Christmas Bells

My message from yesterday's worship...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving I gave a message called Surviving the Holidays and we heard a testimony from Rick Richardson. Rick had lost his wife several years ago and one of the things he talked about was the difficultly of the holidays. It was a topic that touched to a lot of people. Christmas is supposed to be a joyous season, but for many it’s also a painful season. Rick’s testimony unearthed some of those hurts and opened my eyes to the pain people experience around this time of year. That lead me back to a story that I discovered last year about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow was one of the most famous American poets and he wrote a poem that's pretty popular around this time of year.

The poem was written on Christmas of 1864 during a period of great difficulty. If you’re familiar with your history then you know that our nation was in the fourth year of a long, bloody civil war. The war had a devastating effect on our country and there was not a single family unaffected by its misery. It was a dark period and a time of despair and hopelessness. The same year the war began, 1861, was also a year of personal tragedy for Longfellow. His wife and the mother of his five children, Frances, had died in a house fire.

Longfellow kept a journal and his entry on Christmas Day of 1861 said "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year later on December 25th of 1862, Longfellow’s journal entry reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." A year after that, in 1863, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded in battle and would be crippled for life. On Christmas Day of that year he couldn’t find the words and his journal was silent.

Then, on December 25th of 1864 his journal entry contained the words to a poem titled "Christmas Bells." It originally contained seven stanzas, two of which were taken out later. The rest were slightly re-arranged in 1872 by John Baptiste Calkin who put the words to a song that we know today as the Christmas carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” As you read through the stanzas of the song you can follow the story. It’s a very dark period in Longfellow’s life. He had suffered personal tragedies and there was no end in sight to the lingering war. But as he walked out in the streets that Christmas morning he heard the bells. And despite his despair, they told of a coming peace and reminded him of the words the angels spoke to the shepherds on that first Christmas. He writes in the first stanza…

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

The bells remind him of the promise of Christ. That the arrival of the Messiah brings peace and hope. But then the reality of his situation sinks in and he writes in another stanza...

But in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

And then in the midst of his hopelessness the bells ring out again. The song continues on, the bells keep playing and he discovers that the message remains. So he proclaims in the final stanza…

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

I don’t know where you are today. I don’t know what wars rage in your life. I don’t know what personal tragedies you’ve endured or what despair you’re fighting to overcome. I know that sometimes it seems that the holidays just pile on top of the already pressing burdens. But if you’ll look past the material aspect of this season and look to its spiritual meaning, you’ll hear that the bells are still ringing and they carry the same song of peace and hope. The message of the angels to the shepherds in the field is still the same to us today...

”Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy, for all people. For unto us is born, in the town of David, a Savior which is Christ is the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill to men.”

Our worship today is designed to carry that message forth. Through familiar carols and hymns we'll proclaim the message of Christmas. Regardless of where you are today spiritually, we invite you to reflect on that message. Jesus has come and there is now hope in the midst of despair and peace in the midst of turmoil!

Acappella Memories (and Opinions)

Last night I caught a bit of The Sing-Off. It's an American Idol knock-off featuring a cappella singing groups who compete for a Sony recording contract (to play on all the a cappella radio stations I presume). During the show I commented about how I was having flashbacks to Acappella concerts from Church of Christ youth rallies in the 80's. For the uninformed, they were similar style performances with a little less dance and Christian lyrics of course. I would show you an example from YouTube, but it was the 80s. The Internet didn't exist and video cameras were still VHS.

At the time I thought Acappella was the coolest group ever. They were cutting edge. They would use beatboxing and vocal synthesizers to make their voices sound like drums or bass guitars (for example). Coming from a denomination where those kinds of things were frowned upon, it was an exciting (and slightly rebellious) new form of Christian music. I bought all the cassette tapes and to this day can still rip off a good chorus of More than Conquerors or John the Revelator. I really thought they were on to something. Instruments were a big no-no, but if we could make our voices sound like instruments then we could enjoy the music and still play it safe. Thus, I was an immediate fan of the beatbox a cappella style...but not for very long.

