Advent Songs vs. Christmas Carols

In one of his columns, Dennis Bratcher asks the question, "Can We Sing Christmas Carols During Advent?" http://www.cresourcei.org/carols.html. From time to time, we will encounter those people who feel they know the "true meaning" of a particular practice or season or tradition and they set out to correct what everyone else has obviously gotten wrong. Bratcher takes contention with the way most people observe Advent.

Bratcher observes that Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas and not a celebration of Christmas itself. When people make such arguments--and I'm as guilty of this as anyone--they often simultaneously claim superior knowledge and reveal their igonorance.


Error #1. He begins by lamenting that "As the service of worship began [on the first Sunday of Advent], the first song we sang was 'Joy to the World,' a Christmas Song! I tried to sing it, and celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ. But it wasn't quite right." He goes on to describe how his worship experience was hollowed by the jump to a celebration of Christmas without the proper advent preparation. The problem is that "Joy to the World" was not written as a Christmas song. Isaac Watts, the father of English Hymnody, began his hymn writing career working on the development of a Psalter--songs based on the Psalms. The words to Joy to the World are his version of Psalm 98:4, 9. It really should be limited to Christmas.

Error #2. Bratcher writes "Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, not the celebration of it. It is included with Christmas in the same way that Lent is included with Easter. However, Advent is just as different from Christmas as is Lent from Easter." While it's true that both Advent and Lent are seasons of preparation, the historical development is quite different. Robert Webber explains in Services of the Christian Year in the Complete Library of Christian Worship that Advent developed in 6th Century and has always had a certain tension. In Rome, it was a festive season as people emphasized the birth of Christ while in the missionary areas of Western Europe Advent emphasized the second coming of Christ and was a penitential season of preparation for Christian Baptism. Advent has never been one thing.

Bratcher's argument is not completely without merit. Christians do have a necessity for a time of penitenial preparation. There is much beauty in the rhythms of the Christian year. A reflective, preparatory advent provides a helpful antidote to the gluttony and commercialism of the season. Like Bratcher I wish we observed an Advent vis-a-vis Lent. However, I have been trying to interpret Advent for church members for over a decade now and can say that I haven't had much luck convincing people that what they are doing is wrong and that if they would do it my way they'd be right. I think with regard to liturgical seasons we should remember that they are means to and end and not ends in themselves. We achieve more if we leave the discussion of the right and wrong way to celebrate advent--since its really not a moral issue--and begin discussing what we find good, helpful, and healing in advent. People are more easily convinced by being invited into an experience we value than they are by being pushed away from experiences we judge as inappropriate.