Tag Archives: advent

Reasons to Sing Christmas Carols during Advent

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I’ve already written here and here with some theological reflections on celebrating Christmas in the midst of Advent. Here are some less lofty reasons, but ones I find compelling in their own way:

1. The dramata-liturgical reason (I just made that up): Rather than erecting a rigid wall between the seasons, I like to think of the boundary between Advent and Christmas as a semi-permeable membrane. The longing for Christmas ripens over the four weeks. This happens in many churches visually, with decorations growing more elaborate throughout December, so why not musically too?

So on Advent 1 we sing all Advent hymns. Advent 2, we might do two Advent and one Christmas-one of the more obscure ones—this year it’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” because it fits my sermon. Advent 3, same ratio, but we might break out with an “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” or “What Child is This?”. On Advent 4, we might do one Advent Hymn and the rest Christmas. That said, this year I might back off on that slightly, since Advent 4 is on the 19th, still several days before Christmas.

2. The numerical reason: Advent is twice as long as the Christmas season, and yet there are twice as many Christmas hymns as Advent ones (at least in the PCUSA hymnal). Why would we limit ourselves liturgically in December? It would be like planning worship with one hand tied behind your back.

3. The pedagogical reason: In the bygone years of Christendom, children learned and sang Christmas carols in school. I remember this clearly from my childhood. Actually, what I remember most clearly is the time we had a Jewish girl in our class and she taught us the dreidel song. The fact that that experience was so memorable 30 years later suggests that the rest of the time, we were singing songs from my tradition as a default.

Unlike some people, I don’t pine for those days. However, the shift in our culture means that it’s our job—church and family—to teach Christmas carols to our children. I want my kids to know all three verses of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” I want them to know both tunes for “Away in a Manger” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” They aren’t going to to get that immersion if we limit Christmas carols to Christmastide. (Also, many of our families are traveling during winter break, and while they will attend Christmas Eve services, attending Sunday services while on vacation is not as certain, to say the least. So kids may not get exposed to some of these hymns in worship at all.)

4. The musical reason: As pastor of a small church, I agree with David R. Ray, who urges small-church pastors to choose songs that their people know how to sing—even if those hymns may be a bit old-fashioned or have some iffy theology. In a large church, you’ve got a big choir or a critical mass of people who can carry an unfamiliar hymn. Not so in a small church. A beloved hymn well sung is a more joyful noise to the Lord then a theologically impeccable hymn that people fumble their way through. And few hymns are as familiar and beloved as Christmas carols. (That’s not to say that we don’t teach new ones, but the familiar ones are the spoonful of sugar that help the new ones go down.)

5. The pastoral reason: This one probably doesn’t need to be discussed, but: Life is difficult, for a great many people. Folks are hassled, grieved, cranky. It costs me so little to choose Christmas carols in December, and people really appreciate it. Not because they are spiritually shallow and impatient, and if only they got Advent they would love it as much as we clergy do! Because they know the carols well and singing them brings them joy. Because Christmas hymns connect them with loved ones long gone. And the words are powerful. The “dawn of redeeming grace”? Goose bumps, baby!

In short, it is not kowtowing to culture to sing Christmas carols when people long to sing them. It is pastorally sensitive. (I’ll take the “kowtowing to culture” argument a lot more seriously when I hear about churches singing “Silver Bells” or “Frosty the Snowman.” Until then, I’m going to say that three verses of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” IS counter-cultural, even on December 12.)

6. The evangelistic reason: December is a pretty well-attended month of the church year. People want to be in church. It is a good time to be attentive to visitors. As such, it is an act of hospitality to choose familiar hymns. Newcomers may not know what the heck a doxology is, and darnit, the church does a different version of the Lord’s Prayer than the one they know, but, whew!, they can join in on “Angels We Have Heard on High.”

OK… I’m ready to hear your counter-arguments.

Image: I mean, just look at Snap, Crackle and Pop in that picture. Do you think they’d look so joyful if they were singing “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”?

More on Advent

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The great discussion on the previous post spurred some additional thinking. I started to comment there but it got too long and well, it’s my blog :-)

Teri made an excellent point about Advent providing space for grief. That is huge. I almost decided that Advent is essential for that reason alone. Almost, but not quite.

Having reflected on it more: I think that reduces Advent too much. It almost becomes a mood rather than a theological moment or spiritual season. Yes, Advent is decked in purple and expressed in minor key, but not entirely. (I like the shift to blue, myself.)

Advent is about preparation, and yes, preparation is about expectations that have not yet been fulfilled, which can bring pain. But waiting can also be deeply joyful. We wait in confidence for God’s action in the world, knowing that it is coming. A lot of people gripe about the Advent hymns, and I don’t think it’s because they are unfamiliar—they aren’t; many churches have been doing Advent for decades. Rather I think people complain because some of the hymns are melancholy and brooding. Others don’t resonate well in 21st century December, with talk of deserts and gloomy clouds of night and six-winged seraphs, ever more and ever more.

