“O sing to the Lord a new song…”  So begin two of the psalms in our bibles, Psalm 96 and Psalm 98, two psalms that have indeed been sung to the Lord through countless generations (if you’ve ever heard or sung something titled “Cantate Domino,” it was probably a setting of one of these two biblical psalms).  Arguably the most well-known way God’s people in recent generations have sung Psalm 98 is by way of a not-so-new song that we’ll all be belting out boldly by the end of this month:  the paraphrase of verses 4 to 9 by English Congregationalist minister Isaac Watts, which he titled “The Messiah’s coming and kingdom”—a song better known to us today by its opening line, “Joy to the word, the Lord is come!”

More than any other part of our annual cycle of observances as Christians, the Advent and Christmas seasons are so strongly tied in our hearts and minds to the music that have come to accompany them.  Sure, in most American Protestant congregations, if Easter Sunday went by without singing the tune easter hymn,[1] there’d probably be some curiosity, or even some mild disappointment.  But I’m sure it would not compare to how worshippers would react if across all of our Christmas services we didn’t end up singing a single one of what I’d call the ‘big four’:  “Joy to the World,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” or “Angels We Have Heard on High.”  (And I’m sure you probably have your own favorite or ‘must-sing’ selection you’d add to such a list.)  More than any prayers, any scripture readings, any sermons (or lack thereof), the communion feast (or lack thereof), or even any candlelight (or lack thereof), so much of our souls’ worship in this season is captured in and captivated by the songs we sing.

And really, when it comes down to it, that’s rather fitting for a season whose stories themselves center around songs, new songs, songs sung by voices ranging from a young pregnant girl to an aging priest, from a multitudinous heavenly choir to an old sage at the end of his life.  As heart-warming and comforting as many of us find our favorite Advent hymns and Christmas carols to be, the songs we find scattered across the pages of the first two chapters are rather bold—and even radical—in comparison.  Mary sings of God bringing the powerful down from their thrones, and filling the hungry with good things.  Zechariah sings of God raising up a mighty savior.  Simeon sings of light being revealed to all nations.  And those angels sing of nothing less than peace, true peace and goodwill.

As we journey again through these seasons of Advent and Christmas, my prayer for you—really, for all of us, the people of the Storrs Congregational Church UCC and the people of Christ’s church in all places—is that the prayers and praises, songs and symbols of this journey may well up inside you a new song:  a song as joyful as the angels’, as reassured as Simeon’s, as hopeful as Zechariah, and as bold as Mary’s.  May such songs be many among us, and filled with such songs, may we—in the words of the old Coke commercial—teach the world to sing!

Yours in the journey,

Matt

[1] It depends on the hymnal whether this tune gets paired with Charles Wesley’s text “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” or with the text “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” translated from a Latin hymn also from the 1700s.  Most people don’t have terribly strong feelings about either text; it’s the tune they associate with Easter Sunday.