What’s the difference between a Christmas Carol and an Advent hymn? In the world of everyday the Christmas Carol accompanies the build up to Christmas, sets the mood for thinking about others, buying presents, getting in the festive food, sending cards, anticipating the celebration. When we shop, pop into town, turn on the radio from now until Christmas eve, the music all around is carols.
The Church has a different set of music for these next four weeks or so, the hymns of Advent, which speak of waiting, preparing, opening up the space to welcome the Saviour of the world, the infant son of God. When his birth is remembered, from the Eve of Christmas until January 6th, the Season of Christmas, then the carols have their place in our liturgy and celebrations. In a sense, we have two horses to straddle for the coming weeks, that part of us which is out in the world making Christmas happen with foods and gifts a plenty, and the other part, which is our faith community supporting our spiritual journey towards welcoming the Lord when we lay the baby in the crib.
We can harness both these sets of energy, the carols on the street are often accompanied by ruddy cheeked singers shaking buckets to collect for good causes. They can trigger our compassion for others, remind us of the needs all around us here and in war torn regions ravaged by conflict, and our giving is active solidarity with the poorest of the poor. Then here in church, when we hear ‘O come O come Emmanuel….’ we long for the joy that the birth of the Lord reminds us of, we yearn for his peace and ache for his blessed peace. We are moved to reconcile with others, to be more God centred and joyful. So, let’s do all we can to make Advent work, set up a wreath, buy a prayer book, open the windows daily on the Advent calendar, listen attentively to the Advent readings, hymns and reflections and grow into Christmas. Then when the world turns it’s attention to the sales, we have our bonus time to really celebrate Christmas for 12 days.