Setlist 12-20-2015

This week was the third week of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of love. I guess it would also be true to say that the theme was simply "advent," but the candle-themes of advent are so intertwined when placed next to eachother, I have no problem saying that all of these songs were sung in light of love.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, 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

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Love (Gladdening Light) by ubcmusic

Make This Go On Forever (Refrain) by Snow Patrol

Doxology

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. 

This week's set doesn't seem to lend itself to the usual format I use to think about how the songs fit together.  These songs were all written as a unit to explore the themes of advent, which means they are pretty thoroughly interwoven with one another.  The hope was to create songs that voiced a longing hope that is never quite resolved or satiated, yet is so entrenched in the idea that God is faithful and is actively in the midst of telling a story that isn't over yet, that there is some sort of balance struck between pain and healing, joy and sorrow.  As I've said in the previous weeks, I think these songs carry broad enough images for them to take on a variety of layers of significance for different people, so I would encourage you to listen to them again and think about the words.  The links to the videos are below.  Also, a word about the piece of the Snow Patrol song we attached to the end of each song over the past few weeks: When we say "I don't know where to look//my words just break and melt//please just save me from this darkness," we confess that there are kinds of darkness that we encounter against which we feel helpless and struggle to imagine a way through, yet we know to Whom to take our pleas for salvation.  This seems to capture the advent spirit as we look back on the ways that God has been faithful to us as a way of fueling the hope that we carry forward.

Hope (There Will Come A Light)

Peace (Change Everything)

Joy (Brightest)

Love (Gladdening Light)

-JM

ubc advent songs: love (gladdening light)

Earlier this semester, I wrote a song for each week of Advent.  My friends at Canowan in Austin invited me to their church to record video sessions of them as a part of a series of Christmas song videos they're making.   We'll sing one of these each week during Advent, and I'll be posting the videos here.  If you want to check out some of the other songs my friends recorded for this project, they'll be posting four songs each week of this month here.

This song is called "Gladdening Light," and it was written for the Love week. If you have any questions, email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org

Setlist 12-13-2015

This week was the third week of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of joy.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, 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

All the Poor and Powerless by All Sons & Daughters

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic

Make This Go On Forever (Refrain) by Snow Patrol

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Doxology

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. 

All the Poor and Powerless: I've pointed out before that this song can come off as insubstantial and/or repetitive.  The chorus basically just repeats "everyone will praise God," and the bridge basically just repeats "grab a megaphone and tell everyone who God is."  I don't think there's any serious problem with the content of these lines, but their repetition feels like it drains their potency.  But here's the thing.  The verses of the songs create or portrait in which the people for whom this is good news are the poor, the feeble, the underrepresented, the depressed, the complacent, the ones at the end of their rope; and over/against these seemingly hopeless states of being, we find a God who has neither forgotten nor abandoned them.  The hallelujah's of this song are what we might think of as "cold and broken hallelujah's"--praises that come from places we might not expect--and since these praises are directed toward the God who loves and is redeeming a fallen world, we find in this song a portrait of joy.  This is the stubborn joy that comes along with fixing one's eyes on the faithfulness of God, that refuses to be swayed by our circumstances or our emotions.  It's a joy that can coexist just fine in peace and in chaos, in contentment and depression.

Hope (There Will Come A Light):   I wrote this song a couple of years ago for the first week of Advent.  A few months ago, I wrote songs for all the other weeks, too, so we will sing the whole series of songs over the next few weeks.  I recently recorded some video sessions of these songs with some friends in Austin.  The video for this song has been posted here.  

Peace (Change Everything): This is a song that voices a longing for peace.  More accurately, this song voices a longing for several different kinds of peace: peace from existential despair, physical violence and threats, less tangible violence and threats that exist in our minds, and the threats that accompany the natural processes that carry our bodies from birth to death. We'll be singing this song a few more times this month, so feel free to listen to it again here.

Joy (Brightest): This song contemplates the strange nature of the joy we find in Advent--it's a joy that puts our feeble expectations of joy to shame in a way that might be considered destructive.  The good news we await on Christmas day just might be bad news for certain aspects of ourselves.  I've been more reserved in the descriptions I've offered of the Advent songs as a whole, and this has been intentional.  I feel like you could take these songs in many different ways--especially when you take them all together--so I would prefer instead just to direct you to listen to these songs and read the lyrics and think about them for yourselves.  As always, you can email me or comment at the bottom of the page if you want to talk about them further.  The video of this song is available here.