Here’s what I’m saying: Waiting means something different to the couple that’s been in the throes of infertility for two years, and has just suffered another disappointment, than it does for the couple whose baby is due next week. It is good for them to be sensitive to one another, sure, and the church has to make room for both. But waiting isn’t always decked in purple and played in minor key.

And at the same time, Christmas—the fulfillment of the promise of God’s love being birthed in the world in a particular way—is often joyful, yes, but it can also be deeply reflective, quiet, and even tenuous. It’s “Joy to the World” and “Still, Still, Still.” What does it mean that Love is already here? How are we to live? Those are introspective questions. They are convicting questions. They should evoke a bit of fear and trembling.

I totally agree that Advent can be a corrective to the jingly jangly cheer that is so jarring, and even hurtful, to people who just aren’t feeling it. But Christmas can be that corrective too. There are ways to minister to the brokenhearted while also preaching Christmas. True Christmas, not the storebought version.

I think this relates to the other comment I especially loved, on the importance of patience.

“Right this very minute” is exactly what our culture is telling us. We are unhappy or depressed as you say because what we want we can’t have right now. (stable economy, healthy home prices, low unemployment numbers, etc.) And as much as we want the kingdom to be fully present on earth, it is not. For some reason, God is making us wait.

That is the message that the church needs to proclaim during the Advent season. Some things are worth waiting for…love cannot be hurried…be patient.

It seems that we as a country need that message more than ever, and the church has the opportunity during Advent to live into that.

This is one of the best articulations of the need for Advent that I’ve read.

I guess I would say in response though: The economy will still be bad on December 25. Home prices will still be bad. The kingdom will not have come, whatever that means to us. There’s nothing magical about December 25. It is a human construct. So we’ll do Advent, and then Christmas will come… and then what? We’re still waiting. Unless Christmas is about something more fundamental and life-giving, and if it is fundamental and life-giving, then withholding that message is not helpful, it’s borderline cruel.

I guess it all comes down to how we ‘diagnose’ the culture. I agree that by and large we are an impatient people, and maybe, perhaps, “Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart” is what is needed. I am as concerned as anyone about the instant gratification culture we seem to live in.

But this year, for some reason, I am inclined to trust that people really do know what they need. This leaning towards Christmas is the culture’s way of saying “We are ready for some good news, NOW.” This year, I’m feeling more inclined to respond by hitting the already of the Christmas story, more than the not yet.

Forget “wait for the Lord,” I’m hearing strains of “Be thou my vision.” Let’s do some realized eschatology: Where is Christ already come? Where has Love gained a foothold in your life today? Where is the light breaking in right now? Those are good questions that can be engaged in worship and education, even if the Chrismon tree is still stuck in mothballs.

I’m kinda with Rumi anyway: how much can we really prepare for this message anyway? “There is no getting ready, other than grace.”

Image: this came up in a search for Advent Calendar. Delightfully random.

Checking Out Some Christmas Anecdata

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Many of us lament the premature arrival of Christmas decorations in stores. You can buy Christmas trees and lights from CostCo just days after Labor Day. Things start to heat up even more by mid-November, and by the Friday after Thanksgiving, it is ON.

I don’t have anything concrete to back this up, but it seems even worse this year. Christmas is popping up everywhere, to the point that Thanksgiving won’t be the beginning of the Christmas season, but instead a holiday within it.

This is to be expected on some level. If the economy is still pokey, then stores are going to want to hasten the arrival of the shopping season. It is to their advantage to create a sense of urgency, and to make the season as long as possible. And don’t misunderstand me—I think it’s problematic to get sucked into that.

But what I’m especially interested in is the arrival of Christmas in individual homes. I have a number of friends who have already begun the Christmas season. Their tree is up. They’re listening to Christmas music. Shopping is well underway (though perhaps that’s nothing new—some of us just like to get it done early).

I say this not to judge. I’m just curious about it, and wonder if others have noticed this. It’s purely anecdotal stuff. But if I’m right, it makes sense. The country seems depressed to me. Someone said to me today, “Obama has not done a good job as Cheerleader in Chief.” And this is someone who is very supportive of the President generally. You can argue that that’s not his primary job—maybe it’s our job as members of a community. Maybe it’s my job, and the job of other spiritual leaders.

But we are in need of some cheer.

And maybe the longing for Christmas is wrapped up in all of this.

It won’t surprise you to hear that I’m not an Advent purist. I get the point of Advent, and agree that spiritual preparation helps us not get carried away in a wave of kitschy detritus and overconsumption. There’s something nice about not jumping the gun. There’s something lovely in letting the moment ripen.

On the other hand, I think when we the Theologically Correct insist on purity (no Christmas music until X, no tree until Y), when we hold Christmas back with a whip and a chair, because it’s good for us, darnit!… then we are missing something. I agree with Tom Are of Village Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, who said a few years back, “I just don’t think any more that the church gets to tell the culture what time it is. That just doesn’t connect with people.”

