"Sing Freedom"
So…
So what song are you singing?
I remember years ago traveling with family when we would in the car on long trips, sing all the songs we could think of just to pass the time.
In this generation with all kinds of electronic music resources we don’t sing as much, but in the past walking traveling, rowing a boat, going anywhere, even just doing day to day chores was accompanied with song.
For most of us, the most singing we do is at Christmas, because we all seem to know a few Christmas carols. But that season is past, and singing about and singing about snow seems to be out too!
So what song are you singing?
Maybe it’s time to sing some spring songs in hope for warmer weather and for the world to come alive again.
Do you know any? Maybe, “raindrops keep falling on my head” or is that too much a blast from the past?
On the other hand, maybe, we could just sing about what God is doing in our lives, what we are seeing, what answers to prayer we have noticed, how we are growing in faith, and the ways we are sharing that faith.
Because, you see, the scriptures are replete with the call to God’s people to sing a new song.
They are literally all over, both in the Old and the New Testament.
The psalms are full of the call to sing a new song. Think of the Psalmist who in Psalm 33, 96, 144, 149, and also in Isiah and Amos, remind God’s people to “Sing a new song to the LORD! Everyone on this earth, sing praises to the LORD.”
And in the New Testament we are reminded by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians and Colossians, “When you meet together, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as you praise the Lord with all your heart.
So what song are you singing?
Most of us know that songs ae usually poems put to music. So maybe a better question is, what poem are you writing and reciting. Or if that is too hard, because most of us did lousy in English class when it came to poems, maybe we should just ask, what story are you telling your self and others about what you and God are up to?
Are you remembering to praise God? Are you remembering to ascribe glory to God.
Are you thinking just like those Israelites did once they escaped captivity in Egypt, and singing all about the miracles you have just seen; not just of your escape from Egypt, but about how God was your defender and your salvation.
You understand the Israelites had been stuck in Egypt ever since Joseph with God’s leading helped them escape a famine in Canaan.
And while Joseph was alive, all was well.
But soon the Egyptians saw a group of foreigners they could use as slave labor and so they did.
The Israelites wanted to go back to that land God had promised them in Canaan, a land of their own, but it was a long time coming and when it did they just wanted to sing for joy.
Just like any people would who had been held in captivity, would. Whose creativeness, and intelligence, and labor was being used by others without any thought of compensation, who were in captivity because of their color, their nationality, their ethnicity… even their sin.
When freedom is found, when freedom is achieved, when freedom finally is yours, it’s time to sing.
That’s why in a month when we celebrate Black Heritage, and the amazing and heart-rendering story of enslavement of Africans in our beloved country, we ought to rejoice and sing a new song!
Because that escape from enslavement is a story we all can relate to; not the misery of being shackled, and abused, but the story of being set free – because in Christ, through God’s work you and I have been set free too.
And because of it, like those Israelites, we sing a new song.
Yes, the horse and its rider have been cast into the sea. The slave master, Satan himself, is no longer in power and we now follow God son where he may lead.
Sing, sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong, sing of good things not bad, sing of happy not sad. Sing, sing a song, make it simple to last you’re your whole life long, don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sing, sing a song.
So, what song are you singing?
Amen.