Advent 2024: Fri 6 Dec
What happened to Advent?
Advent is the new Christmas! Christmas is being celebrated in Advent when we hold carol services before Christmas has arrived! (I do admit that I’m reflecting on carols in Advent.)
Advent is a time that serves a double purpose, which may get neglected in our stampede towards Christmas. We look “forward” to the arrival of Jesus, but let’s not forget the return of Jesus. In this we have real hope, not the celebration or commemoration of the past hope of the longed-for infant Jesus. This is the living hope expressed in our Apostle's Creed – he will come again to judge the living and the dead; or even better, in the Nicene creed in the Communion Service – he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
It seems good to me that every Carol Service held in the Advent season should contain one or more Advent hymns like these:
O come, O come, Emmanuel. What more fitting hymn to remind us that Jesus is our long-expected Messiah?
Hills of the North, rejoice. I sang this as a child. It is a great hymn of shared expectation.
Lo! He comes with clouds descending. This hymn looks forward to the long-expected return of Christ in glory.
Sleepers, wake! A song that reminds us to be ready for Christ’s return. I suppose it could be argued that a song like this can be sung at any time, as can carols, but the seasonality of our God-given year span helps us to concentrate on specific themes at specific times.
And perhaps we might be getting ahead of ourselves when we sing Epiphany hymns in Advent! We three Kings. Of course, this is part of the Christmas story, or is it? How old was Jesus when the Magi appeared? They may form part of the traditional Nativity tableau but they were hardly likely to have been there with the shepherds, coming much later to where the family were living.
There is no clear definition of what a carol is. A carol is verse with music but is not exclusively bound to Christmas or to Christian themes. Anyway, most of our best Christmas Carols are hymns?
Put your own words in:
https://youtu.be/iO7ySn-Swwc?si=j5l-E_d647PolvnD
Paul