Like Those Who Dreamed

Luke 1:46-56

Whew! The annual liturgical battle is almost done – the battle of whether or not to sing Christmas carols before Christmas Eve. You may not be aware that we have been breaking the Advent rules when we sing songs about Christmas BEFORE Christmas. During Advent, only Advent songs are supposed to be sung – songs of waiting and longing – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.

It is such a hotly debated controversy that one pastor wrote on his blog: “The other day I was mentioning how much I treasure the season of Advent. I especially appreciate the counter-cultural move of refraining from singing Christmas carols until the season of Christmas…. Before that we sing in longing, we sing in expectancy, we sing in preparation….When I mentioned my delight in marking time during Advent a student at the theological school asked: ‘What do you say to those who want to sing Christmas carols during Advent.’ My immediate response was: ‘I invite them to look for another congregation.’ I didn’t mean it flippantly.”

Trying to understand such a serious debate over this tradition, I tried to find how or why this tradition started, and I found an article titled “Singing Advent verses Singing Christmas” with three articles linked: A Modest Proposal for Advent/Christmas Peace, What to Do About Advent, and The Advent War. All three links led to a page that said, “Oops. Page not found.” I couldn’t find anything about why or when this prohibitive tradition started, either. For many years, I followed the tradition in preparing Advent worship services. However, while it is important to prepare and anticipate Christ’s coming, to light candles of the hope, peace, joy, and love that our world needs and Christ brings, I am not convinced that we shouldn’t sing about Jesus’s coming before we celebrate his birth on Christmas.

The surface level reason is that singing Christmas carols only during Christmas means we only sing them 12 days of the year – from Christmas Day (most everyone agrees Christmas Eve is ok because of the tradition of midnight worship) until Epiphany on January 6th. If we followed the rules, we would be able to sing Christmas carols this year beginning at tonight’s Christmas Eve service, and next Sunday. That’s it. Maybe 6 carols, each sung once a year? At that rate, it would take us 8 years to sing all of the Christmas carols in our current hymnal ONCE.

A deeper reason is that if we don’t sing these songs, we won’t know these songs and our children and grandchildren won’t know these songs. I can tell you that almost everyone in the Farmington family will sing along on a Christmas carol – even if they aren’t much on singing – because we know them. And singing is important. Singing is not just an opportunity to stand up and have a break from talking in worship.

Two things happen when we sing:
1. When we sing together, our hearts are unified by a natural phenomenon called entrainment. Our hearts actually resonate in synch with one another in response to the vibration of our singing and our heart rates become similar.
2. When we sing, the words we sing shape who we are and what we believe more than any spoken word ever can. Singing engages our minds and our emotions.
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” – Mild, he lays his glory by, humbling himself, setting aside the glory of the Eternal God, to be born that we no more may die, born to give us second birth.”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” – No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still, the dear Christ enters in.
“Angels We Have Heard on High” – come, adore on bended knee Christ, the Lord, Gloria in excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

These are the phrases that bring us hope when we are weary. They are the melodies that give us peace in the midst of a world of injustices. They are songs of joy in response to God who comes to us, God who is with us. These carols reverberate within us with God’s love.

For “Love Has Come! A light in the darkness! …Of the Father’s love begotten…Son of God, love’s pure light radiant beams from thy holy face,…and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love and wonders, wonders of his love.”

When Mary sang, “My soul doth magnify the Lord…” she wasn’t making up the words. She was singing a song she had sung her whole life long that had now become her song. First Samuel chapter 2 records the song. Hannah, more than 1,000 years before, before the Temple in Jerusalem, had sung this song to God. Hannah had been barren and prayed diligently to have a child. She promised that if she was able to have a son, she would dedicate him to service for God. And she had a son named Samuel, and when he was 3, she took him to Eli, the priest, and he lived at the Temple at Shiloh with Eli and grew up. Samuel is the one who anointed David to be King. Now Mary sings Hannah’s song as she bears the King who is a shoot off of the stump of the line of Davidic kings.
She is like those who dreamed that God’s promises would be fulfilled. God is going to restore God’s people. She remembers that God has done great things, and she is filled with hope. As she sings, she and Elizabeth stand together, hands clasped, as they feel John kicking and summersaulting in Elizabeth’s belly, their mouths are filled with laughter, their tongues with songs of joy. Yet, Mary is singing of a very different world than the one she is living in.

It had not been many years – less than 10 – since there was a series of uprisings throughout Galilee. It all started in Mary’s hometown, Sepphoris when a son of Ezekias, named Judas, and his comrades broke into the royal palace, stole their weapons, and attacked the occupying Roman forces. James Tabor tells about what happened in The Jesus Dynasty: “Romans reacted quickly and with overwhelming force. The Roman governor of Syria, Publius QUintillius Varus, led three legions from Syria to brutally crush the opposition to Roman Rule. As many as 20,000 troops poured into the country from the north, burnt Sepphoris to the ground, and sent its inhabitants into slavery as punishment for their participation in the outbreaks. Venus rounded up rebels all over the country and crucified 2,000 men who had participated in the revolt. The trauma in Galilee must have been dreadful, with dying men nailed to crosses at intervals up and down the main roads or on hillsides visible to all who passed.”

And Mary sings, “The Mighty One has scattered those who are proud. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” She sings these words because God has, God can, and God will act. Mary knows that God has the power to accomplish the prayers of her song even in the midst of the weary world she is living in.

Each Sunday of Advent at the end of the service we have sung, “My heart shall sing of the day you bring, Let the fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.” What promise of God do you dream of being fulfilled? Do you dream of no more tears and no reason for tears? For no more pain and no one causing pain? For no one to go hungry or die from lack of clean water? For people to act with integrity and fairness? Honesty and justice? For creatures to live in peace with one another and with creation? For love to be the only rule?

Like Mary, we sing of a very different world at Christmas than the one we are living in.

This Christmas, may we be like those who dreamed that God’s promises would be fulfilled. May we join Mary as Christ-bearers singing “My soul glorifies God. My spirit celebrates God, who comes and is my Savior! Though I’m only a humble servant of God, God has noticed me. God has noticed you. God loves me. God loves you. God is “for” me. God is “for” you. God has done great things for us and has been faithful for generations. As promised to our ancestors, as has been done for our ancestors, so God promises for us and through us. The world is weary – it was then, it is now. Let us prepare the way. Come, Lord Jesus, come.