That a church our size would offer a Christmas play or pageant (or in our case produce an extravagant concert) is so customary nowadays that it hardly seems necessary to provide justification for it. However, I have a special reason for wanting to understand the purpose of our annual musical celebration - to find out, frankly, whether it really is a good idea or not. After all, bad ideas can be covered in lights and tinsel and smiled at. Think of a 1959 Evergleam Aluminum Christmas Tree, for example. I need to know whether our annual Christmas concert is just another Evergleam, made to seem sacred by proximity to a manger. (Please forgive me if you just unpacked your beloved Evergleam.)
I blame my recent work in church music for pressing this question hard into my mind, causing certain thoughts to bat around the various lobes and settle somewhere between the backs of my eyes. You have to realize that it is one thing to sit through an ill-begotten concert, and quite another to be the one to produce it. I want to make sure I know what this is all about.
In my recent small capacity helping with music, I have been given a view of the exhausting, constant, and ever-repeating toil it takes from a platoon of volunteers, staff, and pastors, just to ensure that our weekly worship service comes out the way it does. Liturgy planned, sermons prepared, hymns selected, preludes and anthems learned, organ registered, sanctuary cleaned, bulletins printed, websites updated, communion table set, microphones checked, and what else? The service music alone requires that our tireless musicians learn and prepare ten separate selections each week, week upon week, and even more for communion Sundays.
All of that is nothing compared to the extravagant preparation that has gone into the Christmas concert. On December 18 at 7 pm, we will have forty choir members, a twenty-one-piece orchestra, thirty or more children, various soloists, percussionists, and bell ringers. That is close to a hundred musicians. I cannot estimate the total combined work hours that it has taken to make this fleeting concert possible. The concert will not last long - only about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then it will be gone, wafted away like a fading fragrance.
So, there stands the question. Is it worth all the trouble? Isaiah 1.12 comes to mind: “Who has required of you this trampling of my courts?” Isaiah’s concern was with the ludicrous hypocrisy of fabulous worship from false hearts. But say our hearts are not false, that we really are sincere in our adoration of the Lord and intent on faithfulness and obedience to him, even then is such extravagance worth it? Should so much energy, time, and expense have been spent on something as fleeting as a festival concert? “Should not this perfume have been sold, and the money given to the poor?” (Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 7, John 12)
I say yes, it is worth it. And I’ll offer two reasons. The first reason is simple and pragmatic. The second is theological. First, good things take great effort. The balance is not even. It is easy to do things poorly, and so very hard to do things well. As soon as you decide to do anything well, you have committed yourself to great difficulty. Artists know this. Writers know this. Preachers know this. Builders and craftsmen know this. Chefs and homemakers know this. Anyone who has really endeavored to ply their trade, and ply it well, knows this. If we are going to have music, and if we are going to do a good job, then it will not be easy.
Second, the motivation for the festival concert is nothing less than the honor of the Lord of lords. It is entirely proper, as the vast number of Christians of all kinds everywhere have agreed, to celebrate the nativity of our Lord with feasting and frivolity, singing, and gift-giving. In short, extravagance. And what a testimony to the world Christmas has been!
One of my favorite French carols is “Quelle est cette odeur agréable” or “What is this Goodly Fragrance?” I think of our Christmas concert as a Goodly Fragrance offered in celebration of our Savior’s birth. A good French fragrance is not easy to make, and it is very costly. The choirs of Covenant Presbyterian Church want to pour this fragrance out, as it were, at the manger. We believe the honor of our King is worth every bit of it, and more.
