Advent and Christmas Hymns: What's the Difference?
In a world already absorbed by an Americanized Christmas many weeks prior to its celebration, we need a world before Christmas to make sense of the Christmas extravaganza to come.
The Church Calendar is invigorating for many people. I meet new fans regularly, especially at such a time as this. In fact, if I were to quantify the questions sent to me in the last 15 years, I suspect that 40% of them have to do with how to practice the Church Calendar or some variation.
I have poured a lot of affection into this topic in essays and podcasts because we need a sense of time that supersedes civic loyalties. We need something much more divine and universal that makes sense of the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic” clause of the Nicene Creed.
In the coming weeks, I hope to provide some introductory work on the Church Calendar and delve into the practical ways in which Church Time can guide us. If you don’t subscribe to the paid account, please email me at uriesou@gmail.com, and I will provide you with a three-month subscription. I don’t want you to miss out on these posts because of a financial hindrance.
The Advental Jewishness
As the Church enters the Advent Season starting this Sunday, there will be a tendency to conflate or collapse seasons. And if we follow the advertisement liturgies of our day, we will channel our energies towards the fulfillment of the thing before the promise. That is to say, we will be dressed in Christmas clothing for the Advent party.
Among many, this conflation of seasons is most evident in the Advent/Christmas hymnody of the Church. It’s here where seasons get confused and compiled as one big undifferentiated supper instead of a delicious two-course meal. Some churches already delve into the great Christmas carols without discerning the times. But there is a uniqueness to Advent music that Christmas does not possess.
Advent hymns look to Israel’s future Messiah ( 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Isaiah 61:1-4, 64:1-9). It plays on the prophetic declarations of a child who would come to bring hope and light to Israel’s despair and darkness. Isaiah 40 summarizes that Advent theme:
“Comfort those who sit in darkness, bowed beneath their sorrow’s load; speak ye to Jerusalem, of the peace that waits for them; Tell her that her sin I cover, and her warfare now is over.”
Advent hymns are almost exclusively about Israel’s redemption. It tells of the promise of a Savior who would change Israel’s history. The great Advental hymn based on Isaiah 52 specifies its recipient:
Wake, awake, for night is flying,
the watchmen on the heights are crying;
awake, Jerusalem, at last.
You will note a distinct Jewishness to it. And similarly, the great 15th-century Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
It’s not that universal themes are absent but that the preeminence of Advental music is in the Jewish hope of a coming Messiah. There is a distinct expectation and longing directed to the Hebrew people.
The Christmas Universality
On the other hand, Christmas hymns change the tone and tune. It carries a more marching-like motif. In Christmas hymns, Jesus comes to rule the world far as the curse is found. An inherent political theme emerges during Christmas tide:
“This little babe so few days old is come to rifle Satan’s fold…”
Or
“Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies…”
or,
See Him in a manger laid,
Jesus, Lord of heav'n and earth!Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.
Christmas hymns bring forth the political and universal implications of Jesus’ earthly arrival in the flesh. By nature, they carry a Gentile/Jewish world in their melodies and thus speak very openly about a universal reign of Messiah Jesus. The longing has found its fulfillment in a King and the nations join in that glorious chorus.
Advent hymns aim to shape our imagination through Jewish longing. In contrast, Christmas hymns aim to shape our imagination through the hope of a triumphant Lord of all creation. Christ has come, and the world and Herods and Pilates must bow before him. Older hymnody accentuated these themes and kept them separate so the worshiper would keep promise and fulfillment as two historical events.
Keeping First Things First
These differences reflect the Gospels, which contain an inherent chronology. Every event has its order because collapsing biblical chronology into one event damages the significance of each event in the redemptive story. Each story compels us to see an angle, a perspective, and a theme that forms our imagination. To mix Advent and Christmas hymns is a failure to see that one story comes before the other because one story prepares us for the other.
This rich tapestry of redemptive acts equips our hearts to contemplate and meditate on the coming of Jesus for us in time and at the end of history. If we sing our Advent hymns with the sure hope that he will come again, we can sing our longings under the sure promise that he has come.
In a world already absorbed by an Americanized Christmas many weeks before its calendar celebration, we need a biblical world before Christmas to make sense of the splendor of Christmas to come. And if we are willing to do so, our joys to the world will carry the truth and grace the Feast of the Nativity deserves.
Notations
I will be posting more consistently during Advent and Christmas, so stay tuned for more content.
I have recorded the first Advent podcast with guest, Dr. Alistair Roberts from England. This will be published tomorrow. I think you will enjoy our conversation on the Perpectivalist Podcast.
My recent post on whether we should follow the Church Calendar is available on my blog. I conclude:
In sum, my point is that patterns, rhythms, and feasts play a role in the rationale of the Scriptures, and this is a good place to begin these dialogues.
Advent is almost here.
Uriesou Brito