Doing Church 2 - Sing (Acts 16:19-30)

   For full message, see link at bottom 

Why is this so important? If music is ephemeral, if music is disposable—it comes and goes, it's just cultural—if there's so much about it that comes down to personal preference, why is it important? Why does it matter that the Church sings together?  

Let's look at our scripture focus.  

Paul and Silas were having a bad day.  

It had started well. They were in the city of Philippi going about their business, and they encountered a young slave girl who was doubly a victim. She was controlled by an evil spirit, and she was being trafficked by humans.  

Paul had miraculously set her free. Which was cool, right? Well, her pimps didn't think so. So they accused Paul and Silas of breaking Roman law. They had them arrested, stripped, beaten, thrown in prison to await trial. Paul and Silas had been dragged underground to the dark, dank, smelly, oppressive, secure-unit. They had been chained up with their feet in wooden stocks. The door had been locked... And there they sat.  

Pressed in with men and women who had been treated the same way. They were in a pit filled with frightened strangers, chained to each other, waiting to be sentenced to either death or hard labour.  

But Paul and Silas... They didn't panic. They knew the system. They knew that their friends Timothy and Luke knew where they had been taken. They knew that the church in Philippi wouldn't abandon them to starve.  

They also knew that James had been beheaded by Herod because of his faith in Jesus. They also knew that Stephen had been stoned because of his faith in Jesus. Maybe Paul looked around him and wondered about the fates of the Christian men and women that he himself in the past had had arrested and thrown in places just like this.  

So there they sat. Waiting. Underdressed for the underground cold and damp. Bruised. Bleeding. In a windowless, crowded hole with too few toilets and not enough drinkable water. The hours passed. They lost track of time. They couldn't sleep.  

So what did they do? They sang... “HE HAS MADE ME GLAD! HE HAS MADE ME GLAD! I WILL REJOICE, FOR HE HAS MADE ME GLAD!...”  

Really?  

That's how this story has been presented to me over the years. That's the kind of singing we represent Paul and Silas doing in that moment.

But I gotta wonder. I really, seriously, wonder. 

I wonder if it wasn't more like this: Paul and Silas in that darkness. In pain. Hungry, thirsty. Surrounded by fear. I wonder whether they didn't turn to each other—as the Church—and remind each other why they were there. If they didn't look each other in the eye, and maybe sing something like what later came to be known as the Philippian hymn.  

Jesus Christ, who was very God, emptied Himself.  

Became a slave.  

Humbled Himself in obedience, even to death on the cross.  

Then God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2 var) 

And all the prisoners were listening to them. Listening to Paul and Silas sing the hope of a God who knows what it is to be humbled, to be bound, and to be emptied. Maybe it was like that.  

Or maybe Paul and Silas cast their minds back to the Psalms written by David, so many of which are songs of lament, and of trust in God. Maybe they sang together Psalm 30:  

Lord, how my foes have increased, how many rise up against me,  

Many say of him, “God will not deliver him.” 

But you, O lord, are a shield around me. My glory, and the one who lifts my head.  

I lie down and sleep; I will wake again, for the Lord sustains me... (Psalm 30, var) 

And all the prisoners were listening to them. Hearing Paul and Silas singing their own pain, singing their own fear. In the dark, these foreigners—their companions in chains—singing the name of Yahweh God, who delivers the innocent, who delivers the suffering, who does justice, who forgives the guilty. Hearing the name of Yahweh God sung by these broken voices, from empty bellies, and with dry mouths:  

Arise, O lord. Save me, O my God. 

Strike all my enemies on the jaw.  

Break the teeth of the wicked.  

Salvation belongs to the lord.  

May your blessing be on your people (Psalm 3, var) 

Bam! In that moment, the earth shook. The doors flew open. The chains fell from every bruised wrist and every raw ankle, and all the prisoners were free.  

And they stayed where they were. They stayed where the hope was. There was no hope for them if they ran for the door. But maybe listening to Paul and Silas singing songs of lament, of trust, of praise... That's where the hope was.  

Maybe in that moment they had heard the Church sing. And when the Church sings, God hears. When the Church sings, God rolls up his sleeves, and moves to meet us.  


  To hear the full message: 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Now What? (Inaugural Sermon, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church Cobourg) - Jeremiah 29:4-13

Image
(August 4, 2024 was the first Sunday in my tenure as permanent pastor (although I know there’s not really any such thing!) of my church. This is part of that sermon.)  For full message, see link at bottom: So. Now what?   It is very common in Evangelical circles on the first Sunday of a new Pastor’s tenure for them to begin by preaching a “vision casting” message.   The idea is that the Pastor has gained a perspective on the life of the church, and has plans for their next season.   As I was thinking about that over the last two or three weeks, i've struggled with that a little bit because I wasn't sure how to tell you... I don't have one. I don't have “a vision” for this church. I do not have a five year plan for quadrupling Sunday morning attendance every six months. I do not have a library filled with books with titles like “How to Pack the Pews in Five Simple Steps” or “How to Rule at Sunday School” or even “How to Get Back to Normal.” I don't have...
Read more

Foundations 5: What Do We Do? (Matthew 5:13-16) - Calvary Baptist Cobourg

Image
   For full message, see link at bottom The Church has always had work to do—making disciples, building stronger disciples, worshipping, teaching, learning, feeding, sheltering, adopting, and embracing and forgiving. And always the work that we do is to the glory of God. In Ephesians Chapter 2 we read, “ For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. ”  In James Chapter 1, “ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. ”  In First Peter we read, “Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us .” The way we live, the things that we do, are given to us by God as opportunities for us to join in what he is doing, his redemptive work in the world and to glorify G...
Read more

Idols and Kings (1 Kings 17:1-16)

Image
   To see the full message, scroll to the bottom. I nto a moment of political division, a moment of national dysfunction, steps Elijah .   This is  his home , and his people . This has been his whole life , growing up with Israel ’s back and forth and inheritance and assassination and war and division and reunification. He is familiar with the vein of people who are rejecting YHWH   God . Elijah unders tands about idols and kings.   Elijah was a force. He was a prophet of YHWH God . He was a strong human being : bold when he needed to be bold , brave when he needed to be brave, and obey ing God every time God spoke to him. His name actually means ‘ YHWH is my God . ’   Elijah was a little bit of a celebrity, if that's the right word. People recognized him when he walked in the room, or even when he was described.     Elijah understood king s ; he understood people who hold power , who take power for themselves , peo...
Read more