12/28/25 “Music Sunday”*

25 Dec 12/28/25 “Music Sunday”*

12/28/25      “Music Sunday”*

I have been reading an author this past week who talks about how we need to deconstruct our lives and our churches.  This isn’t nearly as radical as it sounds but on the other hand it is quite radical because he means we should change the way we do things.  This means that we should be asking ourselves every time we do something, “Is there a better or different way of doing this that might bring more honor and glory to God?”  You can let your mind go and think of new things to do for God’s glory and that is what he is talking about.  Today, we are going to go to the second year of having a ‘music Sunday’ the Sunday following Christmas.  I think that it might be a little more important that we know where and how some of our songs have come to be than to just sing the words.   Also, I need a little break.  I do this all year and I get tired.  So today, I would like you to find these songs on YouTube or Spotify and sing along with gusto!  Let’s let the music be our sermon for today.  I will try to do this more and more during the year as music is so important to many for worship.  Let’s see if we can worship with gusto as we sing these songs.

So, I have done a little research on 3 Christmas carols that I would like to share with you.  The first one based on Luke 2:13 might be the oldest carol we have although its origin is a little disputed.  In 129 AD the Bishop of Rome proclaimed, “In the Holy Night of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, all shall solemnly sing the ‘Angel’s Hymn.'”  Thus the ‘Angels Hymn’ became the first Christmas carol.  So this carol we are about to sing is roughly 1900 years old.  However it wasn’t until around 1860 that it was translated into what we hear and sing today.

Just as a little sidebar here, we like to think of the profession of being a shepherd as being one in Biblical times and this is true.  However, this was also true in the 1800’s.  It is said and I don’t know if this is true but legend says that French shepherds would sing and call out to each other on Christmas Eve.  They would do this from hillside to hillside and they would say, “Gloria in excelsis Deo” which means “glory to God in the highest” in Latin.  This is how these working people spread their Christmas cheer.  Listening from other hillsides or in the valleys, this song sounded like angels calling to one another about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It was said to be quite beautiful.  It also reflected the joy the shepherds found as the holiday season arrived again.

Let’s sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” in the spirit of the shepherds.  Let’s try to sing out to the next hillside which in our case here in the Red River valley, could be miles away.  Please go to Spotify or YouTube and play this so you can sing along.

Our next song is much newer although still quite old as it was written in 1719 and was based on Psalm 98.  Read.  I would like us to notice that there is nothing in the Psalm or the song ‘Joy to the World’ that mentions mangers, shepherds, wise men, angels or any other character associated with the Christmas story.  This is because Isaac Watts didn’t write ‘Joy to the World’ as a Christmas song.  It was written to celebrate the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ.  Now even though Christmas is a joyous time of year, it will pale in comparison to when Jesus comes back.  At that time even the rocks will sing out with joy.

It wouldn’t be until 1839 when Lowell Mason adapted and arranged the song into the melody that we sing today.  Some say that parts of this tune may have been written by Handel but no one is sure.  Speaking of not being sure, here we have a very famous song and we are not sure as to all of its history.  This song wasn’t written that long ago so just imagine how hard it is to be accurate in our history findings from 500, 2000 and 4000 years ago.  I think a lot of what is educated guess work is what we like to think of as facts.  Anyway, I digress.  Equally as obscure in this song’s history is that no one knows when or why it really made the transition to being a Christmas song.

Hopefully we can sing this wonderful song, one of my favorites, noticing the words and how they could have meaning for both the first and second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Go again to Spotify or YouTube and play this wonderful song and sing along.

Now we are going to slow it down a little as we look at a song based on Luke 2:8 and has quite a history.  It seems that in 1818 there were a band of actors who were going to perform a re-enactment of the Christmas story in a small town in Austria.  Unfortunately, the organ at the church where they were to perform couldn’t be repaired before Christmas.  Legend has it that mice had gotten into it and another legend tells how parts had rusted.  Because of this, the troop was going to perform the Christmas drama from Matthew and Luke in a private home.  On the night of the performance the assistant pastor, Josef Mohr took the long way home which took him to a hill overlooking the village.  It was so peaceful that he couldn’t help but think of a poem he had written a couple of years earlier about the angels announcing the long awaited birth of the Messiah.  He thought this would be great for the night’s service but he didn’t have any music for it.  So the next day, Christmas Eve, he went to see the church organist, Franz Gruber, and they came up with the tune on a guitar.  So on Christmas Eve of 1818, Mohr and Gruber sang “Silent Night” for their Christmas Eve service to the accompaniment of a guitar.

Everything after that is history as a great Christmas carol was born.  Now just to be fair, there are historians that say that this story is folklore and that Mohr wrote the words and found Gruber to put the poem to music.  There rest of the story never happened.  Don’t you just love it when someone comes along and ruins a perfectly good story?   Anyway, let’s slow it down a little as we sing “Silent Night”.

Today, we have looked at 3 Christmas carols and I hope you see the theme that continues from your Christmas Eve service.  We don’t always have the accurate history for many happenings or songs of our Christmas tradition.  Please don’t let this bother you.  Celebrate anyway.  This is the celebration of the birth of the Lord and Savior of the world.  Don’t let the naysayers ruin it for you.  Let’s celebrate the love that Jesus has for you.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.

*Research for this sermon was through Wikipedia, A Godly Heritage, and Making Music Fun.