Column for Friday Dec. 2

For many Christians this is the season of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. For churches that note Advent, we get caught in a bit of a cultural bind. I think Santa appeared at the Alton mall in mid November, and the twinkling lights of Christmas cheer are already decorating houses. When do we decorate the church? When do we start singing Christmas songs? Actually, some hold that we should not sing Christmas songs until Christmas Eve and then sing then until or past Epiphany, the feast of the Magi on Jan. 6th. Yet, the radio stations stop playing round the clock Christmas music stop right after Christmas to coincide with the stores tearing down Christmas decorations on the 26th often. I remember a lady at one of the churches I served saying that I must hate Christmas songs because I insisted that we sing songs of Advent into the second Sunday before Christmas.

Hymns touch us deeply. Their merger of lyric and tune burrow deep within our consciousness. I have been touched when visiting a nursing home or a hospital bed, and people will request or hum softly a favored hymn. They enter so deeply into our memories that they seem to emerge unbidden, or you find yourself singing along to the music of a hymn in a shopping center or at home buying presents from the internet.

I suggest that we not only listen to favorite or even unknown Christmas hymns, but that we look at the lyrics in our hymnbooks and read them as religious poetry. Yes, I realize lyrics are not poems as they are tied to the music, but nonetheless, they offer us a window in the Yuletide world.

For instance, I love O Little Child of Bethlehem. the great Phillips Brooks. He had visited the Holy Land and wrote the words for a Christmas program and induced his organist to write the tune for it. How are the hopes and fears of all the years met in the child (v.1)? Notice in v. 2 how he makes all nature sing for the birth, as if he is not satisfied, or nature is left unsatisfied, by the angel chorus. The last two verses are wonders. Amid all of the noise of Christmas celebration, he now emphasizes silence. Meek souls, like Tiny Tim receive Jesus. That manger image continues, as he asserts that we all act as manger for the baby Jesus. Our lives are the birthing room of the spirit in his view of the Incarnation. From silence, we now hear the good news, the glad tidings of Christmas. He ends with the phrase Emmanuel. In Hebrew it means God with us. How that comes to new life and meaning when we claim the Incarnation of God’s own vision, God’s logos, message (John 1:1, 14) into “world of sin.” I would argue that we have a whole theological world summoned by these four verses, an entry point into a much deeper awareness of the depth of Christmas than greeting card could hope to convey.

Augustine famously said that singing a hymn is praying twice. I suggest that praying them again with attention to the words is an excellent spiritual practice for Advent to prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas. It’s easy to do, but you will note that a meditative air will come over you as you pause to work with the hymns and take a break from the frenzied rush of the holidays. after all, holiday comes from Old English for a holy day. Hymns provide a portal into the holy in the middle of everyday life.