There are two reasons for that: One, it gradually wore on my nerves. I much prefer a good harmony to a good beatbox. Two, Joe Selby. Joe was one of my elders when I was the youth minister at the Southwest Church of Christ. While I was there we hosted a big youth rally every year called Youth In Action. I even had Acappella come and perform one year (my pre-teen dreams come true). Joe was a huge supporter of YIA and a good mentor to me. Yes, he could be a little cantankerous from time to time and could strike fear into the heart of a 20-something year old youth minister, but he had a huge heart and great love for God. One Sunday morning at YIA, Willie Sandlin was speaking on the resurrection. At the end of his message he played an Acappella song called Arise My Love that had a part in it that sounded exactly like a piano. It wasn't really a piano, it was all vocally produced, but you couldn't tell the difference. Willie asked me if it was OK before he played it and I said "As long as its Acappella brother we're good to go!"

Joe was sitting on the third row on the right hand side of the stage. I was standing in the back of the auditorium. Within about 30 seconds of the song playing I saw Joe slowly rise from his pew. He was not a small man and I looked up to him (both literally and figuratively). He turned around, scanned the room, found me and slowly started walking my way. I knew what was coming. He walked within inches of my face and asked, "Is that a piano?" Gulp. "No sir, it's a cappella. I promise! Pulled it straight off the Acappella CD." He eyed me for a while in silence thinking over what I'd just said. He leaned in even closer and said, "Son, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck then it must be a duck." Then he smiled, turned around and went back to his seat. That was all he ever said about it. I thought, "You know, he's right." So next year I brought in a real piano. (No, just kidding, but he was right).

Joe got me to thinking. What's the point of insisting on a cappella if the a cappella is designed to sound like instruments? If you want to use an instrument, then use one. If you want to be a cappella, then leave out all the percussion stuff. I've pretty much had that viewpoint ever since Joe's comment. I have no problem with a cappella music, or instrumental music for that matter. But I do have a bit of a problem (personal, not theological) with a cappella music that tries to sound like instrumental music. I'd rather just pull out the drums and piano then trying to use the voice to sound like the drums and piano.

Which brings me back to "The Sing-Off." It's novel, but novelty wears off. There's only so many times you can say, "Wow! And just think this is all done by the human voice alone!" I don't really see it surviving for a second season, but in the meantime I'll watch and reminisce. Thinking back on all those Acappella concerts and how "we were country, when country wasn't cool."

Recycled Post

I'm not nescessarily lacking inspiration right now, just time. So here's an old post I thought you might it enjoy. It was written back in 2007 before most of you discovered the blog. Not everyone agreed with me here and I even had one person corner me at church the next morning to make sure I still believed in Jesus. Here it is...

The H Word.

What's your thoughts?

A Question

I'm thinking of downsizing next year, which should I dump...Twitter, Facebook or the blog?

The Earlier the Better

Here's another reason for early involvement in a good children's ministry or student ministry. This is from Andy Stanley in The Principle of the Path in a chapter called "Attention Retention."

What about the spiritual development of your kids? If you've got kids, this is something you've got to pay attention to. Seemingly few parents do. And the earlier the better. I know too many parents who treat their kids like their automobiles. They wait for the red light on the dashboard to light up before giving them any attention. Preventive maintenance will help you avoid emergencies with your kids and your cars. But in both instances, it is something you have to pay attention to. (Not to turn this into a chapter on parenting, but if you're waiting until your kids are fourteen or fifteen to get them in an environment that will engage them in the development of their faith, you are going to be sorely disappointed in the results. Spiritual development operates like the principle of the harvest. You sow early and reap later. You can't cram for a harvest like you cram for a test. Adolescence is when parents began to reap what they have sown. It is not the time to begin sowing. Unfortunately, too many parents don't pay attention to this aspect of their children's lives until they have missed the opportunity to do it right. A good student ministry will not make up for years of spiritual neglect. Parental guidance is definitely required.