Terry and I generally get our Christmas tree around the third Sunday of Advent, as we did this year. One of our traditions is that we put up the tree to the sound of “Need a Little Christmas.” But the version we play is different from most others. It was done by Alliance, a musical group of three gay men in the late 1980′s, two of whom were lost to AIDS in the ensuing years. Perhaps in deference to the epidemic, the song does not start out with an upbeat “Haul out the holly…” but rather with a slower, almost somber tone, that calls out the words:
For we’ve grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older,
And I need a little angel
Sitting on my shoulder,
Need a little Christmas now.
Only then does it shift into the traditional upbeat rhythm. I find this version somehow appropriate. It reflects on our mortality for a moment, but then shifts into a joyful celebration of the season.
But wait. Whatever version, “Need a Little Christmas” on Advent 3? I would be drummed out of the corps of the Advent police for that, wouldn’t I?
Well, so be it. I can handle that.
Listen to the Alliance version. You’ll want to turn up the volume, as this was recorded at a fairly low level.
One of the things I liked about the Lutheran Church was that the color used for Advent is blue rather than purple. The idea was to represent Advent as less a penitential season and more of a season of preparation and expectation. This was first instituted in the Lutheran Book of Worship which was published in 1978.
In the Episcopal Church, of course following the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, purple is still the color. I’m not exactly in love with the somber Kyrie we have been singing on Sunday mornings at St. John’s this Advent. It’s appropriate if you look at Advent as a penitential season, but it just doesn’t seem to me quite right for Advent. In his sermon for Advent 2, Fr. Phil explicitly said, and I paraphrase remembering as best I can, that Advent is a penitential season where we let go of the things, good and bad, that get in the way of our being ready for the coming of the Christ.
That does make sense. But my spiritual director suggested that I look at purple not as a penitential color but as signifying awaiting the coming of royalty. I like that. It takes me back to preparation and expectation, which is what I think Advent should be all about.
We were talking about information overload long before Facebook and RSS Feeds. You know what it’s like now. I have all of my thoughtful and literate Episcopal, Catholic, Unitarian, Quaker, and more Facebook friends who provide links to intelligent and thought-provoking blogs and essays. Then there’s the blogs I read directly with my RSS Reader. Unless I make a note of something of interest when I see it chances of finding it later are small.
Such was the case with a blog I saw earlier this week. The writer had a number of suggestions about how to make Advent more meaningful. Most were in line with the Advent ideal of preparation, but one caught me by surprise. He said pull out your collection of Christmas music early, listen to it, and add to it each year.
That set off my Advent snob alarm. “You’re not supposed to do that!” But, as my spiritual director once reminded me, I am not the Advent police. (And Fr. Phil had plenty to say about the Advent police yesterday.)
And really, why not do that? If it helps put us into the spirit of the season and prepare for the returning of the Light, why shouldn’t we?
What I’ve decided to work on this year: stop being an Advent snob.
Last September I quoted Rachel Barenblat, the Velveteen Rabbi, who had some profound and useful words for Rosh Hashanah. I said I was going to remember them come Advent, and I am remembering them now.
I’d like to invite each of us to cherish the memories which bring us joy, and to release the memories which bring us pain. To let go of the vision of what we imagined these holidays would be, and embrace instead whatever they actually are.
I want to bless you that you might find the connections, the insights, and the spiritual richness you need, in whatever your experience of [these days] may be.
It's been fourteen years since I've been in a Lessons and Carols service. The very first time I walked into All Saints' Palo Alto on a Sunday morning was in December, and it so happened that they were doing Lessons and Carols. We did Lessons and Carols yesterday at St. John the Divine.
It was a bit different than my first experience. At All Saints' we simply alternated hymns sung by the congregation and the readings. There was no Eucharist that day.
Yesterday we had congregational hymns, music by the choir, and handbells. Magnificent! And we had Eucharist as well. I really appreciated that.
If this is how St. John's normally does Lessons and Carols, I'm very happy for it to be an annual event!
I really like the Rev. Ann Markle's take on Advent. She's the rector of St. Raphael's Church, Crossville, Tennessee.
"Not only is Advent a time to think about what's really important, it's also an opportunity to make a Christian witness and be the counter culture that the Christian church is really called to be," she said.
"I just threw out [recycled, I hope!] reams and reams of paper from advertising sections that came in my newspaper," said Markle during a Dec. 1 telephone interview. "What retailers want to do is to whip us up to run out there and spend money we don't have to try to win friends and influence people when what we really need to do is be quiet."
