Some things just strike us. We feel it. Immediately.
Like that amazing meal.
Or the first time you did that thing.
To find something striking is even more fun when it’s not expected at all. We expect that the birth of a child will be wild. But not this bottle of wine. Not the precise fit of this blazer. Not this amazing play our kid just did on the sportsball field.
Some things just take us on a ride, ya know?
This song — “This Is the Christ” — is one of those things for me.
The first time I heard the song, I was fascinated by it. Maybe it was more the production style than the underlying song written by Martin Luther in 1535. But I was gripped nonetheless.
Being drawn in by the sound, I then took a closer look at the lyrics. And I was curious, “Why isn’t this song among the canon of familiar carols?” We have “O Holy Night,” and “Silent Night” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” … why had I never heard this song?
I quickly learned to play the modern rendition of the tune on guitar. It has a bit of an unusual feel: fancier chord changes and more intricate melody lines than many modern songs we sing. But, it’s the familiarity, not the simplicity of other favorite Christmas songs and hymns that make them easy for us to sing together. (Nostalgic brand equity is great for shared singing capabilities.)
Since this song is not in our canon of familiar Christmas hymns … I decided I would try to change that. At least in and for my local church community.
For a few years, I would “teach” this song to my congregation on the Sundays that I was leading music in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
(It’s that sorta-awkward “I’ll sing it first, and then we’ll all sing it together” thing.)
People would get it! And then, at our Christmas Eve service, we might be able to cobble together a viable corporate rendition of it.
But last year, our church did not “learn” or “do” this song or “have it in our set lists” on any of the Sundays leading up to Christmas.
And then our big Christmas Eve service was upon us. I decided to put “This Is the Christ” into the service, not knowing what to expect.
As we got to this song on Christmas Eve, I gave it no introduction. No disclaimer. No “Ok guys, this is a new song …”
I just hit the first couple chords on guitar to start the song.
And the congregation took it away.
Like they had always known it.
Like it was “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”
The soaring chorus of this song (with the title lyric, “This is the Christ”) soared.
The song, for our community, had entered the impenetrable canon of Christmas songs.
That’s pretty cool. But it’s still not as cool as hearing a group of people sing this song together. While the recorded version of this song was striking the first time I heard it, the communally sung version of the song is stunning every time I hear it.
There’s a song, and there’s the singing of it. There’s theology or philosophy, and there’s the living of it. There’s the Trinity, and there’s the humanity of it. The incarnation of a thing will get ya.
Click here to listen to the song. | Click here to find our Advent playlist. | Click here to find more Advent reflections.
