Keep On Singing

Happy Sunday, and Merry Christmas! I love so much about this day and this time of year. One thing I really love is the music. Church is big and small go all out with specials and Christmas cantatas. I love listening to the songs of Christmas, well, most of them anyway.

One of my favorite stories of Christmas is found in Luke chapter 2. It's the story of the shepherd's encounter with the heavenly host of angels. Let me read it to you. I'll read verses 8 through 14 from Luke 2.

"Now they were in the same country, Shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord Shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the lord. And this will be the sign to you: you will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a Manger.' Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly hosts praising God and saying, 'Glory to God at the highest, and on Earth peace, Good Will toward men.'"

I imagine that you've heard that many, many times. Let me ask you this: did you always think that the Angels sang to the Shepherds? Picture it: a dark night, a bright light, Shepherds paralyzed out of fear, too afraid to move or to speak. And then all of a sudden the Heavenly Host breaks out in Song: "Glory to God in the highest." Luke never tells us that the Angels sang. He tells us that the Angels said those words, not saying. But in my mind, it just seems a perfect time to sing.

Max Lucado tells a story about Chippy the parakeet. He was sitting on his perch one day, minding his own business, and his owner was vacuuming out his cage just with the open tube of a vacuum hose. Unfortunately for Chippy, the owner got the vacuum too close to him, and he was sucked into the canister. Quickly she turned off the Electrolux and opened the canister and tore open the bag, and there was chimpy, covered in the vacuum dust but still alive.

She grabbed chippy and ran to the kitchen sink and ran water all over him to clean him off. She then patted him dry and set him back on his Purge. The story spread quickly about chippy, in a newspaper reporter called a few days after the incident to check on chippy. And the owner said, "He doesn't sing much anymore. He just sits there and stares."

Have you ever felt like chippy? Maybe 2022 has been a difficult year. Maybe you just don't feel like singing anymore. My Christmas wish for you is that you get the song back in your heart, because Jesus came for you.

I want to look at a verse that has nothing to do with the Christmas story, and yet it has everything to do with a Christmas story. Acts 16:25 tells us about Paul and Silas stuck in a Roman jail. "About midnight," we are told, "Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Paul and Silas had been beaten and arrested for healing a demon-possessed woman.

The other prisoners, we are told, that Midnight Hour were listening, and the other prisoners had to be wondering, why are they singing? You know the answer, don't you? They were singing because they just couldn't help it. They were singing Because Christ was born. They were singing Because Christ was risen.

No matter what was going in their lives on in their lives, they sang. As the other prisoners wondered why, Paul and Silas kept on singing. If you're a Christian, this is my Christmas wish for you: keep on thinking, no matter what. I'm a bit tired of Christians who act like they were baptized in lemon juice. You know who I'm talking about.

We have been given the greatest gift of all. Therefore, keep on singing. No matter how tough it is at work, keep on singing. No matter what you've been through, keep on singing. No matter what you are in the middle of, keep on singing.

Merry Christmas, Joy to the World, keep on singing. The prisoners of this world are listening: the prisoners of Despair and grief and doubt and hurt, and the prisoners whose focus is only on this world. They're listening, so keep on singing.

I had brunch with one of my Christian Heroes this week. He's been battling cancer for 13 years. He was in Atlanta for yet another treatment. You should see him smile and hear him sing with his life. Even in the midst of all he has been through, he's still singing.

I did a funeral the other day of a lady who had a stroke and could not speak for the last year or two of her life. And even though she could not speak, she could sing. She sang two songs: she would sing Amazing Grace, and she would sing Jesus loves me. At her graveside, we ended the service singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." And even at the death of their loved one, the family stood and sang.

Keep on singing. Merry Christmas. God bless us, everyone.

Pray with me. Lord, thank you for this day that changes everything. Help us, no matter where we are in our lives, to be ecstatic about the great news that unto us is born Jesus. In your name we pray, amen.

God bless you. Merry Christmas.