Advent 2014: Carol Me, Christmas

As we begin to Carol Me, Christmas as our Advent 2014 series and tell the story of Christmas through the Church’s most beloved traditional carols, it would be good to set the stage for why many of these carols have had such an enduring quality.  For some, the tune is memorable, is fun to sing, or turns one’s thought to Christmas just by hearing it.  For others, it brings back fond recollections of childhood, related more to our lighting candles at the Christmas Eve service, or sugar plums dancing in our heads as we drift off to sleep and wait for Santa to arrive.

But the reason I would like to focus on these hymns is that they have been useful instruction for the Church.  It is no mistake that they are in our hymnals, often labeled simply as Jesus Christ: His Advent, or His Birth.

Stop and think about it for a second—Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg (approx. 1439) and with it, the greater availability of reading material or reading instruction, things like oral traditions, memorization, and yes, hymns provided some of the best ways of conveying Scriptural truths.  It was one of the easiest ways of communicating theology.  Just like we sing ABCs to learn to read, singing could teach us who Jesus is before we could ever hold a Bible in our hands.

The first group of hymns we will look at beginning tomorrow are usually included in a section of a hymnal entitled Advent but they all proclaim an anticipation of His glorious birth.  On the first day of Advent, we will explore O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) will begin November 30th.  If you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2014 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.

===note:  You will find all the Carol Me, Christmas items archived beginning in November 2014.