“Hope is Worth the Risk" Original Hymn (Social Change, Justice, Movements)
“Hope is Worth the Risk" Original Hymn (Social Change, Justice, Movements)
DIGITAL SHEET MUSIC DOWNLOAD
This hymn, originally written for the Words for the Beginning bundle for Advent 2024, is created for use in congregational worship and other ministry contexts. We’ve set fresh words of faith to a well-loved public domain hymn tune for maximum singability.
License for congregational use is included in the purchase—no reporting to CCLI or other licensing agencies is required. To inquire about other uses, such as recording or publishing, please contact us.
“Hope is Worth the Risk”
Inspired by Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:46-55
Tune: NOËL NOUVELET (“Sing We Now of Christmas”)
Text: Anna Strickland, 2024
Music: Old French tune
DOWNLOAD includes:
PDF sheet music with four-part harmony
PNG image of the lyrics and melody for use in bulletins
Lyrics to copy and paste for bulletins and screens
Lyrics:
Author’s note: This hymn was written in the midst of the Popular University for Gaza movement across college campuses in the spring of 2024.
Spending time with the students at the University of Texas day after day, I witnessed the many creative ways they protested on the South Lawn,
from screen printing to poetry workshops. None of this made the news, as those in power benefit from the narrative that protestors
are violent. Wondering what other narratives have been similarly silenced, I was inspired to learn and write
about creative acts of nonviolent resistance, highlighting the hopeful risk-takers across the world.
Events referenced, in order, include: anti-war demonstrations across American college campuses (1960’s–
present); the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran (2022–2023); the Wild Lily (1990) and Sunflower (2014) student
movements in Taiwan; the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace (2003); and the Singing Revolution in
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (1988).
“Hope is Worth the Risk”
Tune: NOËL NOUVELET (“Sing We Now of Christmas”)
Text: Anna Strickland, 2024
Music: Old French tune
College students gather protesting for peace
Standing firm in spite of violence from police
Refrain:
Empires will fight with force or politics
Still the Spirit whispers, “Hope is worth the risk”
Young girls in Iran to protest the regime
Take offtheir hijabs to let their hair be seen
Refrain
In Taiwan the dreamers flood the streets with blooms
Sunflowers and lilies liberty’s perfume
Refrain
Liberian women scarred by civil war
Keep the peace talks going by barring the doors
Refrain
Ethnic music rings out from the Baltic Sea
As the people sing their right to liberty
Refrain
Age to age and coast to coast people have stood
Risking something big in hope of something good1
Refrain
credit info:
Hymn text by Rev. Anna Strickland | A Sanctified Art, LLC | sanctifiedart.org
