I don’t know about you, but I want my kids growing up thinking that some of the things we do this time year are normal…even if they’re not. Singing and celebrating for weeks (Advent) is better than singing and celebrating for one day (Christmas). If the Incarnation of Christ is a big deal, it’s worth meditating on for weeks every year. We celebrate Advent with activities and little presents and parties all the season long, because I want them to grow up associating this time of year with fun memories and purposeful anticipation of Christmas.
Of course the songs we sing play a role in this, too. The second year of the school’s existence was the school year 2013-2014. I was teaching Omnibus II and in the first quarter of the school year we had studied the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed has a lot in it about Jesus, the second Person of the Godhead, as the Council of Nicaea was very concerned to address the heresy of Arianism. They established orthodoxy on the person of Christ with these words:
“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.”
Imagine the fun weeks later when my students and I arrived at verse 2 of “O Come, All Ye Faithful:”
“God of God, Light of Light,
lo, He abhors not the virgin’s womb;
very God, begotten not created;
O come, let us adore Him,” etc.
Studying the Creeds helped me to better understand why the hymn writer saw fit to set this theology to music in order that we may rehearse it every Christmas.
Incidentally, this is another reason why we almost always sing all the verses of the psalms and hymns at school: there are hidden theological gems among some of the lesser-known verses.
Have you ever noticed too, that a bunch of our Advent hymns focus on the second Advent of Jesus (aka, the “Second Coming of Christ”), while we sing them remembering His first Advent?
This is because traditionally Advent served a dual purpose of 1) getting people ready to celebrate the first Advent of Jesus (at Christmas), and 2) getting people ready for the second Advent of Jesus. Many of the hymns we sing reflect this, and we should cheerfully lean into it. I’d encourage you to pay attention when singing Advent hymns this year, as you get ready for Christmas Day.
Celebrating Advent is fitting as the occasions we celebrate and anticipate are also a big deal. It is appropriate to extend the celebration to include the four Sundays leading up to Christmas because it’s too little to restrict it to one day.
So whether it’s singing or partying or watching It’s a Wonderful Life or The Grinch (2018 version!), THINK about what you’re doing, make it fun, and do it on purpose.
Merry Christmas!
Jonathan (or the U.H.)