We’re almost there, folks! It’s mid-December, and if you are like me, you aren’t anywhere near midway through that Christmas preparation to-do list. Presents remain unordered, cards remain unsent, and for some of us, sermons remain unwritten. It seems everything is speeding up before it will slow down. But I guess ‘tis the season.
While Advent is supposed to be a season of reflection and repentance, the reality is that it can be a season of rushing and running. So, I am particularly grateful for the chance this Sunday to step off the hamster wheel for a holy moment, in a holy place as our choir leads us in a service of Lessons and Carols.
For me, Lessons and Carols is the most wonderful moment in the most wonderful time of year. How blessed we are to have such a fine intergenerational music ministry at Epiphany, with singers from ages eight to eighty. What a gift.
There is just something special about music’s power to stir the soul, especially around Christmas. With this beautifully Anglican service, we have an invitation to let the music convey a sense of God’s presence to us, among us, and within us.
For over three decades, Stephen Cleobury led the King’s College Cambridge choir, famous throughout the world for its annual Lessons and Carols service. When he died in 2019, The Economist's obituary of Cleobury reflected on God’s mystical presence in music:
He made sure the choir did not lose its otherworldly sound. He treasured the thought that anyone who heard it might find peace and consolation. For behind music … lay something wondrous and beautiful that could be touched. Over the years Cleobury felt increasingly uncertain what to call it. But he found himself getting keener on the idea of the Holy Spirit, something around in the air and in the silences between the notes, as the choir sang.
So, come all ye busy, all ye stressed, to our beautiful sanctuary on Sunday and allow the music and the Holy Spirit to wash over you.
Clayton McCleskey
