Reflections on the Chapel’s Christmas Concert "Sing We Now of Christmas" 

December 2014

 

I carved out two hours of margin in my hectic, busy life. I forgot about shopping and work and decorating and baking. I entered the Chapel on a crisp December evening. A fireplace by video? How inviting! Coffee and cookies? Delicious! I selected my seats, heard the harpist warming up, and saw the orchestra members arriving and taking their places. The room is filling, and it's time for the concert to begin.

 

Stirring fife and drums remind us of our Colonial heritage and traditions that have continued for decades. The fifers and drummers totally concentrate on playing their very best…and they deliver.

 

Rich Sylvester, one of our associate pastors, welcomes us all and encourages us to help him by greeting those around us and wishing them, “Merry Christmas!” He then asks us, "Are you a visitor? Please come back and visit with us on Sunday!" Rich prays with us that God would bless this evening. Amen.

 

And then it begins. Lights dim. A hush falls over the room. And the 100 plus choir voices sing a medley of traditional Christmas songs before the concert theme appears in "Sing We Now of Christmas." The narrator, Claire Jacobs, sets the spirit of the evening as she invites us to hear the real Christmas story through songs.

 

We travel through music with the shepherds to Bethlehem, hear the angels proclaim "Glory to God", and listen with awe to opera singer Branch Fields, who has called the Chapel his home church ever since he was a child. We listen to the story in song of three kings bearing gifts for a King born in a stable and how they met a pure and divine child "born to save us from the chains of our pride."

 

Enter the Children's Choir! Dressed in their finest with glistening eyes and hair like spun gold, they take their places. Some are nervous, some are confident, and all are enthusiastic. A young girl sings a solo during "Silent Night" in a voice so sweet and pure my eyes tear. During the next song, an equally talented young boy sings to us "Peace on earth, goodwill to men."

 

Ted Cornell, the concert’s director, asks us all, "Does this make you want to sing?" Oh, yes! We want nothing more than to be part of a 1700 voice choir! Together, voices unite from the choir, the main floor, the tiers in the mezzanine, and the balcony singing "O Come, All Ye Faithful". I catch my breath only to have it taken away again as I hear a beautiful piano rendition by Ted of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent."

 

Branch returns to sing some more, and he helps prove that the music really does tell the story. He sings "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" with Diana Dunnavant accompanying on the harp, and the lyrics "we didn't know who you were" remind us that is still a reality for so many today.  Branch is joined by Vance Stallings and they sing a moving duet of "O Holy Night" with the choir.

 

Travis Simone, our Lead Pastor, delivers the Christmas Meditation, and we all smile and laugh as he shares about his experience eating Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts. Travis shares how after he ate them he was still hungry again the next day. He asks, "What are you hungering for?" Then he reminds us that the manger where baby Jesus was placed was a food trough for animals. But this common food trough bears greater symbolism—Jesus invites us to come and feast at His banquet table and to enjoy the rich blessings He has for all who will come and partake. If we eat of His table, we will never hunger again. The choir follows Travis’s words with their stirring rendition of "Fairest Lord Jesus".

 

The benediction is sung to conclude the evening's program. "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" is still ringing in my ears as we depart amidst hugs and smiles and Merry Christmases and "It was the best concert ever." It’s great this concert is offered as a gift to our community.

 

Three days later, I was still reflecting on the musicians, the voices, the narrator, the director and pastors, the lighting and videos, and all the people and their talents who made this concert an awesome experience. And why was it so special? Without drama or straining to be entertaining, well chosen, familiar songs with beautiful accompaniment really did tell the greatest story ever told. Jesus was born—Emmanuel, which means “God with us”—to live and die, to save us from our sins, and to invite us to His great big table, where we can feast with Him forevermore!

 

- Written by the Chapel Story Team