Singing the Song of Hope: What Hadestown Teaches About the Preacher’s Task
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner, Assistant Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary, joined Day1 host Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime to share profound insights into the Advent season through the lens of Broadway musicals. Drawing on the themes of waiting and hope, Dr. Wagner connects the reimagined Greek myth in Hadestown to the Christian journey, showcasing the preacher’s task to proclaim the Gospel in the tension between brokenness and resurrection.
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Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: I have a gravely serious question to ask. Now, please.
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: I'm all in. Buckling in.
Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: As someone who specifically loves Broadway musicals, I have to ask, Kim Wagner, which show best captures those Advent themes of waiting and anticipation?
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: Oh, my gosh. All right. So I could go through an entire catalog. I will not. But the first one that kind of wants you to.
Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: But, yes, you're right.
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: No, no, no. Yeah, maybe I'll do a whole. Maybe we should do a whole series. Yes. No, a whole series of Broadway and the Gospel. I would preach that in a second. Yes. But anyway, back to the question at hand. The one that comes to mind first is the musical Hadestown, which is an amazing musical. I have now seen it five times and have tickets for at least two more visits because I just keep taking people because I think it's that good and I get something out of it every time I see it.
It's a musical that is a reimagination of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, the gods, and Orpheus and Eurydice, the humans. And in this story, it opens with Hermes, the God Hermes, who kind of plays the role of the narrator, starting by warning the audience, "We’re gonna sing this song. It’s an old song. It’s a sad song. It’s a tragedy, but we’re gonna sing it anyway."
And what’s funny is when you first hear it, you don’t catch on to that. And then you go through the whole show, and spoiler alert, what ends up happening is Orpheus rescues Eurydice from Hades, but is charged that the only way they can walk out of Hades is if Orpheus walks in front, Eurydice walks in back. And Orpheus is not allowed to turn around and check to see if Eurydice is there. He has to trust her. Well, right before they make it out of Hades, he turns around, and she gets sucked down to Hades again.
Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime: Bit Christological there, right?
Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner: But also so Advent, right? So, like, and to me, like, this is the preaching task. The preaching task is us for to sing the song again and again and again and again, knowing that the world is broken, but leaning into the promise that it might turn out this time. And so to me, Hadestown is the embodiment, I think, of all of our Christological preaching, but especially in Advent, when we are sitting in that middle space between brokenness and hope, between death and resurrection, between absence and incarnation, right?
And so I think that Hadestown, especially that last line, in light of the whole show, really invites the preacher’s task, which is to sing it again and again and again, trusting that it might work out this time. Because though we see how the world is, we can speak to how it could be.
Reflection: The Preaching Task in Advent
Rev. Dr. Wagner’s reflection on Hadestown provides a poignant metaphor for the Advent season. In Hadestown, the retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice captures the tension of trust, hope, and inevitable loss, resonating deeply with the waiting and anticipation that define Advent. For preachers and theologians, Wagner challenges us to embrace the "middle space"—the tension between brokenness and hope, death and resurrection, absence and incarnation.
As preachers, the task of proclaiming the Gospel is, as Wagner puts it, "singing the song again and again," even when the world seems broken. This metaphor calls us to lean into the promise of Christ’s presence and the hope of restoration, despite the realities we face. How do you remain faithful to proclaiming hope in the midst of brokenness? What practices help you trust in the promise of God’s presence, even when it’s hard to see?
Explore these themes further by diving into Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner’s full sermon, filled with encouragement and theological depth.