Make This Go On Forever (Reprise): We once again closed this week's advent song with this reprise from the end of a great Snow Patrol song (spoiler alert: we'll do this next week and the week after as well).  The point is to voice the longing that we live in during Advent: while we may not understand how it will happen or when it will happen, we know that God is the One who can save us from this present darkness.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: We sang this song because of the way it marries rejoicing with the hope of peace/reconciliation, which incorporates every Advent theme through which we've journeyed thus far.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ubc advent songs: joy (brightest)

Earlier this semester, I wrote a song for each week of Advent.  My friends at Canowan in Austin invited me to their church to record video sessions of them as a part of a series of Christmas song videos they're making.   We'll sing one of these each week during Advent, and I'll be posting the videos here.  If you want to check out some of the other songs my friends recorded for this project, they'll be posting four songs each week of this month here.

This song is called "Brightest," and it was written for the Joy week. If you have any questions, email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org

Lyrics:

is this fear or joy, and what is the difference?
there's a change coming on the wind
my God, it's electric
the skin on the back of my neck is needles and stitches
like there's a New Light among the stars, just out of my vision

what Joy could come from darkness
and not destroy the place we've made?
like if the candle we called Brightest
suddenly fell in the hay

is this love or death, and what is the difference?
there's a change coming to the scales
my God, it's infectious
the veins on the back of my eyes are straining and pulsing
like there's a New Light among the stars that I can't behold yet

what Joy could come from darkness
and not destroy the place we've made?
like if the candle we called Brightest
suddenly fell in the hay

this is the moment that everything changes
and all of our fears find the peace they've been chasing
and all of our comforts shatter like mirrors
caught in a Light like has never been seen here
the mountains, they crumble
chasms, they shade them
and all of our answers grow into questions
when the feeble, like lions, are freed from their cages
and the mighty are pulled from the places they're saving
this is joy, unspeakable joy

Setlist 12-6-2015

This week was the second week of Advent, and our songs were gathered around the theme of peace.  Below, you’ll find the list of the songs and artists. Clicking the song titles will take you to the lyrics. Below the songs, 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

Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic

Come Thou Fount

Future/Past by John Mark McMillan

Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic

Make This Go On Forever (Refrain) by Snow Patrol

Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light

Doxology

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. 

Hope (There Will Come A Light):   I wrote this song a couple of years ago for the first week of Advent.  A few months ago, I wrote songs for all the other weeks, too, so we will sing the whole series of songs over the next few weeks.  I recently recorded some video sessions of these songs with some friends in Austin.  The video for this song has been posted here.  

Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to think about the peace that God has extended to us as people who are not necessarily deserving of reconciliation.  If you don't know, the "Here I raise my Ebenezer" line is referring to the idea of a monument that would remind us of what God has done for us--it's the "looking back" that we talked about last week as being our source of Hope.

Future/Past:  We sang this song to think about the looking back and looking forward that comes along with Advent.  The reconciliation that God offers us is not limited to a fixed point in time, but is instead an activity that is carried through all of time--something we can look back at with gratitude and look forward to in faith.

Peace (Change Everything): This is a song that voices a longing for peace.  More accurately, this song voices a longing for several different kinds of peace: peace from existential despair, physical violence and threats, less tangible violence and threats that exist in our minds, and the threats that accompany the natural processes that carry our bodies from birth to death. We'll be singing this song a few more times this month, so feel free to listen to it again here.

Make This Go On Forever (Reprise): We once again closed this week's advent song with this reprise from the end of a great Snow Patrol song (spoiler alert: we'll do this next week and the week after as well).  The point is to voice the longing that we live in during Advent: while we may not understand how it will happen or when it will happen, we know that God is the One who can save us from this present darkness.

Wayward Ones: We sing this song every time we take communion to remind ourselves of a couple of things.  First, we are a broken people--though we are seeking to become more like Jesus, we often fail at this.  Second, Christ has given Himself for us despite our brokenness.  We take communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, even though we did not, and do not, deserve it.

Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos. 

-JM

ubc advent songs: peace (change everything)

Earlier this semester, I wrote a song for each week of Advent.  My friends at Canowan in Austin invited me to their church to record video sessions of them as a part of a series of Christmas song videos they're making.   We'll sing one of these each week during Advent, and I'll be posting the videos here.  If you want to check out some of the other songs my friends recorded for this project, they'll be posting four songs each week of this month here.

This song is called "Change Everything," and it was written for the Peace week. If you have any questions, email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org

Lyrics:

When will the night be turned to day
when will our torches find their Flame
when will our eyes have Light to see
o God, bring peace

when will our weapons have no place
when will our violence be replaced
when will our safety be complete
o God, bring peace

o God, if You could change everything
would it be a King or a new way to breathe
neither, or both, o God could it be
something we'd never conceive

when will our worry be dissolved
when will our anxious thoughts be lost
when will our minds be put at ease
o God, bring peace

o God, if You could change everything
would it be a King or a new way to breathe
neither, or both, o God could it be
something we'd never conceive

when will our cells maintain their shape
when will our bodies cease to fade
when will our dying taste defeat
o God, bring peace

-JM