What is your favorite Christmas song? This time of year, it is hard not to hear music celebrating the holidays. A search online for the most popular Christmas songs states the current most popular song of the season is “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey.
“White Christmas” by Bing Crosby is not only the best-selling Christmas / holiday single in the United States, but also the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Issac Watts’ “Joy to the World” is the most-published Christmas hymn in North America according to Wikipedia.
Sometimes we forget the first Christmas inspired wonderful songs in the Bible. The Gospel of Luke’s first two chapters include four different songs. The pregnant Mary praises God when visiting Elizabeth in Luke 1:47-55 with the song’s opening words “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” The old priest Zechariah, who had not been able to speak for months after an angel told him that his wife would finally have a child, praises God for the birth of his son John the Baptist (Luke 1:68-79).
An army of angels praises God after telling the shepherds that they will find a Savior who is the promised Messiah, the Lord (Luke 2:10-14). When the baby Jesus is brought to the Temple, the old man Simeon offers a song as he holds Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:29-32).
We know not everyone feels like singing this time of year, especially if they are feeling the loss of loved ones. First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, like many churches around the country, will have a “Blue Christmas” service to offer comfort and hope on Dec. 23 at 3 p.m.
Hymns are prayers set to music. Prayers can be a way to offer all of our emotions to God as we seek comfort and guidance. Owego Presbyterian Pastor Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has written a hymn for those who grieve during the holidays that is on the national United Methodist Worship Office website with music to the tune of O WALY WALY LM (“Though I May Speak”):
How can we sing a joyful song?
O God, our sorrows hem us in.
When pain and grief seem all too strong,
How can we sing a joyful hymn?
The world around finds songs to sing
Of laughter, mirth and happiness,
But these sound false and even sting
When what we feel is deep distress.
And yet, O God, we dare to sing
For in our grief, we’re not alone.
You love this world and entered in
By sending us your only Son.
You sent us hope– Emmanuel!
O God-with-us, you bore our pain.
And so we sing, for all is well!
In Christ, we will be whole again.
Bruce Gillette and his wife Carolyn are Presbyterian pastors who started serving the First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego on Dec. 1.
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