CHRISTMAS HAPPENS WHEREVER WE ARE

Last night I was among hundreds of lucky congregants privileged to usher in 

the Christmas season with the traditional Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. 

Margaret’s Episcopal Church here in Palm Desert CA. 

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was introduced Christmas Eve 1918 in King's College Chapel, Oxford, England, as “a more imaginative approach to worship.” It was first broadcast on radio in 1928 and is now an annual, multi-media broadcast to millions of people around the world. 

(http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/chapel-services/nine-lessons.html)  

The concept of Lessons and carols was actually launched on Christmas Eve in 1880 by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, whose son A.C. Benson recalled: “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve – nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.” Today it is broadcast to millions of viewers and listeners worldwide, with dual curators: King’s College is its home in fact, but Dean Eric Milner-White (1884 – 1963) its founder in spirit.  Appointed Dean of King’s at the age of 34, Milner-White drew on his experience as an army chaplain to ensure that the service would “derive from the lessons and not the music. The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God ... seen through the windows and words of the Bible.”  Some traditional script remains: the Bishop still invokes “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light,” which in 1918 may well have recalled those killed in the Great War, and the benediction to “go in heart and mind to follow where the story leads,” useful in all settings as a call to action specific to time and place, but likely in 1918 to have referred to rebuilding a post-War world committed to rebuilding lives and treasures lost, while remembering the commitment that the Great War just endured was to have been “the War to end all wars.”

Last night we were not at King’s College in Oxford in 1918.  We were at St. Margaret’s in Palm Desert in 2014.  Yet, nearly a century after its inception, King’s tradition was at the core of our service.  We heard Nine Lessons, led by the Bishop (Rt. Rev. James R. Mathes, Bishop, Diocese of San Diego), who invoked “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light.”  And not unlike the King’s congregants in 1918, our thoughts may have gone to family and friends lost (in our cases, in the many wars since 1918), or to those serving or living in far off lands but near in heart.  We heard Nine Carols (Hymns) in which we participated and fourteen Anthems by the gifted 40+ member choir, led by Director John Wright and accompanied by Organist Frederick Swann.  And, at closing, we accepted a call to action by Rector Rev. Lane G. Hensley to “go in heart and mind and consent to follow where the story leads.” Similarities to 1918 were evident in structure and style, but there was also an important element heralding back to Dean Eric Milner-White’s intended theme: “the development of the loving purposes of God ... seen through the windows and words of the Bible.”

After the seventh lesson, the seeds of a kind of providential magic were planted.  Following “The Shepherds go to the manger,” (Luke 2:8-16), we were gently wooed by the lyrics of Charles Bennett and music of Bob Chilcott in Song of the Crib to “make Christmas happen wherever we are.”

Song of the Crib:

We have made a crib and brought it into the church,

with an ox and a donkey, with sparrows and angels singing;

to show how Christmas happens wherever we are.

Lullay, lullay.  There are sparrows round the crib that we have made;

We fashioned our nests from straw we found in a manger.

O let us be warm like the sparrows.

There are oxen round the crib that we have made:

We are silent because a child was born in our manger.

O let us be calm like the oxen.

There’s a donkey round the crib that we have made:

I have come to be ridden by the child in the manger.

O let us find purpose.

There are angels round the crib that we have made:

We sang to the shepherds and also to Mary.

O let us give voice like the angels.

By making a crib we have brought the nativity home,

With an ox and a donkey, with sparrows and angels singing;

To show how Christmas happens wherever we are,

To show how Christmas is here.

It is no coincidence that St. Margaret’s Music Director chose composer Bob Chilcott’s selection as the signature original piece of last night’s magic.  Twelve years of Chilcott’s life work of choral music was spent at the home of Lessons and Carols, King's College, Cambridge. Through his experiential background, Chilcott formed a very specific view of the intent of this Festival: ”I sang for 8 years in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge – 5 years as a boy chorister and 3 years as a choral scholar.  One of the highlights of the year was the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve.  Here, alongside the more traditional music, we generally sang a newly composed carol.  It was always exciting to sing something new, but it would usually divide opinion and sometimes cause controversy not only amongst the singers but also amongst the many loyal followers of Christmas music.  For many choirs the music they sing at Christmas is the music with which they most closely identify themselves, so a lot of energy is given to their choices of Christmas repertoire.” http://www.scribd.com/doc/183192894/booklet-8-573159-pdf#force_seo

I alluded earlier to a call to action by Rector Rev. Lane G. Hensley to “go in heart and mind and consent to follow where the story leads.” Specifically, at the conclusion of the magnificent service, he described an opportunity for those in attendance to bring a local, recovering family who had come upon hard times home for the holidays.  With our help, and an obvious amount of outreach preparation already done under his caring stewardship, a roof would be made possible over the heads of this deserving family by Christmas Day.

The magic was there.  God’s providence had brought together the series of events which brought the right song (written just in 2012) to the attention of Director John Wright for last night’s event. God’s grace had brought Bob Chilcott, the chorister from King’s College, home of Lessons and Carols, to choose a poem by Charles Bennett which invoked calls to “be warm,” “be calm,” “find purpose,” and “give voice like the angels…” and most importantly, “to show how Christmas is here.”  And God’s inspiration brought Reverend Hensley to direct us to an immediate purpose whose worthy beneficiaries would know His goodness and love by Christmas Day.

This Christmas, under my roof, I will be grateful for God’s loving grace as I share food and festivities with those I love.  And I will imagine a family whose Christmas is being shared under another roof, through the beneficent grace of that same loving God, and the help of men and women who bridged the timeline of a century and the distance from Oxford to Palm Desert through the magical providence of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.