This Advent season at the church I serve we are going to be focusing on Singing Our Way to the Manger. I have been working on a written devotional with that title. In the coming weeks I will offer some additional thoughts about carols, the ways they help us prepare for the birth of Christ, and why we should sing them leading up to Christmas for that exact reason.
I think many reading this might thing, duh! But you need to know that during seminary it was drilled into me that singing Christmas carols was bad...and for a UCC seminary to say something was bad really meant something! We prefer soft verbs and affirming all people. But it was clear to me, stick to the dirges during Advent (four Sundays before Christmas) so that the carols really means something comes Christmas.
I don't know who started this movement, but I have decided to stop following. We are going to sing Christmas carols with wreak-less abandon at church every Sunday leading up to and after Christmas. I am going to listen to them in my office. In fact, I have already started. This week I pulled up my copy of the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas on my ipod and turned up the volume.
I actually agree with David Lose that this is a spiritual practice and we should not feel bad about it. I pray you will do the same. Okay, now I gotta go because Frosty the Snowman is about to come on.
May the traces of God's grace sustain you and may you sing all the way to the manger this year.
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