1) You Will Hear God’s Word
Lessons and Carols is not a musical concert or play, but rather the story of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind as revealed in His Word. That story begins with the Genesis account of the fall of Adam and Eve and concludes with the Word made flesh in the first chapter of John. Each reading is followed by one or more carols, allowing for further meditation on the text. You will leave a Lessons and Carols service veritably drenched in Biblical language.
2) You Will Sing, and Singing Is Good
People don’t sing enough anymore. (Instead, they listen to mass-produced music and possibly sing along.) Not only do people not sing anymore, they don’t sing together anymore. Why do we get chills those rare times when we are at a sporting event and everyone joins in the national anthem? It’s not just the song, but the corporate nature of the singing. There are very few places these days where that sort of group singing happens. People sing at birthday parties, maybe on New Year’s Eve if they can remember the words to “Auld Lang Syne,” and they sing in church. A Lessons and Carols service is a unique opportunity to hear and sing songs that the larger culture mostly ignores.
3) You Will Unite with Christians Across Time and Space
You will be united across time and space, not just with those standing at your left and right, but with Christians around the world both today and in the past who have listened to the same readings and sung the same texts. I am reminded of one of my favorite hymns, not a Christmas hymn but an evening hymn, by nineteenth-century hymnist John Ellerton: “The sun, that bids us rest, is waking Thy saints beneath the western skies, And hour by hour, as day is breaking, Fresh hymns of thankful praise arise” (“The Day Thou Gavest”). There was a time the sun never set on the British Empire. That time may be past, but the sun assuredly never sets on Christ’s Church, since at any given moment someone, somewhere, is praying and singing to His name.
4) You Will Be Transported to Another World
You will be transported to a world removed from the one with which you contend on a daily basis. At this time of year, instead of allowing Christians more time for religious observance, the culture ramps up a couple of notches, mercilessly piling on the activities and special events. Even in the church, sometimes there is less interest in creating an occasion for reverence and reflection than there is in throwing a party.
There is nothing wrong with parties. But the Incarnation is the most mind-blowing, awe-inspiring event in the history of the universe, and we Christians can sometimes be strangely casual about it. We’ve heard it all before, donchyaknow. The other-worldliness of Lessons and Carols is a great antidote to such casualness. It will plop you down in the middle of that long-ago field with the shepherds and remind you of what it means to be sore afraid before trumpeting the amazing news that you need fear not because the message is one that brings good tidings of great joy for all people.
5) You Will Remember What Christmas Is All About
You will be reminded, as Linus reminded Charlie Brown, of “what Christmas is all about.” At this time of year there is no shortage of “Christmas.” It’s everywhere, but the world’s Christmas is not the Church’s Christmas. Most of the “Christmas” songs you hear on the radio aren’t Christmas songs at all, but celebrations of winter, family, love, giving, and peace on earth. All of those are certainly good things, but they aren’t Christmas. Christmas is “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing,” and Lessons and Carols makes that abundantly clear.
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