Faith Works 12-15-18
Jeff Gill
Christmas music in our heads and hearts
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Got a favorite Christmas song? It's probably controversial to someone.
This is a topic probably worth avoiding, but the important part of this ongoing debate in our culture about Christmas music is that I think there's no time of year when songs and tunes and singing are more important, to all of us.
It's often pointed out by secular commentators that part of how the birth of Christ got associated with December 25 (not a date specifically mentioned in any of the Gospels) is that Rome had a festival of "Sol Invictus," the "unconquered sun," which began on Dec. 25 because it is the first date you can actually measure with basic instruments that daylight is getting longer.
Since around June 22, the longest day of the year and the summer solstice, astronomically speaking, each day has gotten shorter. The longest night this year is coming soon, on Dec. 21 . . . almost six hours longer than night lasted in June.
So we put up our lights and add candles indoors and do what we can to increase illumination because, hey, it's dark out! For a long, long time this time of year. And yes, from Dec. 25 you can sense that it is not getting longer, and might just be growing day by day, hallelujah!
Which is where music comes in. A song in the night lifts the gloom; a sad song makes it better, according to McCartney and Lennon. If we can't shine as much light on the subject as we had back in the summer time, we can make it glow with music. It's the tunes and tales set in four part harmony which give us another way, along with strands of lights and wreaths set with candles, to lighten the darkness, both within as well as without.
Christmas carols are a perfect example for me of this principle at work. They sing of long nights, little towns, stars in a chilly night sky, cold deserts and moonlight. They also tell us about hope and peace and love and joy in ways that make us smile in the silent night, which ask what child this is while answering the question with a song of joy to the world. By the end of the song, if not somewhere in midverse, the light starts to shine, such as over there, round yon virgin mother and child.
Everyone feels the growth of darkness and the shortening of the days this time of year, whatever your faith. Even if you have no involvement in a faith community, you have a history with how we have endured the dim days and endless nights in the past, and how we reach out ahead to the hope of light yet to come. So we all like Christmas lights, and the shine of candles, and songs. But we don't all like the same songs!
And yes, in an age where many are seeking a secular turn in public spaces, it gets uncomfortable for some to be expected, at school or work or in official settings, to sing "veiled in flesh the Godhead see." Even the "Hallelujah Chorus" and the repeated "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords" ruffles a few who love the oratorio, but hesitate at the statements made.
Christmas songs, I'd say, come in three categories. There are the overtly religious: "O Little Town of Bethlehem," or "The First Noel." Got it, they involve religious confessions that everyone doesn't share – and honestly, I don't want people to just mouth those words. So I can work with how they've faded from public view, if it means we really intend to say what we sing. But that's a big chunk of the holiday repertoire.
The second category are more festive, less religiously specific songs: "Deck the Halls," "Jingle Bells," or "White Christmas." No confessions of faith involved, but in fact it's a shorter list than you might think.
And third are what I'd call chestnuts, or even novelty songs: "Santa Baby," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," or "The Song Which We Won't Mention, Even When It's Cold Outside." They tend to be very much artifacts of a particular time and era, and as we've seen, they don't always age well. "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" hasn't stood the test of time quite as well as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed" has.
What gets missed is that through the centuries, many Christmas songs have been written. The large body of Christmas classics we have today are the result of years of sorting and culling and curation. Our standard Christmas carols are still with us because they've earned their place in our hearts.
And I think they'll keep coming back up, to drive back darkness and to usher in a season of peace, and of light.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him what your favorite carol is at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
