{"id":52649,"date":"2020-12-24T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=52649"},"modified":"2020-12-20T19:52:37","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T00:52:37","slug":"eerie-christmas-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2020\/12\/eerie-christmas-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Eerie Christmas Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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I have a high toleration for the secular observance of Christmas, seeing in it an unintentional homage to Christ, a partial fulfillment of the promise \u201cthat at the name of Jesus\u00a0every knee should bow,\u00a0in heaven and on earth and under the earth\u201d (Philippians 2:11).\u00a0 But I\u2019m finding that I can\u2019t listen long to all of the \u201cholly jolly\u201d songs on the radio.<\/p>\n

Christmas is mysterious<\/em>.\u00a0 The notion that the transcendent God of the universe has been born as a flesh-and-blood baby is mind-blowing, an occasion not for sentimentality but for awe.\u00a0 There is Christmas music that reflects that.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a liberal mainline Protestant church that made a point of having no particular doctrines.\u00a0 But at Christmas we sang songs like \u201cHark! the Herald Angels Sing.\u201d\u00a0 I remember being haunted by the lyrics, \u201cVeiled in flesh the Godhead see,\/ Hail the incarnate Deity.\u201d\u00a0 I wondered, What did that mean?\u00a0 Is that who Jesus is?\u00a0 In our church, I had never so much as heard mention from my pastors or Sunday School teachers the doctrine of the Incarnation, that Jesus is God in the flesh.\u00a0 But that song did.<\/p>\n

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Later, when I started going to churches that did believe in such things, I grew to love songs such as \u201cO Come, O Come, Emmanuel,\u201d with its ethereal, reverential melody.\u00a0 (I know, that\u2019s an Advent song, but this was before I was a Lutheran and we sang it as a Christmas song.)<\/p>\n

So I greatly appreciated the article in The Federalist<\/em> by Cara Anne Dublin entitled\u00a0This Collection Of Deep-Cut Carols Will Help Prepare Your Heart For Christmas.<\/a>\u00a0 She looks at lesser-known Christmas songs, including the category she calls \u201ceerie songs.\u201d\u00a0 She defines those as \u201cChristmas music with a dark and profound undertone, the kind that can cause a chill to run down your spine even as you pause in wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her prime example is \u201cLet All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I had never heard that song until a few years ago, but now I hear it frequently.\u00a0 It comes from an extremely ancient source, associated with St. James the Less<\/a>, the disciple, possible brother of our Lord, and\u00a0 the first bishop of Jerusalem.\u00a0 Let these words sink in:<\/p>\n

1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
\nand with fear and trembling stand.
\nPonder nothing earthly minded,
\nfor with blessing in his hand
\nChrist our God to earth descending
\ncomes, our homage to demand.<\/p>\n

2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,
\nas of old on earth he stood,
\nLord of heaven now incarnate
\nin the body and the blood,
\nhe will give to all the faithful
\nhis own self for heav\u2019nly food.<\/p>\n

3 Rank on rank the host of heaven
\nstreams before him on the way,
\nas the Light of light descending
\nfrom the realms of endless day
\ncomes, that pow\u2019rs of hell may vanish,
\nas the shadows pass away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of this to a melody that is achingly beautiful and, yes, eerie:<\/p>\n