SINGING THROUGH CHRISTMAS : Isaiah 11: 1-10 Luke 1: 46-55 Sunday December 4th 2005

Everywhere I go at the moment I seem to be hearing Christmas music. Atlantic Village seems to be permanently playing seasonal music. But I wonder what is your image of Christmas music.

For some it might conjure up images of the race for the Christmas Number 1 record. Some years to describe the Christmas Number 1 as music might seem a tad optimistic. I think back into my childhood when a song about a drunkard named ’Lily the Pink ’ topped the Christmas charts. Years later new depths were plunged when Mr Blobby topped the Christmas charts. And if you think that things cannot get any worse, well let me tell you they can. This year, Crazy Frog has a version of Jingle Bells whilst in what must be the most horrific release ever, so to do Barmy Sheep - and YES it really is baaing to Jingle Bells.

But away from the completely ridiculous, Christmas has many songs with a sweet , even sickly sweet air. Think back to Cliff Richard's ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ which conjured up a rather idyllic Dickensian image of Christmas. And then there’s the likes of ’Frosty the Snowman’ or ‘Santa Claus is coming to town.’

And then there’s the songs we sing in church. ‘Away in a Manger’ brings envy from every parent with its non crying baby but in the main the carols we sing are pretty faithful to the gospel narratives. They tell a story with which we are in the main familiar - Mary, Joseph, angels, stables, shepherds and wise men. These songs are often songs of incredible joy that is for today and which takes us back in time. I often think that the enthusiasm that older people have for hearing children sing the likes of ‘Away in a Manger’ is that it takes them back to memories of singing that same song as children. And yet at times, it seems just a little bit safe which may be a part of the charm. And so sometimes we let these songs speak more to our sense of security than to any sense of challenge.

To be fair, Advent carols disturb us more which is probably why there is such a temptation to rush at Michael Schumacher speed into Christmas. Why? Because in the likes of ‘O come, O Come, Emmanuel’ and Come thou long expected Jesus’ is a sense of expectancy that looks to the return of Christ, a return they link with the expectation of a future judgement. Sometimes, we are tempted to restrict their expectancy to the coming of Jesus as a baby but that is untrue to their message as well as to the message of Advent which urges us to be ready to meet with Christ who knocks on the doors of our hearts as well as promising to return to this world.

And of course, there are the special works that are sung in grand performances, works like Handel’s Messiah, which goes back into the hope that begins to dawn on a desperate people in exile as recounted by our reading from Isaiah, a hope that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ to tell the story of God’s involvement in our world on a large canvas.

Through these songs, we seek to engage with Christmas. And in so doing we need to resist the temptation to separate Christmas from the harsh realities of life. Christmas must not be about escapism. A song that illustrates that for me is ‘Silent Night/7 O’Clock News’ which is to be found on Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Tyne’ album. In this song, Simon and Garfunkel begin by singing the ancient carol. But before long, the carol is disturbed with a news bulletin. This bulletin contains stories of prejudice, violence and war. By the end, it is hard to appreciate the carol as the bad news seems to get louder and louder. You get the picture? The niceness is disturbed and yet it goes on. And we need to appreciate that it is for a real world with its array of pains and conflicts that Jesus came 2,000 years ago. Then as now, the world was beset with problems. Contrary to the impression given by some of our Christmas cards, Jesus came into a world as brutish as anything we know today. He came to a land under military occupation from an outside power, a land where terrorism was commonplace, a land full of injustices, particularly against women and the poor. It was not for nothing that John in his prologue spoke of Jesus’ coming as light coming to the places of darkness.

Today, being the second Sunday of Advent is normally the Sunday in which we look to Jesus as the bringer of peace. Sometimes, peace feels as far away as it was to the Old Testament prophets. I have tended to like Thomas Hardy’s ditty;

‘Peace upon earth!’ was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We’ve got as far as poison gas.'

And yet others feel that Christmas offers the possibility of Tran formative change to us and to our world. John Lennon made no claim to be a Christian. Indeed his song ‘Imagine’ seems to deny such a faith. And yet, in his classic, ‘Merrry Xmas, War is over’ he seems to stumble upon the power of the Christmas story to bring change. For in this song, amidst the traditional seasonal wishes, there is a refrain that goes;

'War is over if you want it.'

And that fact that there is conflict in so much of the world and that the nations devote more resources to ever more intricate weaponry than to the alleviation of poverty and want in our world, suggests to me that for some perverse reason, our world has failed to truly embrace the message of the angels of peace on earth.

Yet Christmas tells us of a God who is passionately committed to this world, a God who goes to the greatest extremes of self giving to break into this world but who does so not so much by invasion as by drawing people into his works.

And that is where Mary’s Song, the Magnificat comes in. Drawn from Old Testament scriptures, Magnificat speaks of great change. The American evangelist Stanley Jones once described Magnificat as ‘the most revolutionary document on earth.’ To people denied hope, Magnificat brings hope reborn. From our Western comfort we struggle to appreciate just how much this Song means to communities of faith in the shanty towns of for example South America. Nor do we appreciate, the fear with which Magnificat is heard by the tyrannies that degrade and exploit. For Magnificat challenges our perspectives and those that are held often as unchallengeable.

William Barclay in his study Bible talks of Magnificat as being a sign of 3 revolutions of God. The first is the moral revolution in our hearts. For Magnificat ‘scatters the proud in the plans of their hearts.’

The second is the economic revolution. This is rooted in God’s concern for the hungry. Such are to be filled.

The third is the social revolution. For God ‘casts down the mighty’ and ‘exalts the humble.’ No throw away society for God. For God challenges our culture by giving value to those who are seen as least. They are every bit as precious to God as celebrities, academics or even politicians.

A story is told of a wandering scholar named Mauretus who was without material means. He became ill whilst in Italy and was taken to a hospital for waifs and strays. The learned doctors discussed his case in Latin, never dreaming that he could understand what they were saying. As one suggested that such a worthless wonderer might be used for medical experiments, Mauretus looked up and in their learned tongue, reproached them;

'Call no man worthless for whom Christ died.'

And this is the spirit of Mary’s Song, Magnificat.

Well, we’ve travelled quite a way this morning. All I can say is that it is good to enjoy the music of the season. But beware! Look closely at the words of our carols and the songs of the gospels such as Mary’s Song and well, you know, the words might just begin to change us and the world.

So if you want to play safe, stick to Crazy Frog and the Barmy Sheep. But if you want to enter the real purpose of Christmas, look deeply into our carols and look at that which Mary sang!

This sermon was preached at Bideford on Sunday December 4th 2005