So I've always loved Christmas music. I get this from my dad, who would start to listen to Christmas music in August if my mother would let him. As it is, we both have adopted Thanksgiving weekend as the official start to Christmas music season.
One thing that I'm recognizing as I listen to Christmas music this week is that more than ever I'm drawn to music that mingles the joy of Christmas with a tone of longing or waiting. "O Come, O Come, Immanuel" has long been one of my favorite Christmas songs. I find myself more than ever longing for music of that ilk.
There seems to be two extreme poles that you could land on during Christmas. On the one hand is a sloppy sentimentalism that glosses over all that's hard or difficult about life or this season in particular. On the other hand is a cynical, nihilistic despair and hopelessness that is equally lazy about engaging all that is good or hopeful about life or this season in particular.
Christian theologians have coined a sweet phrase for the tension that I want to live in during this Christmas season: the already and the not yet. Christmas has already come. Christ has already come, lived, died and rose again. Death and sin and Satan have all been conquered. It is already done.
And yet it is not yet done in terms of our experience of these things. We still wrestle with sin, death, sadness and Satan. Christ has come and he will come again. We live in the time in-between. All the relief and victory that we long to experience has already been secured for us but it has not yet been experienced in all the fullness of joy that we long for.
So I want to live in the already and the not yet this Christmas faithfully, neither lilting towards sentimentalism on the one hand nor hardened cynicism or apathy on the other. There is much to be joyful about: Christ has come! There is much to long for: Christ will come again!
So we celebrate the reality that Christmas is all about the good news of the God who comes to get us. And we also continue to cry out: come, Lord Jesus! And I find that I'm aided in that journey by music that strikes the note of both sides of this coin: the joy of the coming of the Messiah, and the longing for his final return to make all things new, all things well.
3 comments:
O Come, O Come Emmanuel is also one of my favorite Christmas songs. And I actually just wrote a blog post about it, if you want to check it out: http://ambarbee.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/christmas-list/
You really are becoming an Anglican! Lots of folks at our Episcopal church do not put up Christmas trees, lights, etc. until the actual day of Christmas. And before Christmas, they only listen to Advent music - songs such as O Come, O Come, Emmanuel that describe longing and waiting. Christmas Day and following (12 days of Christmas?!), they then enjoy the happy, rejoicing Christmas music.
Pretty intense, eh? I suppose having such traditions really builds a longing and an anticipation of Jesus' birth/2nd coming instead of launching straight into celebrating the "Christmas season" as soon as Thanksgiving is over.
Amy
hey, check out amanda's blog to those of you who read these comments, a great post there!
and amy, i'm trying hard to not become a psycho-anglican-advent nazi. there's some great stuff in there about the patient expectancy and looking ahead and longing and then 12 days of celebrating christmas--i love the heart and intent. i'm learning a lot by being in the tradition.
but when people get rabid about it (as they so often do with any tradition that has the power to bless--see what happened to sabbath laws by the time jesus showed up) it's just more angry legalism. the tree is set up, we've got decorations around the house, Christmas music is playing, all that stuff. but i'm working on cultivating the heart and mind that the whole advent thing is supposed to be about.
Post a Comment