Welcome the Light! (Feist and Little Wings)

I like words. I like poetry and song lyrics and having good conversations. But I've also learned that some things - the very deeply difficult or profoundly joyful things - are beyond words.

In the best moments, before we simply fall silent in wonder, all we can manage is to exclaim. To shout for joy. To murmur in disbelief. To babble in delight.

Look!, we say. O, what a wonder...

Look at What the Light Did Now is a song I like without quite knowing why. It's nonsensical lyrics have no real thread of meaning, but play with words in a way that reminds me of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem:

Look at what the light did now
Taste the taste I taste 'til it's tasted
                                                  Look at what the light did now

                                                                            Bought it like a boast that burly beaming
                                                                            Look at what the light did now

There's no direct meaning in this song, except for the repeated refrain: "Look at what the light did now!"

This is our week to look. Our week to fill our eyes with the wonder that happened so long ago in the Incarnation, in the God-With-Us still manifesting in our world today. We Welcome the Light this week, first of all, by exclaiming, "Look, look what The Light did now!" 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things came into being through him; and without him not once thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.  - John 1: 1-4, 14

And we have seen his glory. Sometimes in a glimpse, as from the corner of our eye, and sometimes straight on, as on a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day when we are lost in wonder, love and praise, speaking nonsense words of joy, or cooing like a mother, a father, bending over their miracle of a newborn. A strange song of hope rises anew in us as we recognize again that the power of God lies in vulnerability, the triumph of God lies in profound peace, and the reign of God lies in the absurdity of a newborn baby sleeping on straw with sheep.

Look at what The Light did now!

Look at What the Light Did Now by Little Wings feat. Feist. Lyrics HERE.

May The Light born at Christmas continue to dawn in you today, inspiring glorious nonsense, joyful noise, and songs of renewed hope.

Tues Dec. 27 - Time Is on Our Side (Free Energy)

We'll never get any other life...

So together we make this whole.
                      - Free Energy

It may seem strange to put a pop dance song in a Christmas lineup.  There are no 'silver bells' here, but there is plenty of cowbell.  This song is basically about liberation through a great beat, singable lyrics and a will to survive - and if this theme seems a little thin to you, just hold on for a minute.

One of the reasons the A.M. Project came into existence is because I know in my own journey how many times a good song has "saved" my life.  Sometimes prayer or meditation works, sometimes worship works, sometimes a talk with a friend does the trick, but sometimes when we're lost in the circles of our own thoughts, a good song on the radio can resuscitate us back to reality.  This is no insult to more "certified holy" forms of rejuvenation; it merely acknowledges what many of us already know: music moves us.

A danceable song, lyrics that seem to speak right to us, hum-able tunes... whether we more often listen to R&B, bluegrass and soul, hip hop, dance pop, classical or jazz, those of us who love music love it because of its power to stay with us, to change us - to help us.

This is all we got tonight

This is all we got tonight

We are young and still alive

And now the time is on our side

The Advent Music Project could very easily have been a collection of Christmas classics and new Christian rock favorites and indie Christian gems where the lyrics were always clearly about Jesus and God and the Christmas miracle.  Honestly, this would have made our reflection-writing task much easier!  But we didn't take on this project to find God only where God was already obvious; we wanted to find God, Jesus, Advent and Christmas in a few places no one had thought to look yet.

As with many good pop songs, the lyrics to Free Energy are both extremely literal and also open to the listener's personal experience. 'We are young and still alive' can be a rally cry for anyone from 9 to 90, and 'now the time is on our side' can speak to each of our hopes and longings.  So if we let go of our prejudgments about what "makes" Christmas music, isn't this the kind of song we could imagine the shepherds singing on the way back to their fields - the world and its possibilities suddenly opened up before them by a baby and his family camping in a manger?

What if 'this is all we got tonight' isn't a minimalist statement, but a free-wheeling confession that all we need is what we have because we've been freed from all our fears?  What if it was better-known that the angels loved a good cowbell-enhanced rock song just as well as harps and flutes?  What if we could acknowledge that at Christmas we are free to rock, free to dance, free to dare new things, because once and for all we have been shown that time is on our side, that God is bringing about astounding acts of mercy and grace, hope and love, freedom and wisdom all around us, and is urging us to just join the chorus and sing along:

The Lord is my light and my salvation -

so why should I be afraid?

