Music in the Heart

This is a reflection that VFT member Will O’Brien originally wrote last year, and shares again here.

A core part of my own Advent tradition is an event the Alternative Seminary puts on most years entitled “Peace on Earth and the Politics of Christmas,” at which I give a fairly radical re-reading of the Gospel birth narratives in their literary and historical context, seeking to free it from its ecclesial and cultural domestication. (If I can be indulgent, you can get a flavor of my holiday blasphemies here. Also, you can see my Youtube debut here). The presentation always provokes remarkable and soul-searching discussion as we grapple with how to reclaim the liberating dimension of this part of the Gospel message. Invariably, a participant will ask a

pointed question of me: “But what do you do with your children at Christmas?”

Well, the other night we had friends over, and amid egg nog and cookies, and with Yuletide hymns coming from the stereo, we decorated our tree with lights and ornaments. And our bright-eyed young’uns exuded a palpable sense of exhilaration at This transformation of ordinary time and space. Later that night, as we sought to settle sugar-saturated high spirits toward sleep, we gathered round the

Advent wreath – which our mini-pyromaniacs love. We lit the candles, read the prophetic texts, and awaited the coming of the One. In our flawed and fractured ways, our souls magnified the Lord. We sought to open our hearts to the Sovereign One who has deposed the Herods and Caesars of our violent world and lifted up the homeless and mentally ill folks living in Center City; who has sent the Wall Street

hedge fund managers away hungry and filled the Food Stamp recipients with good things, who has Occupied our broken world and put silly lights on trees in the middle of winter’s darkness to spark a good cheer that might be one of the best forms of resistance. I hope that’s what we do with our children at Christmas. At least we try. And we try to do what Howard Thurman, spiritual advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr., called “The Work of Christmas” in this beautiful text:

“When the star in the sky is gone,

When the Kings and Princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

The work of Christmas begins.

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoner,

To teach the nations,

To bring Christ to all,

To make music in the heart.”

May there be gospel revolution – and music in the heart. Lord knows we need them more than ever!