Hope Sings
What are the first five things you think about when you hear the word Christmas? For me, singing Christmas Carols is at the top of the list.
When I think of Christmas, I immediately go back to my childhood and remember year after year raising a candle on Christmas Eve as we sang Silent Night in a dark sanctuary! I also remember singing Christmas Carols with the Youth Group in Walla Walla. We’d fill a wheat truck with hay and go all over town to sing for shut-ins and retirement centers. It seems like every year, the police would track the trail of hay to the church and join us for cider and hot chocolate!
I love singing Christmas Carols so much! They are all so very different, from the modal melody of “We Three Kings” to the four-part chorals like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” the complexity of the counterpoint in “Angels We Have Heard on High,” all the way to the absolute bare bones simplicity of “Away in a Manger.” There is such beauty in the great collection of Christmas Carols we return to year after year, as it should be! These amazing songs were all born out of an encounter with the inspiring story of God entering the world as a tiny baby!
Did you know the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke record four songs that were sung during the story of the birth of Baby Jesus? I think of them as the original Christmas Carols.
As we journey toward the manger this Advent, we will spend time with these great songs in our new sermon series, “Hope Sings: Christmas Carols from the Gospel of Luke.”
I’ve heard Hillspring called “The Christmas Church!” From Night of 1,000 Candles to Sunday Morning Advent Worship each week to the Living Nativity to Candlelight Worship on Christmas Eve and so many community experiences in between, there is no better place to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus than with church family at Hillspring!
There are so many ways to experience community and serve our neighbors this time of year! Please get in touch with us if you want to join the fun! And remember, Christmas is the best time of the year to invite people to experience our church! We have such a built-in blessing with our Living Nativity. Invite your friends; it is an amazing experience (and yes, the camels are on their way back!) Invite your friends to worship on Christmas Eve. So many people are struggling in the world, especially this time of year. You can make a tremendous difference in someone’s life by introducing them to the hope of the birth of baby Jesus this season.
In Christ, your pastor,
Bryan White