By this world’s standards, Bethlehem was nowhere special. Its residents had no nation, no citizenship, no identity, and no rites. As far as the Roman world was concerned, the people of Bethlehem were nobodies.Even today, most Christians have no idea how bleak life can be in Bethlehem. Jesus’ birthplace is part of the Palestinian territories in what is known as the West Bank, and the feeling throughout the city is often hopeless and desperate. Most of Bethlehem’s residents are Muslims, but thousands of Arab Christians also live there. I once met an Arab Christian named Johnny, who runs a souvenir shop located on a busy Bethlehem street. His store was well-kept and beautiful, but there were hardly any customers. Johnny cried as he told me how all the tourists have been scared off by the wall, the political unrest, and the frequent violence in the region. He said, “Go home and tell the American Christians to never forget Bethlehem. We are lonely here. Please come back and see us.” Bethlehem is just as sad and isolated now as it was that first Christmas night. So, of all places on earth, why did God choose Bethlehem?I have a friend who is a pastor, and her name is Lauren. A few years back, Pastor Lauren told me about Sarah, a 24 year-old woman in her congregation who was all alone in the world. Both of Sarah’s parents had been dead for years, and the man she was living with had abandoned her when he found out that she was pregnant. Sarah felt abandoned and totally alone, and she wasn’t sure what to do about her pregnancy. Thankfully, after talking with Pastor Lauren, Sarah decided to keep the baby, and when the time came for the child to be born, she asked Lauren to be in the delivery room with her.After almost twenty hours of labor, Hope Elizabeth was born. And for just a moment, before the nurses took the baby to be cleaned up and measured, they laid her on Sarah’s chest. Pastor Lauren told me how Sarah cried quiet tears as she held her perfect, slimy-wet, beautiful daughter. The whole time, she whispered these words on repeat: “I’m not alone. I’m not alone. I’m not alone.”I can’t get into the mind of God to know what he was thinking that first Christmas, but I can’t help but believe that what He wanted most was for his desperate, traumatized, and lonely children to know that we are not alone. God wants every worn-out preacher, every war-torn nation, every desperate small businessman, every orphan, every mother, and every child to know what He said through the angels to the shepherds keeping watch by night:
“Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” – Luke 2:10-11
No matter what struggles, heartaches, fears, and pains you are facing right now, your heavenly Father wants you to know that you will never be alone. That’s the true meaning of Christmas.
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!
