Hymns of Heaven

      If there is anything that puts us in a Christmas frame of mind more than the aromas (baking, pine, candles) it has got to be music.  It’s everywhere, and it is a powerful emotional trigger, like tastes and smells of the season.

      We are starting to hum or sing along with Christmas hymns when we hear them. Of course, worship planners like me and Bill Cowdery try to minimize true Christmas hymns and emphasize the classic Advent hymns during Advent, but we even we can’t help it during the last few weeks before Christmas!  Then there are wall-to-wall Christmas carols everywhere you go.  Some are familiar ones celebrating Jesus’ birth that aren’t exactly churchy, and some are the silly songs enjoyed by children about reindeer and snow people and sleigh bells.  Some, like Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song and the Karlofian You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch just don’t quite fit any category but bring a smile.  Seasonal good fun.

      Until advertisers get a hold of them.  Each year there are cringe-worthy remakes or re-uses of holiday music to sell all sorts of… ….all sorts of….  of “stuff.”  I don’t talk back at the TV often, but those I complain to the screen about!  And the thing that really gets me snarling are Christmas hymns bastardized by advertisers.  This year’s horrible, very bad, misuse of Do You Hear What I Hear has me shouting, “Really?” during the ad.  I guess my line in the sand is that if it’s in a hymnal, it shouldn’t be used to sell things!  Not that JCPenney is taking my advice on anything.

      Such aberrations actually don’t bother me much because the power and the glory and the refreshment for the soul brought by so much Christmastide music is far more wonderful.  Little kids singing the simple children’s hymns remind us of the whole point of the Christ Child’s birth.  And that shining moment in history has inspired some of the greatest and most substantial music of generations of composers.

      This Sunday the First Congregational choir and guests will be sharing Vivaldi’s Gloria in worship.
           
            Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will towards all.
            We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee.
            We give thanks to thee for thy great glory
            O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.
            O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
            For thou only art holy; thou only art the Lord;
            thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost,
            art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

    I truly hope you can attend this week so you can get the right sort of music running around in your head to displace all the silly songs!

    And then, I hope you will invite your family, friends, and even acquaintances to our Christmas Eve candlelight worships (family service at 6pm and traditional service at 8:30pm).  That’s when we all join the heavenly chorus, echoing their joyous strains: Gloria in excelsis Deo.

                                                                           In the true Spirit of Christmas,

                                                                                      
                                                                                           David



 
Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible         Isaiah 11:1-10
      From the Epistles                Romans 15:4-13