If what I’m noticing is a larger trend, it would seem that we need a little Christmas… right this very minute.

And if that’s the case… then is a slavish adherence to Advent prophetic, or just out of step with what is deeply needed?

Christmas and Simplicity

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Robert and I had our monthly calendar/planning conversation on Tuesday… ok, we only manage to do it every three months or so, but hey, gotta start somewhere! During these conversations we sit with a couple of glasses of wine, reflect on the previous month (or three), and decide what our priorities will be for the next month (or three). We dipped briefly into Advent and Christmas, and I realized that it’s not too soon to set some intentions for that busy time. Especially with kids, and especially as a pastor, you blink and it’s over.

We’re planning to do the Advent Conspiracy as a study at church, and in its wisdom, the session decided to start the study a week before Advent actually begins. ‘Cause if you’re going to talk about spending less and giving more gifts of service and time, it’s too late to start that discussion on November 28. The wheels are in motion by then.

I struggle with Christmas every year, and have written a lot about that in various places. Our house is not overloaded with toys, and we don’t buy them at random times during the year. So Christmas is a time when we replenish our supplies, along with birthdays, which are all within a couple months of Christmas.

But I’m not completely comfortable with that.

According to the Advent Conspiracy folks, Americans spend $450 billion on Christmas each year. By contrast, it would take $10 billion to ensure that everyone in the world has access to clean drinking water (which is the AC movement’s mission of choice). Those figures could be wildly exaggerated on either end and it would still be a sobering statistic.

We did The Hundred Dollar Holiday for several years, until time became more scarce than money. But we still try to be intentional and thoughtful about the gifts we give, and we do alternative gifts, donations to charity, etc. We don’t give just for the sake of giving, though we have some family members who are notoriously hard to buy for. My personal theology is that it all works out. Some years, we might find the perfect object that would bring joy, other years not; and in those cases, an alternative gift would be given.

That’s what I believe… but I’m not there in practice.

I’ve been enjoying Rowdy Kittens, a blog about about “social change through simple living.” A recent post talked about how the author keeps Christmas. She is not religious, but she does observe the holiday as a sort of feast day/celebration with family.

A couple of things struck me. The first is a discussion in the comments about how to handle loved ones who do give a lot of gifts, when you don’t. One person said he gave away the gifts he received and eventually people got the message that he didn’t want to receive gifts. This got me thinking about the spirit in which we receive gifts. What does it mean to receive something graciously, even if it’s something you don’t want or need? I have no doubt that our loved ones will get a message if we consistently give their gifts away, but what message is it? That we didn’t want gifts, or that tangible expressions of the giver’s love and affection were not welcome? (Standard disclaimer that I do not know the people involved. I am only musing here.)

The other thing that struck me is the author’s recommendation to contribute to a child’s college fund or charity in lieu of gifts because “with children, they likely won’t remember a single toy you give them.” I have to say, that is just not true in my experience. Kids remember gifts. Maybe not every single one, but sure, big or unusual ones, definitely.

Here is one of the inconvenient truths of the simplicity movement.

There is magic in the new bike under the tree with the pink streamers and strawberry pattern on the seat. There is magic in that first brand-new stereo. There is even magic in the first 15 Sweet Valley High books! These are all things that I received as a kid, remember vividly, and was wildly happy with. And I don’t consider myself particularly materialistic. Receiving gifts is not one of my primary love languages (though I do enjoy them).

I’m not saying you can’t experience the spirit of Christmas in other ways—sure you can, and that can be a fun challenge—but people often remember what they’re given. I even write down the gifts we receive each year, along with things we did, what we had for Christmas dinner, etc.—and those lists are capable of transporting me to a particular time and place.

That’s because we are embodied beings, beings who collect stuff. Yes, most of us have too much stuff. Yes, our acquisitiveness is destroying the planet and can destroy us spiritually. Yes, I’m tired of plasticrap toys from China. But I’m with Michael Lindvall, who wrote recently in the Christian Century that the problem isn’t that we’re too materialistic, but that we’re not materialistic enough. Our stuff is cheap and disposable, when it should be precious and infused with meaning. “God,” Robert Farrar Capon once quipped, “is the biggest materialist there is. He invented stuff. . . . He likes it even better than we do.”

Lindvall:

We acquire things, but then quickly tire of the things that seemed so important when first obtained. We replace rather than repair because we have such fickle and passing romances with our things. The real soul danger is not exactly in liking things too much, nor in owning them, nor in caring for them well. In fact, there can be great virtue in such a caring relationship with physical things.

The soul danger lies in the insatiable longing to acquire new things one after another, more and more things, as if the getting of them somehow proves our worth in comparison with others, as if the having of them can fill the emptiness. It’s this insatiable drive to acquire stuff rather than the stuff itself that’s the problem.

Amen.

So what do we do about Christmas?