Do you hear what I hear?

I have mentioned previously that the thought of an Advent Blog entered my thinking a few weeks ago. It did seem a good idea at the time but I confess the thought of writing a daily blog for a whole month filled me with not a little trepidation. To try and ease the fears I came up with the idea of building up a store of blogs, thinking that all I would have to do is cut and paste. The bloggers version of the TV ‘live’ Christmas special filmed in July!

The only problem with this plan is I need to be organised, a concept that does not come naturally to me, as no doubt some of you can testify to, and secondly I might become victim to current affairs.

A perfect example of this is the very recent furore caused by a bishop moaning about Christmas Carols. I happen to have already written my blog on Carols but you will have to take my word on that. The curious thing about the debate is the bishop is bemoaning the ‘tweeness’ of the Carols and the great army of the unchurched are on the side of ‘tradition’.

All the discussion has made me reassess my earlier effort. The truth is that for many people today the only knowledge they have of the Christmas Story comes from the popular Carols, they shape their thinking and understanding of the wonderful mystery of God becoming man. There is nothing wrong with the work of poets I can even accept and enjoy a little romanticism at times but we have to be careful that the poetry does not hijack the truth.

So what if our favourite Carols are not accurate representations of the Incarnation surely anything that gets people to think about the Christ-child cannot be all bad. It is our task as Christians to introduce them to the real beauty of Christmas. When you think about it the Angels simply sang to tell the shepherds where to find the child. They did not plan to go into the whole theological reason and purpose of his birth or explain the concept of Original Sin. They sang, the shepherds listened, they followed and they found for themselves the baby and the beauty.

As we sing the Carols this Christmas let us hope that our ‘Angelic’ voices will announce the birth of the Christ child that new seekers might listen, follow and find for themselves the baby and the beauty.

“Do you hear what I hear...”