by Luke Welch
Awake, manly sleeper, arise up and shine
It’s day twelve of Christmas: an opportune time
to tell each old passerby, stranger or neighbor
the lingering news of the birth of the savior.
Get up, out of bed. Rouse the wife; dress the kids!
It’s Sunday, the Lord’s Day, so open those lids.
As good time as any to gather together
to tell the wide world ’bout the birth of the savior.
Take tithings! Take tidings! Take voices and lives!
Take sons, and your daughters and beautiful wives!
Now take to the streets and go tell them the news!
Sing into the air, and rumble the pews!
They all need to know on this twelfth Christmas morn, so tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
Take up to your tweeting while onlookers look!
Yes, even on Sundays, they’re checking Face-book.
Say that there’s still treasure to find if they search.
Tell them it’s still Christmas, and you’re off to church…
Where you and your wife and your daughters and sons
will sing with the church and your voice will be one,
proclaiming and naming the day for the Lord,
so all who have ears will know Jesus is born!
They all need to know on this twelfth Christmas morn, so tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
For each time we gather we show the Lord’s death,
Proclaimed in our feasting, and singing and rest,
A jolly old message, his death ends in life
So gather your daughter, your son and your wife.
No matter a girl or a boy, both invited,
An old saint or baby by water united,
The whole group is needed from eldest to least,
For these are the rules from the Lord of the feast!
And neighbors are watching to see who we are,
And why in the bitter cold pile into cars,
With gifts in our pockets to give to our father,
So gather your wives and your sons and your daughters!
And dress royal merry, and rollick in cheer.
For we are together with Christmas still here!
Be servantly smilers, and make them exclaim:
“O, who is their king, and now what is his name?!
“These smiles mean something! What news have they heard?
These gatherings weekly are part of this word!
And see how they love one another this way!
Excited, united, like on Christmas day…
“As if every Sunday they rise from the grave,
they rise with the Sun, and they’re one in their ways,
One body all risen, all living and blessed.
Together they Sing, and they Feast, and they Rest.
“Reminds me of Christmas with Carols and Kids
All up with the sun for the fun that is hid!”
So rush to the manger, and sing, rest and eat!
And take all those babies, their savior to meet.
They greet him with joy and with honor and drool.
He comes as a baby, a poor man, a fool.
But babies stop enemies, voicing his might.
That’s why he made Christmas an infant’s delight.
So open the present in view of your street,
Delight, like a child, your savior to meet.
The joy found in Christmas is not just one date,
but twelve days, all Sundays as we celebrate.
His birth we proclaim on this twelfth Christmas morn; go tell on the mountain that Jesus is born!
——
Luke Welch has a master’s degree from Covenant Seminary and preaches regularly in a conservative Anglican church in Maryland. He blogs about Bible structure at SUBTEXT. Follow him on Twitter: @lukeawelch<>
I LOVE this Luke! What an encouragement!
Bravo! Wonderful!
Nicely done. Thank you, Luke.