If you have ever read this blog before, you probably realize that I am obsessed with the old Christmas hymns, and while I am not musical (if I had ever learnt!) I love music, especially this time of year. One thing I have learned about music is that there are both major and minor chords, if you play three notes to the chord on a piano for instance, the two outside notes are the same, only the inside note changes slightly but that makes all the difference. Major chords sound happy and bold while the minor variation is sad, mysterious, deep, and haunting. Think about the difference between 'Joy to the World' and 'What Child is This?' the former is mostly major chords, bold and triumphant and happy, while the latter is composed of many minor chords, full of mystery and enigma, haunting melodies and tinged with grief but certainly not hopeless, similar to many of my favorite carols: 'We Three Kings, God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen, O Come O Come Emmanuel...'
That's what the gospel gets right, that's one big reason it resonates with so many people through countless cultures and times: it reflects the reality to which they are accustomed, it fits the tale of life as they know it, save it introduces this strange thing called hope, along with love, peace, and joy beyond the world's understanding, but in pursuing that, it doesn't ignore the pain, the sorrow, the ugliness, the death of this current age. The Gospel of the Modern West is rather: happiness now and always on my own terms. And when we have pandemics, political upsets, supply chain problems, we don't have anywhere to turn or know what to do. We've been told from our cradles that if we just elect the right person or pass the right laws or teach the right stuff everybody will be happy and prosperous and get along and if they don't, it must be a problem with the system, or education, or something, because we are owed happiness and if we don't get it, we have every right to complain and whine and even revolt. But life isn't written in a major key, we can't write our own reality no matter how technologically advanced we become, yes there are songs and measures strong with major chords, but most of life is fraught with mystery, confusion, grief, and hurt. We need a worldview big, broad, and deep enough to contain it all and provide an answer thereto, not just more empty promises of what life will be if we only do X or refrain from Y.
But even in the sorrow there is beauty, in the grief there is hope, there is depth and meaning and a future and purpose. The best Christmas songs are those that regard not only the manger but also the cross, but they don't stop there, for easter morning looms brighter still. So with those haunting melodies in mind, I leave you with these curious words, the little known latter verses of 'We Three Kings:'
