This past Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent, 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. If you want to talk about any of these, feel free to email me at jamie@ubcwaco.org.
Songs:
Like It Was Then by ubcmusic
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
A Branch Shall Come by Jameson McGregor
Yesterday was the third Sunday of Advent. 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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:
Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
After the Dust Clears by Jameson McGregor
There by Jameson McGregor
**Note: You can stream ubc’s advent ep from a few years ago here.
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.
Joy (Brightest): This song explores the expectation of Advent Joy, wondering what sort of thing might be that star just out of sight and what changes it might bring to the world as we know it. What might it tear down, and what might it lift up?
Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song proclaims the coming of a fundamental shift to the world where the newborn cries of Light beat back the darkness that plagues our existence.
Peace (Change Everything): This song is plea for God to bring peace into the chaos of our world, from the systems within which we operate, to the cells that compose our bodies.
After the Dust Clears: I don’t really want to talk about this song. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I think it invites you to find your own connecting point within it. I suppose it might be worth pointing out that it’s about the way that we carry conflict and the way we embrace reconciliation, but beyond that, I leave it to you.
There: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week’s songs. This is what we said about There then: We sang this song to confess the transcendence of God, and to anchor ourselves to the peace of God in the midst of chaos.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the second Sunday of Advent. 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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
There by Jameson McGregor
Like It Was Then by Jameson McGregor
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): This song proclaims the coming of a fundamental shift to the world where the newborn cries of Light beat back the darkness that plagues our existence.
Peace (Change Everything): This song is plea for God to bring peace into the chaos of our world, from the systems within which we operate, to the cells that compose our bodies.
There: We sang this song to confess the transcendence of God, and to anchor ourselves to the peace of God in the midst of chaos.
Like It Was Then: This song grasps for some sort of reassurance that Advent hope is merited in our time.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week’s songs. This is what we said about O Come, O Come Emmanuel then: We sang this song to begin Lent with a plea for God to enter as a Light into our dark world.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the third week of Advent, and the songs were gathered with that 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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
Mystery by Jameson McGregor (adapted from Charlie Hall)
Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic
Rise Up by BiFrost Arts
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): This song clings to the hope that God's inbreaking Kingdom will enter the darkness of our world of broken systems, bringing justice to the oppressed.
Peace (Change Everything): This song pleads for God to bring peace into the dissonance and brokenness of the world, from the socio-political sphere to the cellular level.
Mystery: We sang this song to lean into the present day vantage point of Advent, looking at the way the coming of Jesus intersects with our current way of engaging the world in peace and sanity.
Joy (Brightest): This song contemplates the fact that the Joy that accompanies the inbreaking of the Kingdom is a force that lays waste to systems from which we might benefit.
Rise Up: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs. This is what we said about Rise Up then: This song proclaim's God's immanent concern in the plight of the oppressed and marginalized.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
Yesterday was the second week of Advent, and the songs were selected with that 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 a brief example of one way you might think of these songs. 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
There by Jameson McGregor
Rise Up by BiFrost Arts
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
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): This song clings to the hope that God's inbreaking Kingdom will enter the darkness of our world of broken systems, bringing justice to the oppressed.
There: This song proclaim's God's transcendence over and above every source of anxiety in the world, and clings to God as an anchor in the midst of the uncertainty and noise of life.
Rise Up: This song proclaim's God's immanent concern in the plight of the oppressed and marginalized.
Peace (Change Everything): This song pleads for God to bring peace into the dissonance and brokenness of the world, from the socio-political sphere to the cellular level.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel: We sang this song to look over our shoulder at last week's songs: We sang this song to enter into the part of our Story where the people of God were waiting on the Light to enter the darkness.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This week was the fourth Sunday of Advent, 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:
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic
Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
Love (Gladdening Light) by ubcmusic
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): This song focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas. We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about. This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways. The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life. The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us. The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death. Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)? Neither? Both? But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
Love (Gladdening Light): This song retraces the themes from the other three advent songs, and looks ahead to God's shining a light in our darkness. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel: As we near the end of the advent season, we sang this song to once again underscore our longing as we enter this final week leading up to Christmas.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This week was the third Sunday 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, 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:
Joy (Brightest) by ubcmusic
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
A Great Rejoicing by Crowder (with additions by Jameson McGregor)
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.
