SONGS OF HOPE: AN ADVENT REFLECTION

I was in my late teens when I first picked up the guitar. This was before the days of high-speed internet when you could watch YouTube tutorials on pretty much any topic you were interested in. I was taking cello lessons at the time, and I wasn’t keen on adding more lessons.

So, I taught myself a few guitar chords. And soon I was eager to play some real songs. One day, I looked around the house and noticed a thick spiralbound book on the shelves. It was called The Reader’s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook.

It contained traditional Christmas carols such as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Once in Royal David’s City,” to novelty songs like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and “Frosty the Snow Man,” to popular classics such as “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Over the course of a couple of days, I played and sang through that songbook cover to cover, all 110 songs.

The other day, I heard my oldest daughter exclaim, “I love Christmas songs!” I do, too. She comes by it honestly.

But as I get older, I have noticed that my taste in Christmas songs have begun to shift slightly. As much as I appreciate the fun, goofball Christmas song every once in a while, my heart finds itself increasingly stirred by songs such as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and “In the Bleak Midwinter.” Apart from being lyrically and melodically beautiful, these songs express profound truths about the incarnation of Christ with a touch of melancholy that adds to their beauty.

Take, for example, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” Here is how the first verse goes:

Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As men of old have sung.
It came, a flower bright,
Amid the cold of winter
When half-gone was the night.

Using poetic imagery, the text, which dates back to the late sixteenth-century, pictures the birth of Christ as a rose blooming from the tender stem of Jesse. This is a reference to the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1, where we read that the Messiah-King will come in the line of King David to usher in a reign of peace and righteousness: “a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.”

This “flower bright,” however, comes “amid the cold of winter, when half-gone was the night.” This is a picture of life and beauty arising in unexpected times and unexpected places, and it ultimately points to how the death of Christ brings resurrection life and hope to all those who trust in Him. It is this hope that “dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere,” as we sing in the third verse.

The best Christmas songs are not just fluffy sentiments covered in glitter; they deal honestly with the brokenness of the world and the darkness of the human heart. The best Christmas songs express resolute hope in the face of sin and loss, the piercing light of Christ in the gloom of darkness and groaning.

And it is this vital juxtaposition of light and darkness that makes Advent such a powerful season of reflecting and rejoicing. Even as we rejoice in the first advent of the Wonderful Counselor, we wait with groaning His second advent as the everlasting Prince of Peace. But we do not wait with gritted teeth and a fatalistic resignation; we wait with a defiant, gritty hope that is grounded in the gospel promises of Jesus.

This Advent and Christmas season, be sure to listen and sing along to some great, gospel-rich Christmas songs. And take some time to reflect on their lyrics. Listen to them as you head home from work. Sing them with your friends and family. And of course, sing them with us at church as we celebrate Advent and Christmas at New City.

Even our four Advent sermons will be based on the four songs of Luke 1 and 2, and our own Dan Kikkert will be presenting his own interpretations of these songs that were originally sung by Mary, Zechariah, the heavenly choir, and Simeon. They will be called Songs of Hope, and we pray that they will increase your love and wonder and faith in the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Friends, may the incarnate King stir your hearts to sing this Advent!

Moses

P.S., Here are a few of my favorite modern renderings of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and “In the Bleak Midwinter:”