The Lord is my fortress protecting me from danger -

so why should I tremble?

                                - Psalm 27:1 (NLT)

This Christmas-tide, let us not be afraid to rock, to dance, to shout with the knowledge that, despite all brokenness and waiting, in the end we have been shown in Christ's birth that time is definitely on our side.

Mon Dec. 26 - This Time Like You Mean It (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)

The angel said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."
  [And] suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace...!"

                                       - Luke 2:10-14, adapted

Why is there so little joy in our churches around Christmas? Joy isn't the same thing as adoration and praise, although these are close sisters. It's also not the same as quiet inspiration, although this, too, is related. Joy is an attitude, not an action; it's about nearly irrepressible delight, amazement, wonder, or understanding. In a Christian context, joy is about connection with the divine story in a way that is radically moving, that literally shakes up our foundations and brings us to our feet - or to our knees.

Yes, I'm happy about pancakes on Christmas morning or opening presents, and delighted by family and calm feelings of peace. Or maybe some years I'm not - maybe Christmas is painful and awkward for me that year. But I believe that joy can break out for us all into any situation - even though it rarely does.

Trouble is, we can't just BE more joyful. The miracle of joy is that it can't be manufactured or forced - it is utterly authentic or it is nothing. All we can do is be open to it, be awake to the story of our faith and be convicted about its meaning in our lives. In the end, joy comes, unbidden, from the place where our deepest hopes and convictions meet resounding outside affirmation - like the angels appearing to frightened shepherds to put an emphatic exclamation point on God's promises of love and redemption.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of the earliest rock n' roll musicians in the U.S., though she's rarely credited for it. She grew up on the preaching circuit with her mother learning to play guitar and never left the gospel spirit in which she was raised. What I appreciate so much about Sister Rosetta is her joyful, almost infectious delight when she sings and plays - she rolls back her eyes, sways, wails on the guitar and just generally invites us join her in a playful conspiracy of rejoicing:

Up above my head, 

I hear music in the air,

Up above my head,

there is music in the air

Up above my head

I really do believe (I really do believe)

There's joy somewhere

All in my home, 

there is music in the air...

What would it look like if we could catch the spirit of this kind of praise and delight -- this great joy -- more often in our lives, homes and communities? Maybe it would look like Sister Rosetta or maybe it would be quieter or more subtle, but either way it would be real, meaningful and - most important: visible.

This carries us back to the heart of Christian evangelism - which isn't some sickly, cloying Vote-For-Jesus campaign or mere self-aggradizing proselytizing, but which simply starts with the act of living of our lives as if this Christmas story mattered - as if it gave us genuine hope and real joy.  

The Advent Music Project didn't feel like a complete project unless we followed the Christmas star all the way into the manger and to Epiphany. So this week, as Christmastide begins, we're thinking about Hoping Onward into the twelve days of Christmas, into a new calendar year, and beyond. So we ask ourselves: how do we hope onward and delve deeper into the story of Jesus' birth so that we don't just abandon him in the manger when the parties and food and gifts have ended?

One possibility of hoping onward might be to re-embrace the possibility of joy in our lives and Christian communities. We might remember and experience 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' this year as if there were some strange and wonderful music about to break out overhead, announcing good news of great joy. We might sing the songs as if they meant something, we might worship wholeheartedly and try to live -at least for a moment - as if we really mean it when we said that we believe that Emmanuel was born again this Christmas Day, inviting all Creation to join with us in the angels' playful conspiracy of rejoicing, as well.

'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in the Lord, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.'                  - Romans 15:13

                             - Anna

Wed Dec. 22 Celebration (Stevie Wonder)

"I feel like running wild,

as anxious as a little child....