Joy (Brightest): This song explores the kind of joy that we associate with Christmas. We take for granted that the wholesale change that Jesus brings about is something that we can be excited about. This song isn't claiming that we shouldn't be excited about, but instead that the joy that arises out of this moment might demand something of us--that perhaps everything we've ever looked to for comfort or for a standard of goodness/love is about to be shown up, and that in God's changing everything, we too will be changed. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
Hope (There Will Come A Light): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc. It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways. The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life. The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us. The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death. Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)? Neither? Both? But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace." This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
A Great Rejoicing: This song is from ubc's former music & arts pastor, David Crowder. The version I played yesterday was essentially a different song, but maintained the chorus lyrics and some of the themes from the original. This version was tweaked to address our advent theme more directly, playing up the idea of joy being like streams of living water bringing life to dry places.
Joy to the World: We sang this song to engage both of our identities during advent--with our ancient identity, we looked forward to the coming of Joy in the Incarnation on Christmas, and with our contemporary identity, we looked back on the Incarnation and contemplated the way it affects the way we wait for the coming of the Kingdom in the here and now.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This week was the second Sunday 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, 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:
Hope (There Will Come A Light) by ubcmusic
SMS [Shine] by David Crowder* Band
Peace (Change Everything) by ubcmusic
A Lament by Emily Haas
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
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): This song was written specifically for advent at ubc. It focuses on the hope of the coming of the Light, but hones in on what that means for the darkness around us--namely, the inauguration of its progressive demise. This song, as well as the rest of our original advent songs, is available for free download here.
SMS [Shine]: This song voices a longing for an in-breaking of Light into the chaos of the world, which can just as easily be considered a plea for peace to break into in whatever struggles might mark our lives in this season.
Peace (Change Everything): This song is a plea for peace to come into our lives in a number of ways. The first verse asks when the night will be turned to day, a broad request for an answer to the uncertainties of life. The second verse wonders when our weapons and violence will have no place among us. The third verse longs for the dissolution of our worry and anxieties. And the fourth verse longs for a remedy for the existential concerns of death. Through the chorus, this song raises the question of how exactly God plans on addressing these problems, wondering what a solution would even look like--a king (some kind of leader or outside force to set things right? Or a new way to breathe (a new way to be human--a new way to live)? Neither? Both? But the heartbeat of the song is the plea that closes out each verse: "Oh God, bring peace."
A Lament: This song was written by Emily Haas. I asked her for some thoughts on this song, and this is what she said: Everything is meaningless and I rarely believe in God. Some days, a perfectly balanced stone on a windowsill speaks and the eager skip of a kid goat in pasture elicits something eternally good. April sees pictures when she prays and Lauren mutters unintelligible languages. Karina trusts as a child and tells me, "just to ask." I am not comforted. I am not happy and I don't understand why I have health insurance via my parents while a 3rd grader in McLennan County doesn't have dinner. That's a speck. Surely, if God is true, if Christ is the Christ, then there is not a bit of human experience he is unable to redeem. And I lament that the issues are systemic and there's too much to be done and wonder - what is the point? And then, life is full of purpose and I do believe in God// and I have never experienced "hearing" "THE VOICE OF GOD"//and am hesitant to claim, "it was Him!" but maybe I should and I wrote this song because he "said" and "says" these things to me in a way that is contrary to my whirring mind.
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
This was the eighth Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered around the themes of lament and hope. 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:
Rescue Is Coming by David Crowder* Band
Peace (Change Everything) by Jameson McGregor
Because He Lives by Bill and Gloria Gaither
For Those Tears I Died by Jameson McGregor (adapted from M. Stevens)
All Creatures of Our God and King
Recordings:
From time to time, we'll post live recordings of the songs from Sunday morning. These recordings aren't what you would call polished--sometimes guitars are out of tune, sometimes the vocals are off--but they are records of moments we've shared together. Here's one from this week.
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.
Rescue Is Coming: In the wake of a week full of pain, anger, and longing, we began our time together proclaiming that this present darkness is not the final word. Now is a time when we need to address systemic issues of racism, police brutality (both racially motivated and not), cultural addictions to violence, and overall division, but we placed those conversation on hold as we entered worship to reorient ourselves toward our only Hope.
