The beauty, richness, and diversity of our liturgical and musical life
at St. Mary's right now has my heart and soul so full of gratitude and almost overwhelmed by all of the beauty and loveliness in so many ways.Our liturgies this Advent season have, while being grounded in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition, included a variety of resources to help us get to the heart of what I like to call a "spirituality of Advent." Our Rector, Patrick's, preaching has, I believe, helped us to see how our lives, especially in these seemingly dark days, are Advent-ful if we but take the time to pay attention. Advent, I thnk, is more relevant now than ever.These liturgies, this preaching, and the music we have made together in the midst of it all, have really been working on me this Advent. During a time when I have often felt overwhelmed and dismayed by everything going on in the church and the world I am thankful that I haven't been able to get away from Advent. The relentless Advent refrain of hope and expectation is, I think, one of the things that has most helped me keep going.Today I feel like I got a splendid glimpse of the hope and expectation of Advent - the waiting and yearning for a time when God will be all in all, in the culmination of some of our Advent activities and preparations for Christmas. This Advent we've be singing as the Fraction Anthem, "God of promise, you have prepared a banquet for us. Happy are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb." This is one of those times when, in the midst of the daily grind of being a church musician, I feel like I've been graced with a little glimpse of heaven.Today: A Taize Eucharist with our Parish Choir and an intergenerational group of nearly 10 instrumentalists leading us in worship followed by assembling 200 or so sack lunches to help feed hungry people, and, in just over an hour from now, our children's Christmas pageant.
Next Sunday the Parish Choir sings Herbert Sumsion's Magnificat in A Major and our section leaders will sing Hans Leo Hassler's Dixit Maria. In the midst of all of that we'll chant the Magnificat to the gorgeous Tonus peregrinus and sing Rory Cooney's powerful paraphrase of the Magnificat, Canticle of the Turning, set to the rollicking Irish tune Star of the County Down.On Christmas Eve, in addition to tons of carols, the Gospel Choir and friends will sing at the 4:30pm liturgy and offer Andre Thomas' Here's a Pretty Little Baby and Lynn Trapp's setting of The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy. At the 10pm Prelude/10:30pm Liturgy the Handbell Choir will ring and the Parish Choir will sing. The Parish Choir will offer Charles Wood's Ding Dong Merrily on High, Harold Darke's In the Bleak Midwinter and Bob Chilcott's ravishingly beautiful The Shepherds Sing. Also, I'm super excited that our soprano section leader will sing Herbert Howells' Come Sing and Dance.I am always humbled by the generous offering of time that our music leaders bring especially with everything else they have going on during this hectic season. The music in which all of our musicians lead us, volunteers and staff singers alike, is one of the greatest Christmas gifts I am blessed to receive.
Don't you need a little Christmas?
For several weeks now posts from people complaining that they're beginning to see Christmas/holiday decorations, commercials, etc., have been popping up in my social media feeds. And I understand the need to complain, I really do. Excessive consumerism and all that. But, the thing is, I'm a cockeyed optimist, so I'm going to try to ascribe more noble motives to the folks who are listening to Christmas music and already have their Christmas trees up, etc.We need a little Christmas, right this very minute.
Typhoons, mass shootings, broken relationships, abuse, violence---in the midst of all of this, God so loves the world that God moves right into the neighborhood with us, as a tiny vulnerable child, full of grace and truth. In the midst of the brokenness of our world, Christmas happens. The miracle and mystery of the Incarnation is something we need-- something our world needs-- all the time, not just once the Church has had a meet and right observance of the season of Advent. We are all yearning for redemption. The whole earth is groaning in labor pains. Maybe our culture somehow understands this better than the Church does. Joyful songs, giving of gifts, family gatherings and sumptuous meals. Beautiful, ornate (okay, and sometimes garish) decorations. Perhaps all of these "trappings of the season" with which people are so anxious to get going are an outward and visible sign of the truth that all of us are longing for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. Maybe our culture doesn't understand Advent, and maybe that's okay. But our culture certainly knows how to get started early on Christmas and it may be that folks in the Church could have a little more fun with that and try to see where Christ might be in the midst of it.
My favorite season of the Church Year is Advent-- I love everything about it- the hymns, Advent Lessons and Carols, the Collects from the Book of Common Prayer, Advent Wreaths, etc., and I definitely think we should stick to Advent during Advent in our liturgical life as Church. But, truth be told, I've already got Christmas music running through my head, and that's not just because I started planning Christmas music for Church months ago. We just bought a new Christmas tree and are planning to put it up this weekend. I'll probably start listening to Christmas music in the car soon. In the midst of this chaotic and often confusing world, I feel like I need a little Christmas, right this very minute. Even so, I'm thankful that we'll be hearing this passage from Isaiah on this "2nd Sunday before Advent" as it speaks to the longing that I believe is at the heart of all of our too early pre-Christmas hysteria:Isaiah 65:17-25For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD--and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent-- its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.Here's Joe Mattingly's "On that holy mountain," one of my favorite pieces of music to pair with this text, and one that we'll be singing on Sunday at All Saints' Episcopal Church.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmzsbSb_XE&w=560&h=315]