12/6/2020; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson
Some things are best expressed in art, poetry, music, or through lived experience. Explanation and analysis fall short when it comes to mystery and divinity. I believe this is especially true at this time of year, as we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s coming.
When the second Sunday in Advent in year B of the lectionary rolls around and we read the lessons, Isaiah 40: 1-11 and Mark 1: 1-8, I don’t hear just words. I hear music. I hear the first vocal movement of Handel’s Messiah resounding:
Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, Saith your God
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, And cry unto her, That her warfare
Her warfare is accomplished, That her iniquity is pardoned
The voice of Him, That crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord
Make straight in the desert, A highway for our God
What a gift the composer gave the world, to set this masterful piece of prophetic poetry to such grand music! Part of my preparation for Christmas each year involves playing Handel’s Messiah as I decorate my home with an Advent wreath, lights, and manger scenes.
Advent means choral music and art for me. You see, I grew up in Moorhead, Minnesota, where my father worked at a Lutheran college, Concordia. Eventually, I went on to study there and one of my children did too. On the first weekend in December, for my first 21 years of life, I attended the Concordia College Christmas Concert. During November each year, the college’s art department would create canvas panels stretching the entire height and width of the gymnasium which served as a backdrop for the risers where all of the members of the many choirs would stand. The concert is a grand production combining art, music, and narration of the biblical message of God’s grace.
(This year, due to the pandemic, the concert will be broadcast virtually from December 18 through the 27th. You can register to watch/listen to it on this link. https://continueatconcordiacollege.regfox.com/2020-concordia-christmas-concert)
The concert was a magical time for me as a young child. When it was time for the concert to start, the lights would be darkened. The rich deep voice of the narrator would boom over the loudspeakers to open the event, “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…” I believed that I was hearing the voice of God. Then the orchestra would play an overture as the choirs came streaming into the gymnasium from every entrance, their voices growing as they came together on the risers. The art, music and message worked together each year, varying by theme. But key elements remained constant, the audience participation in singing Christmas carols, the reading of the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel and the swelling strains of music.
In recent years for me, Advent’s music has been simpler. The Salvation Army Children’s Home residents’ joyful voices have marked the beginning of the season when they have visited the English Speaking Congregation’s worship service. A few blocks from our apartment in Mazatlan, just below Icebox Hill, on the street called Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, the chapel of Guadalupe is decorated by the residents of the neighborhood. Flowers, manger scenes and tinny recorded Christmas music proclaim the season. And the repetitive song of the posada echoes in neighborhoods across the city. The song is a dialogue between “Fuera” (Outside, sung by the Pilgrims) and “Dentro” (Inside, sung by the Innkeepers). The final section, “Entren, Santos Peregrinos” (“Enter, Enter, Holy Pilgrims”) can be sung by everyone as the pilgrims are finally invited in.
I invite you to reminisce about what Advent and Christmas mean to you. What traditions, experiences and memories make your heart full? This year, when we are prevented from gathering with loved ones, when social gatherings are curtailed, when we won’t be standing in the dark, holding a candle and singing silent night, how will you celebrate the birth of Jesus? Wherever you are, may your season be filled with the mystery of divine love.