Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12 Series: 2020
A short Christmas Eve Eve homily that uses music as identity (a 6th-grade Nine Inch Nails shirt, High Fidelity’s top-five lists, and a song called ‘Half a World Away’ shared by Chris) to explore how we both hide behind and reveal ourselves through the stories and traditions we choose. Pivoting to the magi who came from far away and the gospel’s spread from Paul to Thomas to Spicewood, the preacher argues that people who feel half a world away are not lost to us, and that even in the strange year of 2020 Christmas can bring a ‘new song’ that sounds and looks different but still carries something amazing taking place.
Illustrations: nine-inch-nails-shirt, high-fidelity-top-five-lists, chris-half-a-world-away-song, magi-from-afar, gospel-paul-thomas-to-spicewood
Christmas Eve Eve
Half a world away
6th Grade. Nine Inch Nails. “I don’t listen to the lyrics.” I wanted to be the kind of kid who wore that kind of shirt.
Music as a way to perform. Not just as a musician, but music taste as a performance. High Fidelity. lists of top 5 like, 9. Rob’s top five side one, track ones.
‘Janie Jones’, The Clash; ‘White Light / White Heat’, Velvet Underground; ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Nirvana; ‘Let’s Get It On’, Marvin Gaye; ‘Radiation Ruling the Nation’, Massive Attack.
In the Nick Hornby book, so much of the genre of lists reveals the shallowness of the lead character. Music can be a way that we present ourselves to the world. Saying, “I like this song” because we want to be the kind of people who like this song.
When I listen to Chris’s song, especially the chorus,
Half a world away on the other side of night, in the places we belong I’ll be seeing in a new song when you see the light Of morning at the same time I see the stars of night
I think of the ways we both find ourself in music and hide away in music.
We can choose to hide behind music or to reveal ourselves. We can choose to hide behind the stories we tell, or reveal ourselves. At Christmas, we can choose to hide behind traditions and practices or open ourselves up to new possibilities in the midst of them.
Are there people in your life who are half a world away? They aren’t lost to you. We can still be connected to people we feel far away from, but it may take a new song. The magi came from a long way. In Greek, magi is plural. There are no kings nor three of them. All that came later. Something was happening, though. Paul took the story of Jesus across the Mediterranean. Thomas took it to India. The story has come to Spicewood. There is a new song for the world.
It may not sound like it did before. It may not look like it did before. This Christmas, may receive a new song. Even if this strange year, something amazing is still taking place.