A hush fell over the darkened auditorium as the lights dimmed in anticipation of the tradition set to unfold for the crowded room. At the head of each aisle at the back of the auditorium a choral member robed in burgundy began to walk toward the risers ascending on the stage while singing a medley of Christmas carols in a cappella. Each carried a battery- operated candle as they moved forward. A select group in the center aisle were robed in white.

As the nearly 150 – member choral group began to file into the eleven rows of seats on the risers, those in white robes formed a cross in the sea of burgundy robes. With everyone in place, the last carol began. As the strains of “Silent Night” began to echo through the room the choral members began to extinguish their candles beginning at the edges and moving toward the center where those robed in white formed the large cross. In the end as the humming of the carol continued only the candles in the cross remained lit.

The notes then began as the instruments played the overture to begin the memorable performance of Handel’s sacred oratorio, “The Messiah.” One might expect this was happening in a grand cathedral, but it was actually my high school auditorium where an exceptional choral director trained his young musicians to rise to exceptional skill in singing this classic work each December for many decades. The opportunity to participate was coveted and often alumni would join the current select a cappella choir made up of sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

It was a different time, a time when sacred musical selections were regularly included in the repertories of public-school choirs along with musicals, popular tunes, and assorted musical styles. It was a time when the choral director taught the significance of this great classical work by Handel and students knew and heard the scriptural lyrics leaping off of each page of the work.

All these years later those months of preparation for the performance and what we learned of the music and the story the music told still echoes in the hearts, minds, and spirits of those who had this privilege. Though this oratorio is celebrated and sung by choruses and choirs with great orchestras in many places, this local tradition was unique.

One might wonder what Handel would have thought as these young musicians tackled this impressive work that he composed in three or four weeks between August and September 1741. What inspired such majesty or that of the text of words by the prominent librettist, Charles Jennens, for a planned first performance for Easter in 1742? Clearly, the scripture that flows on every page with all the glory of Handel’s crescendos must have been inspired by God to last and maintain such enthusiastic loyalty for over 280 years.

The pandemic of 2020 left stages silent of performances whether in orchestral series, university choral schedules or concerts by churches large enough to conquer the large work. Despite all the Christmas music played on numerous media all day and night, few offered this complete work, but those who were caught up in its power in lyrics and sound dusted off recordings to enjoy as they reflected on the songs that echo from heaven.

The opening tenor solo from Isaiah 40: 1-11 brings good news in the words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people; Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God…” (How much we need his comfort this year too as the pandemic still haunts us and new viruses and the economy leaves us anxious.) And the good news doesn’t stop there as the first chorus begins, “And the glory, the glory of the Lord, shall be revealed…” Oh, that we could see and sense that glory and focus on it rather than the other darker things that seek to overtake our thoughts.

As people of Advent the scriptures flowing on every line of this grand musical score should lift up our hearts and heads long before the first part of the oratorio ends. We must remember.

“God is the reason why we are living in the not yet.”

Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative

Will you not awaken and rise up long before the end of the second part of the oratorio when the grand Hallelujah chorus begins?

That glorious chorus brought King George II to his feet in the 1743 London premiere of the oratorio and the rest of the audience joined him. So great was the impact that this tradition continues every time this end of the second part of the oratorio is sung.

But the message and the oratorio doesn’t end there even though not everyone has heard the entire work. Part 3 speaks of Easter and the Lord’s coming in the Advent yet to be in the choral works entitled “I Know My Redeemer Liveth,” “Since by Man Came Death,” “Behold, I Tell You a Mystery,” “The Trumpet Shall Sound,” and more, ending with “Worthy is the Lamb” with the grand progressions of “amen’s.”

This grand oratorio tells the Gospel to the strains of Handel’s composition and for many decades it was etched in the hearts of groups of high school choral groups in a small midwestern town in Ohio. The call of the Gospel – let us never forget, even in seasons of shadow and darkness – especially then.

“What matters is the call of the gospel, the promise of God, and your task of being faithful and patient in the present, ‘until it be thoroughly finished.'”

N.T. Wright

It can be easy to become lethargic in a waiting season and only look at the waiting, to forget we are waiting for or on something. The more whatever or whoever it is means to us, the harder the wait. That was true for me the last few weeks when my husband unexpectedly went to the hospital twice within 10 days. Waiting in the ER, waiting on test results and answers, all were wearing as the world started decorating for Christmas.

