a season of singing

During revolution's worship gatherings this advent (at least until this last sunday), we sang very few "christmas" songs. We sang ones of anticipation (O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Come Thou Long Expected Jesus) - but not the ones of celebration. . .trying to build up that sense of longing, holding back while the radios and stores drown us in rudolf and 'santa baby,' letting loose on Christmas Eve and the Sunday after with all our favorite Christmas carols. Apparently, people have noticed. One folded anonymous prayer request card came to me last week with the plea: "Play Christmas songs."

I must confess - while I know what's "advent appropriate," I too want to hear Christmas music. This last month our radio at home has been host to many Dean Martin songs, as well as plenty of Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music. There's something deeper, though, about singing. Singing is a deeper risk, a bolder cry than listening or speaking or praying silently. I remember a theology professor who loved to quote Augustine - "when you sing once, you pray twice." Indeed - singing seems to stir the soul. Whether it's the public, playful, and protesting kind of singing (like we did down at the plaza - see below) or an intimate, candlelight caroling - the deep darkness and hope and joy of christmas seem to summon singing. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus' birth is surrounded and swaddled in song - from Zecharaiah (John the Baptist's father) who sings the Benedictus, to Mary's Magnificat, to the Angels anthems - everyone is breaking out in subversive song about the coming of a Savior.

Our pastor in Texas (Dorisanne Cooper) wrote recently, "I've been wondering lately if there is any way to really understand what God is up to in the world without singing about it. And if the goals for us all shouldn't be to continue to sing until we embody it, too. May our singing this season move us ever onward toward that goal."

This is why we sang carols last Saturday down at the Plaza. We sang not believing that we were going to change the busy shoppers; we sang hoping that we were singing ourselves into a different perspective and freedom, a different vision and hope for Christmas. This is why I'm longing for a Christmas Eve gathering of not only listening to the Christmas story, but singing it into being.