Two Christmases ago, Alicia and I were in Dallas, Texas over Christmas … and on Christmas Day the Dallas Morning News newspaper’s only editorial carried the headline, “A Joyful Noise.” It’s sub-headline stated: “Christmas is best understood through its music.”
Keeping in mind that Christmas was on a Sunday in 2011, let me share excerpts from this beautiful, lengthy editorial:
Like the candlelight homilies of the night before, sermons will lift up the narrative of the Christ child’s birth. Indeed, Christmas is a story, not just an event or a day on the calendar.
Providing the foundation of this familiar story year after year is the music that rings throughout the celebration of the Word made flesh. On this Christmas morning, countless Christians will hear the lyrics of “Silent Night” running through their heads. Their voices will fill churches as they sing about angels they have heard on high. And they will bring to life the hymn that Issac Watts wrote in 1719, drawing upon the Psalms: ‘Joy to the world, the Lord has come.’
Because music is often expressed collectively, it allows all participants – singers and listeners – to join into a single community. The commonality of such moments is what makes music a powerful expression of the Christmas story. Hymns tested over time bind Christians together during the weeks of Advent . . . theirs is not a faith to be lived in isolation, but among and with others.
The New Testament tells us that the Christmas story started with a song within a community. Luke wrote about Mary breaking forth in song to Elizabeth after Mary learned she would bring the Holy One into the world. In the Magnificat, Mary sang about her soul glorifying the Lord and how the Lord had scattered the proud while lifting up the humble.
Isn’t that a message so beautifully expressed? When it speaks of “test of time,” it brought forth the question of how many great songs – ones that have translated into the mainstream – and can be classified as being in the “carol” category that have been written even within the past 50 years. I can think of only two: “Do You Hear What I Hear,” introduced to the world by Bing Crosby in 1963, and Mark Lowry’s brilliantly written “Mary, Did You Know.”
May the melodies of Christ’s love, peace and joy
fill and inspire your hearts this day and forevermore!
Beyond that, what else is there to say to you, my dear friends and fellow Christians who love music … especially the music that glorifies our Lord and Savior and uplifts our hearts day after day . . . except:
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas …
and a happy and blessed and fulfilling new year!
Marlin