I wish you a Merry Christmas, baby

and such happiness in the coming year."  -What Christmas Means to Me

          Let's not forget the joy. During Advent there is a lot of ambiguity, a lot of facing of brokenness, hoping for the future, all of which AMP has pressed into for almost four weeks now. But lest we get stuck in that loop and forget, today let's give ourselves a little permission to live into the celebration.  There is much to celebrate in this season. Now to be clear, I am not referring to the happiness of receiving that gift you really wanted, or the temporary truce, glad-to-be-good-right-now moments at some of our family gatherings, or even the warmth we extend to guests at the soup kitchen; these are wonderful moments but they can easily turn, becoming moments of disappointment, toppling into patterns of brokenness or passing into cold inconstancy. We observe moments as a doorway into a deeper and more abiding celebration.

     
           In Advent and at Christmas, we REJOICE in the message of the babygod, whose birth was joyfully announced to the shepherds so long ago; the message of hope that the world will be redeemed, the message of grace that we are beloved by our creator.  This is the ABIDING JOY to which we return each year, that it might be born in us anew as we peer into the manger. 

       
            This joy undergirds our season, runs through the hustle and bustle of our days and waits quietly in our moments of pain and longing. This joy peeks out at us from the usual places: candles burning low and singing sweet Silent Night as well as unexpected places like an impromptu conversation or a moment of stillness late at night. For me, rocking a sweet baby girl, sharing a meal cooked with love, laughing at my coworker's truly hilarious joke, all these things and more, are reminders to rejoice this season. These mostly small moments, and few big ones, point to the Love that holds the world in it's grasp, the peace that grow as Love connects us, and the hope of the promise that Love transforms us all. That's what Christmas means to me and that is worth celebrating. 

       
             As we draw close to Christmas, let us savor the moments of joy, big and small. Listen to Stevie, smile, dance a little, if you feel it. This is a season of joy, what does that mean to you?

"Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that shall be for all the people"  
              -Luke 2:10

                                       -Lindsey

Mon Dec. 12 Come Alive (Gungor)

           

Rejoice you lonely and lost
You sick and despised
All will be made right
Rejoice you cynics and freaks
Those searching for peace
All will be made right

Even you religious teachers
Separating us from them
Heaven’s found inside us all
So turn and come alive again

  - Wake Up Sleeper, Gungor

              For several years of my life (and even occasionally now) I would’ve heard a song like today’s and thought to myself, ‘Yeah, Church, get it together!’ But I have come to realize that for all of my institutional malcontent and my disgust for some of the ways the church gets represented in the wider society, I am the church. I was formed by a church family, it is part of my heritage and, through membership and even career choice, I am a stakeholder and sometimes even a leader in the church.

           

             It is valid to critique those who would divide and condemn, who would use positions of power and leadership in ways that dishonor others, in the church as elsewhere. And I do note with relish the invitation that comes toward the end of the song, for the very ones to whom the woes are addressed, to turn and “come alive.”  Still, there is something to be said for knowing where you are in the scheme of things; and I fear that if I do not think about my role among the rejoicers as well as those who must come alive, I will be limited by my own self-denial.

            ‘Scandal’ is a word that I have frequently heard (in churches) attached to the story of Jesus and more specifically to the love and mercy of God for the world. It is an idea that today’s band, Gungor, translates into our own cultural context: all of us have reason to rejoice (freaks, cynics, the despised, saints, the poor, the lonely) for God intends all of us to be part of the coming kin-dom.  ‘All’ meaning, well…ALL; and if I really think about who within that scope would scandalize me: suffice it to say the list is not empty. And that self honesty feels about as comfortable as some of the dissonant, wailing chords of our song today: almost, but not quite, cringe-worthy.  

So, I find myself engaging in two strains of reflection upon this song.

• The one that I suspect many of us can relate to (though it still doesn’t seem to get enough air time): In what ways does the church need to wake up? In what ways does it need to come alive again?

• The second, which I, at least, turn to with much less passion: What are the areas of my life in which I need to wake up? The places where I can come more fully alive?

“Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love…” Joel 2:13

In this season of preparation, awaken us to the endless immensity of your grace, that when we look back at the finite constraints of ourselves, we might truly rejoice to be inheriters of your kin-dom.

                           -Lindsey