I don't know about you, Sing For Joy listeners, but I do not enjoy waiting. I am truly a child of the digital age, conditioned to expect instantaneous results and quick fixes. I grow impatient when my laptop is undergoing an update (as if those emails are truly urgent), or when the clothes dryer fails to do its work by the time the buzzer goes off (as if I haven't overloaded it with sopping-wet towels to begin with). One of the few exceptions to this impatience comes around this time every year: the prolonged and intentional waiting of Advent. This season of the Church year, which begins this year on December 3, invites us to slow down and prepare for the birth of the long-awaited Christ at Christmas.
There is spiritual value in this waiting; it is not simply a Churchwide conspiracy to stop us from singing Christmas carols before Christmas! When we move slowly and deliberately through a season of preparation, the joy that waits on the other side is all the more meaningful. A similar thing happens during the season of Lent, when we await the bright joy of Easter morning; in fact, early observations of Advent were patterned on the Church's experience of Lent. During this season, we hear from the witness of the biblical prophets, whose messages of hope and expectation continue to sustain us these many generations later. We hear the message and story of John the Baptizer, whose urgent invitation to prepare a way for the Lord continues to spur us on. In this season of waiting and watching, we dwell in the darkness of shadows, trusting that the Spirit is present there and that the light of Christ is on the way.
This Advent on Sing For Joy, you will hear many Advent "favorites," kicking off the season with the 9th century chant, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." We will watch and wait with the prophets in two movements from Handel's Messiah, and with all heaven and earth with the Spanish hymn, "Toda la Tierra." On December 24 — both the fourth Sunday in Advent and Christmas Eve — we will arrive at the manger in Bethlehem, giving thanks for the newborn Christchild with F Melius Christiansen's haunting "Lullaby for Christmas Eve." I hope you will join us in this season of waiting on Sing For Joy, as we hear these and many other selections for the season.
Peace be with you this Advent season,
