ADVENT SONGS

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

Most people have a favourite Christmas song or album. Growing up, I loved listening to the Boney M Christmas album. It’s just my opinion, but you’d have to have a heart three sizes too small to not find yourself bopping along to a bizarre, reggae-infused, disco version of “Mary’s Boy Child” or “Feliz Navidad.”

But few of us have Advent songs that we can turn to leading up to Christmas.

“What’s the difference between the two? Aren’t Advent and Christmas basically the same thing?” you may ask. Well, no. Like Pastor Brandon wrote about last week, Advent is not the same thing as Christmas; it is the season of waiting in darkness for hope to dawn.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2

Advent means “arrival” and it is the anticipation of the Messiah to come into our brokenness and sin and save us. It was only after Jesus’ birth that the church would begin to celebrate “Christmas” - and not just for one day, but TWELVE whole days (Christmas Day until Epiphany). It was during these 12 days that celebration, colours, and decorations would come out.

In our western evangelical tradition of jumping ahead to the celebration portion of our faith (skipping over the season of lent, to focus almost exclusively on the celebration of easter Sunday, for example), there has been a “Christmasification” of the season of Advent. For example the traditional four themes of Advent: death, judgement, heaven, and hell (known as the last four things), have largely been replaced with the warmer and softer themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

It’s not to say that hope, peace, joy, and love are not part of the advent season, but it isn’t the emphasis. The situation in which our Messiah entered the world was not one of rosy, feel-good, anticipation; rather it was into a waiting, groaning, lamenting world where hope, peace, joy, and love were luxuries in the face of a Roman empire.

When we too quickly jump over the darker feelings of lament, grief, despair in search of the Christmas or Easter ‘high’ of triumph, we can inadvertently diminish the very real human experience. The beauty of the first advent and incarnation of Jesus is that he entered into our world in the form of a frail, helpless, human baby; experiencing all the same things we do.

So what kind of songs do we sing or listen to during an Advent season? A few years ago, I discovered a beautiful album by Andrew Peterson, Behold the Lamb of God. This album has since become a perennial staple in the Greer house during Advent. Peterson is a brilliant songwriter that tells the story of a longing world, desiring hope, and skillfully weaves the story of Christ throughout the familiar Old Testament passages and themes.

If you’re looking for a beautiful album to get you in the Advent mood, and that prepares you for the joy of Christmas that is to come, I can’t recommend this album enough! You’ll recognize Peterson’s song Matthew’s Begats, from our current sermon series bumper video!