Christmas music, Advent words

I entered parish ministry with a fair amount of idealism, particularly liturgical idealism. Inconveniently, the liturgical proclivities I picked up in seminary were not especially popular with my first congregation.

This became clear as a sleigh bell during our first Advent season together. I showed up on the first Sunday of Advent with a sermon manuscript on an eschatological text. I referenced the disparate ways the culture and the church prepare for Christmas—the culture jumping right into the fray with garish decorations and bald consumerism, the church solemnly observing a season of waiting and preparation.

It felt odd to preach that sermon in a sanctuary teeming with holiday cheer. The chancel was decked not with tasteful greens and purple paraments but with an explosion of artificial poinsettias and a layer of Christmas decorations.