One of the things that I struggle with each Advent season is coming up with songs that express the expectation and the hope of the season without using Christmas carols. Advent is a season that prepares our hearts and minds for the coming of the King, but He is not here, yet! Dennis Bratcher does a great job of explaining in his article Can We Sing Christmas Carols at Advent?
Now, I am not trying to be a grinch about this and if you saw our Hanging of the Green service you will see that we sung many Christmas carols this past Sunday night while decorating the sanctuary. During the later Sundays of Advent, I do incorporate the familiar carols as we get closer to the big event. Maybe, it’s just my reaction against the commercialism of Christmas. Christmas doesn’t begin on the day after Thanksgiving, contrary to popular belief. I think it takes a couple of Sundays to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord.
Again, it is a dual-mode preparation; one – the coming of Christ Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem and two – coming of Christ Jesus as the King of kings and Lord of lords. I like to focus on the hope of the coming Christ child and the hope that we have as Christians of the Lord’s return. I love O Come, O Come Emmanuel (it’s Pam’s favorite carol) and Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus; I just wish there were more songs to use. Here’s my short list of Advent hymns that I’m familiar with — most are in our current “Sing to the Lord” hymnal.
- Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus (penned by Charles Wesley)
- O Come, O Come Emmanuel
- Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (also penned by Wesley)
- Celebrate Immanuel’s Name (I have not used this one yet — and another Advent hymn penned by Wesley)
- Of the Father’s Love Begotten (We did this one for the first time last Sunday w/o instruments — it was beautiful — it’s a 4th century hymn put to an 11th century chant.)
Like I said, that is my short list — I suppose that any hymn that expresses the hope of the return of Christ could be used (like Lo, He Comes), so that could add Jesus Shall Reign, Crown Him with Many Crowns and others.
I have used praise and worship songs like Days of Elijah; Shine, Jesus, Shine; Sing to the King; Lord, I Lift Your Name on High; Here I Am to Worship; and of course, Emmanuel.
This week we’ll probably do O Come, O Come Emmanuel and maybe I’ll teach Celebrate Immanuel’s Name — I haven’t decided yet.
Part of posting this is to make you think about Advent a little more — to take the time to prepare your heart — I know we spend a lot of time preparing our houses (decorating) and preparing the gifts — preparing for company or preparing for going away — but what if we put the same effort and put it into preparing our hearts, minds, soul, and bodies for the coming Christ child — He is not here, yet! but he is coming, let’s wait together in expectation