Peace (Change Everything): As we have been moving through these difficult weeks, we have been singing Advent songs, because Advent is the time where we look around, see how dark the world is, and voice our longing for a Light. We sang Change Everything again this week because it afforded us the chance to voice our longing for change, and to turn to God as the catalyst of this change.
Because He Lives: We sang this song with a couple of things in mind: First, the claims made in this song are true—Jesus is alive in a way that is more than real. And so, we as individuals can stake our hope in One who is outside of ourselves and be held there. Second, Jesus is alive in another way in the people of Christ, those who have been and are being formed by His story and Spirit. Because of this, the people of Christ are partnered with Jesus in actively reconciling the world to God. But we need to know that sometimes that might mean doing things.
Furthermore, we need to know that the true claims to hope that Because He Lives makes are quite difficult for some people to claim for themselves. Namely, the “calm assurance” that our children can face uncertain days because He lives. If we listen to the cries of the black community in America, there is a decided lack of this "calm assurance," because their life experience says otherwise. And, yes, there is a way in which the "calm assurance" of Because He Lives is rooted in what Jesus' resurrection means broadly for the whole of human history, but if the church is the body of Christ, and this body is living and breathing in the present, that should bring some measure of hope to the present as well.
So we sang this as a proclamation of something true, but also as a challenge to ourselves to take seriously the fact that being the people of Christ demands something about the way we move about in the world, and that when we see that life experience makes it difficult for someone to claim the same hope that we do, we should make it our purpose to do something about that.
For Those Tears I Died: I came across this hymn text a couple of months ago, and started to reimagine it. After a few weeks of this "reimagining," I had stripped the text down to about 4 lines, knowing that they contained an important truth, but not knowing how to structure the rest of the song. In the wake of the attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, I started keeping track of things that I was praying as I expressed anger, confusion, and ultimately self-loathing for my own complicity in systems of hate by not being very vocal in combatting them. The song continued to take shape this past week as I felt more of those same emotions. This song isn't finished, and I don't know what it will look like when it is. At the moment, it's part existential despair, part personal confession, and part proclamation of hope. Probably the most personal side of it for me is the line in the second verse, "I've made an idol out of comfort, praised by keeping my mouth shut//but now it's found a thirst for blood." I'm what you might call incredibly talented at not speaking out against something I know to be wrong when I feel I can slip by unscathed if I keep my head down. This is fundamentally unchristian, and I am attempting to lean into repenting of it.
All Creatures of Our God and King: We sang this song to stand alongside creatures of all kinds in acknowledging God as our creator, sustainer, and the One who is reconciling all things to Godself, knowing that the Story that God is weaving is far from over.
Doxology: We close our time together each week with this proclamation that God is worthy of praise from every inch of the cosmos.
-JM
This was the seventh Sunday after Pentecost, and our songs were gathered around the theme of transformation. 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:
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United
Peace (Change Everything) by Jameson McGregor
I Love You by Mike Robinson
Wayward Ones by The Gladsome Light
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.
Come Thou Fount: We sang this song to begin with a plea that God would transform us into people who know how to find God in the world around us and how to express ourselves when this happens--the second stanza is the heart of the first reason (raising an "Ebenezer" is depicting solidifying the realization that God has been with you), and the second reason is embodied especially in these lines: "tune my heart to sing thy Grace" and "teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above."
Oceans: We sang this song to ask God to make us into people who are willing to traverse uncertainty and seek God in the midst of that uncertainty.
Peace (Change Everything): Like the Advent song we sang a couple of weeks ago in the wake of the attack on the LGBT community in Orlando, we sang this in response to the attacks in Istanbul, Bangladesh, and Baghdad. Advent is a time where we look around and see how dark the world is and how very badly it needs a light, but there are moments all throughout the year that remind us of this darkness without our having to take the time to think specifically about it. We sang this song to make a plea to God to transform the world around us. Since this song has not been recorded, here is a video of it if you would like to listen again:
I Love You: This is a song written by Mike Robinson, a professor at UMHB and a beloved part of the ubc community. The lyrics depict the narrative of the last supper, and Mike shared it with us this week because we were participating in communion.
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
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
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)
-JM
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
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
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
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
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