I wonder what that looks like this season of Advent for you when the world around us seems to have turned upside down and languishes in shadow. Our focus on celebrating gets distracted by these challenges and cares we face from various directions.

When we are waiting on someone or something we value a great deal, the things we always did before the waiting season can diminish in seeming importance as we yearn for what is not yet.

As I begin to bring out Christmas decorations, I recall so many other Christmases. I am sure that is true of you. Some of these are the most precious ones while others are the hardest ones. Living more than a few years will give us samples of both. Some we recall as if we are reliving them all over again.

One of those etched in my memory was one more than 50 years ago during a fourteen-month period when military duty called my husband halfway around the world. While he was away our first child was born and that Christmas should have been such an exciting “first” for us, but my husband’s absence cast a shadow over the season of decorating, shopping, baking, and caroling. My heart was not able to get caught up in all the joy of those things, but I began to shift its focus to it as a time of preparation for the day he would return despite not knowing the exact date.

Yes, we celebrated Christmas and I sent my husband gifts of all sorts including a small Christmas tree and a variety of goodies. Yes, we lavished special things on our son and our extended family did their best to make the season as bright as they could for us. I prepared for that season, but my focus was on the one ahead when he would prayerfully return and our life as a family in one place truly begin.

There have been many hard seasons since then, but every year at Christmas that year so long ago replays in my memory. And this year it reminds me of what I learned about focusing on preparing in the midst of waiting on someone or something more important to me than the Christmas traditions that I love.

If we are truly Advent people, should that not be true of us as well despite the state of the world both near and far, despite the grief we may feel, despite the malaise that threatens to jump right over Christmas for many this year?

Have you considered that we are not the only ones waiting?

“God is always on time. He waits for us at the same time we are waiting for Him. God is the Keeper of the Vision and the Author of what will come next. Rest in knowing He is writing your story and is ready to call you up to prepare the way for others.”

Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative

It can be far too easy to forget that He is waiting in our self-focus and wearied waiting. He has been waiting on mankind to turn to Him and discover not only a babe in a manger and soon-coming King, but also to learn that He is a companion to journey with us in the waiting.

Our desire loses sight of the grand story playing out, of the bigger picture that delays his coming. He sees how many have yet to choose Him. He sees we are too often slumbering. He sees too many are not ready despite the words they may say.

“Our compulsive timetables collide with God’s leisurely providence. We tell God not only what to do but when to do it. We take him seriously – why else would we be praying? – but we take ourselves more seriously, telling him exactly what he must do for us and when.”

Eugene Peterson in Run with the Horses

Perhaps in this season He is seeking us to awaken from the routine life we are living. Perhaps this year our attention should pivot.

“He continues to teach that we do not know when the Son of Man will come again so we must remain vigilant. The call to stay awake is not always a physical vigilance. God calls us to an awareness that prepares us to dive deeper into relationship with Himself and others, and to better understand ourselves.”

Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative

This is a season for not just reading your favorite scriptures about that first Advent or recite prayers reflective of a more casual relationship with the Lord. He longs for more than that. Do we?

“Prayer is never complete and unrelieved solitude; it is, though, carefully protected and skillfully supported intimacy. Prayer is the desire to listen to God firsthand, to speak to God firsthand, and then setting aside the time and making the arrangements to do it.”

Eugene Peterson in Run with the Horses

Yes, it is a different season for many, but it is also a season for each of us that should be different for other reasons than those that come to mind. It will require a choice, a sacrifice of our own disappointment with what is for what will be.

“God loves waking up our sluggish hearts.”

Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative

It is not easy to be alert and awake when we are weary, but sometimes we can miss that the weariness can come not only from our own living but also from the evil one who would desire us to stay asleep, sluggishly dozing in a stupor, when the “not yet” is just ahead. Evil wants us to be distracted by the scary shadowy pall it casts over the world and our own neighborhood, but God’s call to us urges something else even as He urged his disciples in the time He was praying before He went to the cross.

What does “awake waiting” look like?

“It’s wearing a sense of watchfulness throughout our lives, and when we do, our Advent lives of waiting are filled with seeing Jesus in our every day ordinary.”

Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative

*Our daughter made the stockings years ago as a special treat that I still treasure because we had no fireplace growing up and no stockings hung by the tree.