We are sending out advent thougths for the next three weeks written by our Anglican chaplain Paul Bryce if you would like to receive these by e mail please e mail David Heres a sample Monday 25th November. So here we are at the beginning of another year Church year with the season of Advent approaching this Sunday, and the first sign of the impending event is normally the bringing out of that collection of Christmas music. Last year you might remember we looked at Christmas number 1s, and noted how for the general population Advent has become jumbled straight into Christmas, not least because of the music we listen to and the things we see. This year I thought we would expand out to all those other popular Christmas hits and its surprising now how many of them originally were not especially successful. When I worked in a bar and every year our Christmas began when the first few bars of todays song began, step into Christmas by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. For those who didnt realise Bernie Taupin is the lyricist for almost all of Elton Johns career and is a fairly low key person compared to the somewhat flamboyant John. The song was made as homage to Phil Spector and his famous wall of sound technique, a process of layering the same instrument over and over to make the sound bigger. Surprisingly for a song I have heard quite literally a 1000 times it only reached no.24 when released in November 1973 and has made massively more money for John through royalties than it ever did from its single sales, the 16th most played Christmas song last year. In of itself the song doesnt say very much, its an invitation to enter into a particular time of year, but more importantly a mood, a celebration. This year I am inviting you to step into Advent with me, to enter into a different time, a different mood, one in which you reflect on the themes of advent. Reflect on peace and war, hope and doubt, fear and joy, togetherness and isolation. All of the songs we will look at over these next three weeks touch on these themes at various points and coupled with parts of the bible I hope that each of you will look once again at what Advent has to say and why we celebrate Christmas. Lets end with a very famous invite to enter in, Revelation 3:20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me’ (ESV). Dear Lord, help me enter into a new time, anew place and a new relationship with you this Advent Amen. Unfortunately due to copyright issues only these two poor quality versions are available, one a live recording and another listening to the record! youtube/watch?v=UqaYGJpdZLk youtube/watch?v=tSJMSnj6UUM
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:11:28 +0000
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