1 John 2:10 – “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him” (NASB95)
It is evident to anyone that spends time around me at all that music is a large part of my life. Because of that interest, I often enjoy things that incorporate music into the main themes – which is, I think, why a play by Thornton Wilder named Our Town always stuck with me.
If you’ve ever seen it, you will remember that all three acts are based around the singing of the hymn Blessed Be the Tie That Binds. Act one has a church choir practicing the hymn. Act two has the choir singing it during the wedding of main characters George Gibbs and Emily Webb. Act three is set at Emily’s funeral, where the hymn is sung again, and she mentions it being her favorite. The hymn is used as a recurring theme to emphasize the idea of the close, connected community that exists in the town of Grover’s Corners. Among a few other ideas, it also focuses on the bond of friendship.
The concept is not too far off from the story behind the lyrics of the song. John Fawcett was born in 1740 into a lower-class family living in Yorkshire, England. At the age of 26, he accepted work as minister for a small congregation in Wainsgate, Northern England. After several years there of working and growing his family for a meager salary, he was offered a position at a large and influential church in London. The story goes that on the final day, when they were ready to depart, with members of the congregation gathered around, Mrs. Fawcett broke down and said, “John, I cannot bear to leave. I know not how to go!” “Nor can I either,” was his reply, so they decided to stay. In one of his next sermons, he presented the words of this hymn as a poem entitled Brotherly Love. At a salary of never more than $200 a year, he never left his church family there until his passing in 1817.
That same closeness and fellowship is why we come, why we meet together, why we respond to the invitation. God did not intend for countless numbers of individual Christians to find their own way home to Him. Instead, His intention is for us to function as one whole, bound together in like precious faith that we share in grief, pain, hope, and rejoicing. God gave us the comfort of help and support and sympathy from a family brought together through the blood of Jesus.
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