Shepherds, Why This Jubilee? Why Your Joyous Strains Prolong?

Riley is a fourth-grader who was cast as a “Shepherd” for Sunday’s Christmas program in church. He also had a solo. He had been practicing “Angels We Have Heard On High,” and he needed someone to accompany him on guitar, so I offered to play. On a chilly afternoon earlier this week, Riley sang for me while I played the chords of the familiar carol. His clear boy-soprano tones filled the rehearsal space, but he was struggling with the words to the second verse. Suddenly, it dawned on me to teach what my drama coach had taught me back in seminary: to read the words with exaggerated meaning and to sustain them from the muscles in the gut rather than the throat. Besides, I thought, if Riley really understood the words, he would remember them and sing them with more feeling. So I shouted to Riley, “Repeat after me! Shepherds, why this jubilee?” He said back, “Shepherds…why…this jubilee?” It became like a game. “Why your joyous strains prolong?” We asked each question of the carol back and forth, as if the shepherds were across the room dancing a jig and jumping for joy: “Say what gladsome tidings be…” We were almost shouting now. “…which inspire your heavenly song?”

The shepherds were dancing and shouting that the Messiah – the child God was going to send to reign over all the world – was about to be born! And there we were: if Riley sang clear enough, and I played well enough, we imagined ourselves joining the jubilant shepherd band as they literally skipped and spun, danced and dashed, toward a birthplace still unseen.

Riley sang it through one more time. Every word was clear and his notes were sharp and true. I smiled knowing this "shepherd boy" had experienced the story for himself. On this Third Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 11, our worship service will begin at 10:30 as usual, but soon “the usual" will end and “The Christmas Story,” will be told by our children and youth, in word and song! Be there, and watch as the story comes alive for us. You may just return to your life “glorifying and praising God for all you have heard and seen!” (Luke 2:19)

I look forward to lighting candles and singing carols and sharing the world’s greatest story with you in church and in the places where we share ministry together!

"Pastor Paul"