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