Sunday, December 14, 2008

Advent Thought 15

I wonder how many times you've sung 'Away in a manger?' It'll be a lot I warrant. If you are ordained, or in church ministry, or a primary school teacher it will be an awful lot.

What do you do when you are faced with inevitable repetition? Do you struggle along out of a sense of duty, not really paying attention to the words? Do you focus on a particular line or phrase and meditate upon it?

In this particular case I stick imaginary pins in the body of the lyricist who used the Christian message as a piece of polemic to suggest that good children don't cry. '...little Lord Jesus no crying he makes' is not in the Bible, boys and girls. Tears are OK.

Our traditional carols are nice as a background to Christmas but are full of a lot of manipulative tosh. Sing along like you'd sing along to Abba (if that is your bag). Don't swallow.

2 comments:

Ali said...

Fair point Steve.

And I must now remember to wear my sparkly white jumpsuit when I go to my son's BB Carol Service later this afternoon ....

Anonymous said...

Going into Tescos to do my normal weekly shopping yesterday I found myself feeling really depressed by the sound of the Christmas songs being played as background music even though I enjoy Christmas and went in feeling OK. Somehow it feels like forced jolliness in an inappropriate setting. When I came out The Salvation Army band were playing live Christmas carols. Although not a particular lover of Salvation Army bands that sounded much more real.
Pauline