I have tried, over the past thirty or so years, to hold back every church I have ever served from rushing to Christmas too quickly. What preacher reading this has not preached the "Advent teaches us how to wait" sermon? I have preached it in many forms, and would have this year if I were preaching.
So imagine myself this morning, finally putting down on paper the order of worship for our district party worship service Friday night, realizing that it will not even be Gaudete Sunday and all the music is (gasp!) Christmas music!! We have six special musical selections by six of our pastors, and when I asked them, I asked them for Christmas music, and they did just as I asked. Oh NOOO!! A liturgical faux pas!!! Imagine something even worse: I remembered telling the bishop that as he planned his sermon (yes, he is coming over Friday night) please be attentive to Advent. Yes, I do talk to the bishop like that. I know I shouldn't but I do. And not only that, he listens (most of the time ;-)) and after I realized my breach of liturgical etiquette, we received his sermon text and title: and he picked an Advent text*!*!
Actually, several liturgical issues have sprung up this week...we have an Advent wreath on the table and at least three times or so a week, the three of us eat supper together preceded by lighting of the "correct" (always correct) candle and singing the ditty from the Book of Worship: Light One Candle---Light one candle Christ is coming, Christ the Way for the world, etc. However, what Christ "is" each week changes with the weekly theme (have you noticed how many different formulas there are for what each week of Advent means)...and we have really been struggling with this second week. The first week is Way, The third week is Joy; the third one I think is peace. Maybe the first one is hope and the second one is way...that sounds more like John the Baptist and he is the second Sunday. Hmmmm...we mumble a lot around the old wreath during the second week.
Another issue: Sunday I had North Spring cc. They have this really neat thing going out near I-70. There is a wooden cross upon which they put a long colored sash, representing the season of the Christian year we are currently in, on the side. It was green Sunday. I asked them to change it. It has been awfully cold, I agree. Cerulean blue would be fine if purple doesn't suit. I thought I was in a time warp...and I am no Rocky Horror fan...
And then, I remembered something that happened to Caleb when he was in the fourth grade. His Sunday School teacher had an Advent wreath in the room, and she told the kids that the pink candle was lit on the fourth Sunday of Advent, since that was the one closest to Christmas. Caleb, son of a two liturgically astute parents, corrected her of course. She said he was wrong. He was not. I think it was when he used that Gaudete word that it might have ticked her off.
And then, I wrote Mark Hayes a "thank you" note on Sunday, thanking him for the joy I have received from playing through and playing at the arrangements of Christmas Carols I bought last weekend. He wrote me back a very sweet note, and said that he loved Christmas music too and it is a shame that we play them for only a few weeks a year. He, by the way, is playing a concert at Liberty UMC on December 23 at 2. Tickets available at the door. Couldn't let that pass. I agree with him. In fact, one of the reasons I have become a BIT less law-filled about keeping away from Christmas music till late in Advent is that our children and youth do not sing the great carols anywhere BUT church for the most part. They no longer sing them in public schools very often, and the truth is, except for athletic events and birthdays, the average Jennifer and Joshua don't sing very much at all.
We miss something essential to being human if we rush too soon to Christmas. But ... I guess it's okay to hear a few Christmas songs before the 24th. After all, we know as we wait, he is already here...
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