By our music director, Dr. Jerry Custer, DMA
Here’s my favorite Advent call to worship of all time:
Leader: Gimme an A!
All: A!
Leader: Gimme a D!
All: D
Leader: Gimme a V!
All: V!
Leader: Gimme an E!
All: E!
Leader: Gimme an N!
All: N!
Leader: Gimme a T!
All: T!
Leader: What’s it spell?
All: Advent!
Leader: What’s it SPELL?
All: ADVENT!!
Leader: What’s it mean?
All: (crickets … dead silence)
That’s the real question, isn’t it? What does Advent mean? Most of us don’t know how to answer the question, because—for most of us—Advent is the invisible part of the church year.
And that’s a shame, because Advent is a powerful gift from the Church to stop the madness that frenzied 21st century people experience.
We live in a culture that’s perpetually behind, or at least one that feels that way. One day it’s Trick or Treat (or if we’re lucky, Thanksgiving)—and then shazam! It’s Christmas, 24/7, everywhere you look: on the streets, in our neighborhoods, at the mall, on the radio.
Instead of “get ready, get set, go!” it’s just … GO!
Advent offers us a way to slow things down, to step away from the commercial treadmill, to take a little break, to stop the world and get off for a little while.
Those of us who are church people, of course, know what Advent means. It means that Christ is coming.
But there are actually three comings of Christ: the Incarnation (past planetary history), Conversion (present individual history) and the End of Time (future cosmic history). Or as we sometimes say at the Communion Service: Christ has come, Christ is coming, Christ will come again.
We live in the middle, between the first coming of Christ and the last one. And how do we live in the middle? We wait. We wait in hope. We wait in faith, believing that we are loved. We wait, but still we long for Christ’s return.
We experience Advent in the feelings of longing, hoping, waiting. We believe that there’s a home for us, but that we’re not quite there yet, even though we’re on the road to get there.
Advent Music is one of the best ways I know to enter into the season. I love Victor Hugo’s quote, which applies here: “Music expresses that which cannot be said, and about which it is impossible to be silent.”
Advent Music is not Christmas Carols. They celebrate a different reality. They can wait for a few more weeks.
Here are some great Advent Hymns from our red hymnal, Glory to God:
#82 Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
#87 Comfort, Comfort Now My People
#88 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
#93 Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
#97 Watchman, Tell Us of the Night
#102 Savior of the Nations, Come
#106 Prepare the Way, O Zion
Most of those are “traditional” in style. Here are some that are more contemporary:
#86 The People Who Walked in Darkness
#92 While We Are Waiting, Come
#100 My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout (Canticle of the Turning)
#101 No Wind at the Window
#105 People, Look East
#364 Lift Up the Gates Eternal
#377 I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light
How can you use these to help make Advent meaningful? Here are three suggestions to get started:
- Borrow a hymnal from church, and read the texts aloud before a family meal.
- Find the melodies for these hymns online and sing along. You can find sound files for almost every hymn in our hymnal at https://hymnary.org/hymnal/GG2013. Isn’t the Internet cool?
- Choose a favorite Advent hymn from the lists above, and sing a verse each week while lighting your home Advent wreath.
Grace & Peace, and happy Advent to you all!
