This week was Transfiguration Sunday, the final Sunday of Epiphany, and our songs were gathered with this in mind. Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, you can find recordings from Sunday morning of a few of them, and below the recordings, there is an example of one way you might think of these songs in light of this week's theme. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to comment at the bottom of this page or email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
Revelation Song by Kari Jobe
All Creatures of Our God and King
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
The Transfiguration by Sufjan Stevens
How They Fit In:
There are many ways to think about the significance of songs and the way they fit together–-this is simply one way you can look at these songs in light of this week’s theme.
Revelation Song: The Transfiguration is one of those moments in the gospel narrative where Jesus' particularity is underscored. There aren't words to accurately describe the wonder of this moment, but Revelation Song offers language to talk about it sideways through giving voice to various responses to God's wonder.
All Creatures of our God and King: This song is a rallying cry for every aspect of God's creation to sing of God's grandeur, and voice gratitude for God's creative impulse. This, again, is a sideways response to talking about Jesus' transfiguration, this moment whose significance isn't well-captured by words.
Mystery: We sang this song to acknowledge that the mystery of the Transfiguration is paradigmatic for the mystery of Jesus in his Person, and settles into the positive affirmation that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again, as a way to talk about Jesus' particularity without attempting to make Jesus into an equation to be solved.
The Transfiguration: This song literally narrates the Transfiguration. Listen to it, and know that writing a song that literally narrates a bible story without coming off as trite or poetically lazy is a feat of masterful proportions.
How Great Thou Art: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about How Great Thou Art then: This song is an exercise in wonder. It allows us to practice connecting the wonders of creation, the redemption story that unfolds in the Bible, and the reconciliation Hope we carry, to the One who is responsible for all of them. This is ultimately the same function of the season of Epiphany.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM