Singing Salvation: Luke 1:39-55 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

³⁹In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” [
  ⁴⁶And Mary said,
 “My soul magnifies the Lord,
  ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 ⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
 ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
  and holy is his name.
 ⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him
  from generation to generation.
 ⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm;
  he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
 ⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
  and lifted up the lowly;
 ⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things,
  and sent the rich away empty.
 ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
  in remembrance of his mercy,
 ⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
  to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (NRSV)

“You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

You really are a heel

You're as cuddly as a cactus

You're as charming as an eel

Mr. Grinch

You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel!”

Yet something unexpected happens after the Grinch successfully completes his dastardly deeds: all the Whos in Whoville are singing. Christmas, he finds, cannot be stolen at all…

And it isn’t just in a Dr. Seuss book that we find people singing at the most inopportune times… In Acts 16, the apostles Paul and Silas sang in prison, after having driven a demon out of a slave girl. Many of our most-loved hymns are the spirituals sung by slaves as they toiled in the cotton fields. In 1914, the armies fighting against each other in WW1 put down their guns and sang Christmas carols together in what is remembered as the Christmas Truce. I can remember singing the Navy Hymn in church the Sunday after 9/11. Two weeks ago, Melville Reed’s granddaughter sang Amazing Grace a capella in the funeral home, and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Mary and her relative Elizabeth come together in a time of great personal crisis for both of them. Mary was told she would be bearing a child out of wedlock, conceived by the Holy Spirit; Elizabeth was bearing a child in old age, and she was said to be barren. As soon as Mary shows up, the child “leaps for joy” in Elizabeth’s womb. Mary begins to sing. Could it be that even John the Baptist is singing and dancing in his mother’s womb? When these two women came together, God gave them hope and affirmation. God’s promises were being fulfilled.

And I’d love to say that it will be smooth sailing for both women from here on out—but we know better. Nevertheless, in this moment, they are singing the salvation of God.

So what place does singing have in your walk with God?

I’ve sung in church for my entire life—and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed it. Nevertheless, I always sang because everyone else was. It was expected of me. If I didn’t, people would think something was wrong with me.

Sometimes, however, you just don’t feel like singing. Perhaps you don’t know the song. Or you’re not feeling what everyone else is feeling in that moment. You may be in the same building with them, but they’re in a different world.

If you can’t read music, or you sing about as well as those people who get laughed out of their auditions on American Idol, you may be inclined to not sing. There is this unspoken rule that if you can’t sing, you shouldn’t—and that’s not exclusive to the church. We make fun of people who sing in the shower or alone in the car.

Sometimes, I blame the music for not wanting to sing. I personally think the creators of our hymnal have a lot to answer for. Far too many of the hymns and liturgical music is un-sing-able, in my opinion. You either can’t sing the tune, or the words don’t make sense. Or it all makes you feel like you’re at a funeral…when you’re not.

But my favorite occasions to sing are at Camp Lutherlyn and Vacation Bible School—because the music draws everyone in. The songs, the fellowship, and the occasion are naturally conducive to worship. And it doesn’t matter about your singing ability. If you don’t know the song, you want to learn it. Your emotions get lost in the music. Your body is animated.

This happened in a very powerful way last Sunday at the nursing home. About fifteen of us came and sing to the twenty or so residents. By the time we finished singing our first song, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, everyone was smiling and singing along to all the familiar favorites. When we finished, a worker told me that one of the residents was alert, conversational, and smiling—which was not normal for her. No one had heard her speak a word in months. How is this any different than unborn babies leaping in the womb or a frightened young woman bursting into song?

When it comes to the Christian life and the Church, singing isn’t something you do. It’s what happens to you when God shows up and God’s love is shared.

The challenge for us, then, is to rethink how we use this gift of music—taking a cue from our Christmas caroling; from Church Camp; from Vacation Bible School.

Is everyone who feels called to sing given the opportunity? How excited are we about the songs we sing? How can we use music to connect to new generations? How can we use music to care for the hurting?

Music isn’t entertainment; nor is it a chore; it is a gift. We sing when we’re scared; we sing when we’re sad; we sing when we’re discouraged; and we sing when we’re glad. As Christians, we sing because Christ is alive in us. We sing because we can. We sing because we can’t not. God transforms fear into faith; despondence into confidence; despair into hope; repression into resistance; conflict into peace.

God has given us much to sing about in Jesus Christ. Our sins are washed away and we are reconciled to God. Our prayers are being heard and God is working through our trials for our deliverance. Death and evil are not going to have the last word. And song is one of God’s greatest gifts for us to live in hope and anticipation of the promises that God is going to keep. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts to bind us together and share this hope with a troubled world. We sing because Jesus is Emmanuel; God with us.