A colleague of mine once decried the way that people in his congregation wished to sing
only Christmas songs during Advent. They had been so captured by the commercial
culture that they no longer knew how to wait and wonder and wish and weep during
Advent. My friend said that he refused to allow for the singing of Christmas hymns or
carols before the third Sunday of Advent.
Well, the third Sunday of Advent has arrived, and the Old Testament and epistle
lectionary passages are indeed a call to sing -- with joy, with gusto, with hope, with