Post Christmas Reflections

I ran across a CD while taking our dogs for a walk and listening to an otherwise lame Podcast discussing Christmas trivialities. After my walk, I looked up the CD on iTunes and after noting there were 42 tracks – thought – shoot why not. Wow, what an odd collection of songs and arrangements by Sufjan Stevens. Some songs have an early Simon and Garfunkel kind of harmony with banjo instead of guitar. I know – hard to imagine. Two songs held me. One in particular is O Come, O Come Emanuel. It has become a lens filtering my thoughts about the meaning of Christmas. Steven’s arrangement brings a new clarity to the lyrics and a mood I had never felt before. I heard the haunting and almost breathless cry of Israel (and the Church) as a captive, trapped and victim to events outside her control. I had never really framed the origins of this season in terms of a cry for deliverance and of hope.

How fitting, though, we live in a Post 9/11 world. One of the top selling business books, The World is Flat, describes the massively disruptive restructuring of global commerce. I cannot remember a time so volatile, so polarized and at the same time so hopeful. And that simply refers to the two teenagers living in our house.

I also took note of another Christmas hymn. “Joy to the world the Lord has come let the earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room.” Both songs announce not simply a change of sentiment but a change of ownership. That is radical, disruptive and disturbing – according to the original story. We visited a few churches over the holidays. The services were touching for sure and excellently performed but overlooked the underlying reality that has made the Advent timeless. A friend sent a commentary by Joseph Loconte on National Public Radio transcript touching upon this root tension. What was the message behind the message that drove King Herod’s brutality? Is there really a hidden government of the heart that can ransom us from self-serving captivity and bring peace to men of goodwill?


There is no doubt that there is a mood for change. It’s simple but just not that easy. “We must become the change we wish to see.”