Keep it Simple (Burt Bacharach)

There's something so deeply corny about a lot of Christmas music. All this smarmy singing about Santa's sleigh and chestnuts roasting and  letting it snow... as if those were the most important wishes on our list.

Yet even for those who celebrate Christmas but wouldn't consider themselves terribly religious, we know that most holiday hopes go deeper than that. And especially for those of us who observe Advent, we know that sometimes our hopes for the ourselves and the world can go so deep we don't even know how to say them.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

                                                                 - Romans 8:26

Despite the depth of our hopes, sometimes we look for the right words, and all we come up with is "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas." Or we want to talk about what we want Christmas to feel like, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" just seems to sum it up. These songs can also wear on us after overplay in the mall, but sometimes it's good to just say the needs we have in simple language. It may be corny, but sometimes hoping for 'Santa' and love and peace is exactly what we're trying to say.

"Corny" pretty much sums up my perception of this song by Burt Bacharach. I first encountered this song in the kitchy film Austin Powers, which is sticky-sweet nonsense from beginning to end. Then, I heard the song on a retro-weekend on the radio the other day, and suddenly recognized Advent: is there any more sweetly cloying and totally true to say during Advent than "what the world needs now, is love, sweet love? No, not just for some, but for everyone."

May favorite part of this song is when it kicks into high gear with the uptempo psychedelic guitars. It's saying, yeah, this wish is true, but we're gonna' have a little fun with it, too! This is helpful, because I often forget the power of having fun and keeping it simple when it comes to saying our needs during Advent. But fancy words don't beat the plaintive power of being straightforward... as any of us could tell you who've yelled along to a pop song about love or good times in the car.

There's a certain virtue to corny. Isn't there something weirdly corny about our insistence on mangers and babies and fluffy lambs and stars on Christmas? This is the SON OF GOD we're talking about here, and we turn it into a story reenacted by eight year-olds. Yet as any of us know who've retold this corny story of God's birth among us, there's an incredible power in the simplicity and symbolism of the manger story, just as there's a majesty about John 1. 

My vote this year, as I say my needs and set out my hopes this first week of Advent is for BOTH: both the corny and the profound, the sweet and the bitter, the soothing night shadows and the bright light of a star. I choose Over the Rhine and Eliza Gilkyson who remind me of the yearning, aching, and profundity of this season. I also choose Burt Bacharach and Brenda Lee... and all the other corny songs that remind me that our hopes are simple and joyful and filled with hopefulness.

What corny hopes do you carry into this season, and how can you claim them without apologizing for their simplicity?

May you find the effervescence and delight of this season of Advent, the anticipation and the hopefulness, the playfulness that allows both our deepest and our most simple hopes to be named to God.

                                                                                               - Anna