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December 16, 2009

Traditions of Advent - Carols

Preacher: Pastor Braun Campbell Series: Advent midweek 2009: Traditions of Advent Category: Biblical Scripture: Luke 1:46–1:55

The Third Week in Advent
St. John's
Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
Luke 1:46-55

“Traditions of Advent: Carols”

Here we come a-caroling, O Tannenbaum, to wish you a merry Christmas, a holly jolly Christmas with chestnuts roasting on an open fire!  Frosty the Snowman, to you, we bid a white Christmas – without the open fire.  And in the spirit of the season, with Good King Wenceslas, we trust that you won’t have a blue Christmas, even though you’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.  As we go over the river and through the woods on a sleigh ride with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, we hear the carol of the bells ringing in the air.

There’s a lot of music that comes along this time of the year: songs of the season.  A lot of them, including the ones that you might have just remembered, aren’t about Christmas, per se.  The Christmas-season playlist can be pretty secular.  But one of the things I like best about Advent and Christmas is the carol.  Carols are festive songs which are, generally, religious in nature.  These are songs of joy and celebration.  For me, carols really evoke a sense of the season and connect with the joy Christmas brings.

Our text from Luke 1 today is another song of joy.  You’ve probably heard it before – and sung it, as it’s part of the Holden Evening Prayer setting that we’re using for our Advent midweek services.  This is Mary’s song, traditionally called the “Magnificat,” a title derived from the opening word in the Latin Vulgate translation.  Mary’s soul magnifies God, for her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s unborn son, John, have just done something amazing:  they have recognized Mary as the mother of the Messiah.  Through her, God was coming into the world as a flesh-and-blood human being who would bring Good News.  In light of this Spirit-inspired greeting, Mary can but only respond in song – and what a song it is!

Listening to the Magnificat, you can hear the summary message of the Gospel.  God our Creator has remembered us, even though we have done nothing – indeed, we can do nothing – to make ourselves worthy of His love.  You and I, along with Mary, have been blessed through the child that she carried in her womb, Jesus.  He is the God of reversals: the mighty brought down and the humble lifted up; the hungry filled with good things and the rich sent away empty.  But Jesus worked a yet greater reversal than all these when he took away our sin and gave us his innocence.  That’s the reversal from which our Advent hope moves forward in song.

When we sing Christmas carols, we’re proclaiming the same Good News that Mary sang in the Magnificat.  The joy that God plants in forgiven hearts springs up in musical exclamations, songs which can speak to those who most need to hear the message of renewal and hope that our Father offers through His Son.  In the weeks ahead, the carols of Advent and Christmas can open up opportunities to share that message even as we hear it again ourselves.  Going, singing, we recall that God is indeed the God of reversals, doing great things through a poor virgin two thousand years ago, great things which transform us today.

Once in royal David’s city, the first noel – a silent night – brought joy to the world.  It came upon a midnight clear:  angels from the realms of glory appeared while shepherds watched their flocks by night.  “Do you hear what I hear?  Hark, the herald angels sing!”  They would enter that little town of Bethlehem, proclaiming, “Angels we have heard on high, who sang ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen!’”  O holy night, away in a manger, in which God proclaims, “From heaven above to earth I come,” and the world would ask, “I wonder as I wander:  what child is this?”

With the little drummer boy, we offer and receive the gift of music in these last days of Advent.  We have heard the message of the Magnificat, the message of the Gospel of Jesus, the Messiah, Son of God and son of Mary.  He has answered our prayer of “O come, o come, Emmanuel.”  He who is mighty has done great things for us, and holy is His Name, for He forgives our sin and gives us His peace.

O come, all ye faithful, let us go tell it on the mountain!

Amen.

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