Advent bridges the old and the new. We pass traditions down to new generations; we retell ancient stories in order to live out their lessons in the here and now. I guess it’s appropriate, then, that so many great Christmas/Advent songs are covers: old songs sung in new ways. A cover can reveal new meaning in songs we know by heart and help us rediscover the power that faded with familiarity. That’s certainly true of my favorite Advent song: Sufjan Stevens’ cover of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
The original was written by English Baptist pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson in 1758. Stevens, a contemporary queer American indie-folk artist, recorded his version in 2002 on a Christmas album for family and friends, and it was shared with the public on the compilation “Songs for Christmas” (2006). It’s a simple but profound hymn, praising God’s unfailing love. Stevens’ version is modern, but no less simple: rich keys and a full-hearted banjo, gentle harmonies that build until the song ends in joyful acapella. You could imagine friends singing it around a fire.
I first heard this version during a complicated time in my faith, following a serious illness in our family. My defenses were raised against sentimental piety, but this earnest, tender expression of God’s goodness cut right through them. This, I thought, is what it’s all about. It’s the promise that remains after all of our theological wrestling and wrangling: God is with us; we are not alone.
The song begins: “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.” Advent reminds us that our hearts, like instruments, need to be tuned every now and then so that we can be in harmony with God. When we pray, reflect or serve during Advent, perhaps we should imagine ourselves as musicians tightening and loosening the strings on a guitar, searching for the perfect sound. The song is old and familiar, but again and again we must rediscover how to sing it.
Our faith is like that, too: a song we’ve heard so many times that it can become background noise. We are, like the song’s narrator, “prone to wander” but always called home. In this season, let us be open to how the eternal promise finds new life in the here and now. Advent is the time for singing old songs in new ways.
