Nails and Spear

Two Sundays ago, we sang the hymn, What Child Is This? The timing was quite fortuitous as I was listening to it a week or two ago, and thought it might make a good post here at Sunday Lunch (and I would like to thank my dear wife for not covering this topic in her blog post from Sunday). The version to which I was listening, however, was not a traditional one; I was listening to a version arranged and recorded by Sufjan Stevens. It is, in my estimation, a wonderful re-interpretation of a classic carol.





This version demonstrates the timelessness of this piece, as it can find a home in both traditional and popular music. In that sense, it is an apt reflection of the joy we derive from Christ - joy that is eternal, everlasting. Granted, many other traditional carols have been given a modern glass (including others by Mr. Stevens), but the eternal nature of this piece is evident in more than just this new arrangement.

To me, the pay off of the piece comes in the second to last verse. It is not just about the musical tension, but the lyrical tension as well. It is rare the Christmas song that will offer such a harsh and brutal line as this:

Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.

Christmas is not usually a time in which we deal with such violent and bloody imagery. Advent is a time of Peace, Joy, Love and Hope. Generally, we sing of the star, the peaceful night, the innocent babe, the shepherds and the three kings. It is not a time that we focus on the Passion. Especially in light of the popular adoption of Christmas - and, for good or ill, Christmas has become a cultural holiday, not just a religious one - the atmosphere is joyous. It's lights and peace and goodwill towards men.

Then, to focus on the suffering can seem an uncomfortable juxtaposition. Certainly, in the song it is such, but it is useful - perhaps, even, necessary - if we are to fully explore our faith, the nature of Christmas and our relationship with God. Bringing in the brutality of the crucifixion is not necessarily a reactionary measure of a Christian trying to reclaim Christmas from the popular clutches of Santa and Frosty. No, it offers insight into the eternal nature of God, man and existence. Consequently, the modernization of the music by artists like Mr. Stevens is all the more appropriate because, on a more meta level, it is an apt reflection of the timelessness of Christ as demonstrated through the construction of the lyrics; it is this construction, both in terms of the subject matter and the juxtaposition, that provides the aforementioned insight.

A few years ago, our former Minister, Greg, led an Upper Room get-together in which we discussed St. Augustine's Confessions. Specifically, we discussed Augustine's thoughts on the nature of time, and the idea that the human experience of "time" came to our species with the bite of an apple. Though humans experience time as a linear progression of events, there is no reason to believe that this way of gathering, storing and assessing information is the actual way that existence unfolds; indeed, in its purest form (a form we would have experienced before the fall, and hope to experience after our temporal life), existence does not unfold, it merely is. This interpretation of the existence of time dovetails nicely with Presbyterian theology. (It also challenges popular notions of fate, providence, free will, pre-destination and creation.)

With our flaws comes an inability to fully and properly understand the intricacies of God and His creation. In this mortal world, to gain any understanding of existence requires experiencing existence linearly, but this linear progression of time is more a human construct than an elemental truth of God's creation. As such, considering Christ's birth an individual event, divorced from the context of his earthly life and beyond, is to err (however, considering Christ's birth as an individual event is a valid coping mechanism in our broken world). In isolation, Christ's birth is not the significant event that popular culture would have us believe. Even, in isolation, Christ's death is not - if I may be so bold - of utmost importance. It was - is - His birth, His life, His pain, His death, His time in hell and His resurrection that is important.

Language is important here. I do not write that these events are important; I write that these events is important. Though we understand them in the plural, they compose a singular, and they compose a present-tense singular (for if we are to put a time constraint on the eternal, it must be the present). Conjugating our verbs to facilitate our imperfect interpretation of God's existence and creation has a purpose, but too often we let our limitations in understanding some eternal truths unduly restrict our understanding of all eternal truths.

This, then, is what What Child Is This? has brought us. It is the reminder that Christmas is not merely a precursor to the ensuing life, death and resurrection of Christ, nor a stand-alone event in Christ's life, but an inseparable part of Christ's full existence.

It is, certainly, more straightforward for us to think of Christmas, then of Good Friday, then of Easter Sunday; the sequence helps us both in processing Christ's existence as well as the 2010/2011 calendar year. We experience the joy of Christmas. Later, we experience the joy of Palm Sunday, which leads to the trepidation of Maundy Thursday, which leads to the sorrow of Good Friday and, finally, to the joy of Easter Sunday.

But these are not separate, or even sequential, events, even if our living would so lead us to believe. They are not linked by a process or a serial dependency, but are all a part of the experience of being a follower of Christ. The joy of Christmas is the sorrow of Good Friday. The sorrow of Good Friday is the joy of Easter. We cannot separate each event from one another, nor should we even try. We will distinguish between them, but such compartmentalizing is only necessary because of our broken nature. Again, it is just a construct that we require in order to approach God, after having fallen so far from Him. Artificial though it may be, it still holds value, but its value is as a guidepost on our journey to Christ. It is not the destination.

So it is good to be reminded, during this time, not just of the birth of Christ, but of the suffering and of the resurrection. Holding all these events together in our hearts will bring us greater meaning, and will bring us closer to Him.

Christmas is Good Friday. It is Easter.