Of all the Christmas music I’ve ever put out there, I remain most proud of this video.
It’s a mash up of the dissonant messages in our American culture about: “PEACE.”
America is a great Empire, and in every generation it’s Presidents —whomever they are, and whether you loved or hated them— use its military might to “fight for peace,” or claim to be working toward “a full generation of peace.”
They never get it. Because true peace starts and ends inside the world of the Spirit, not inside the military industrial complex or political machinery.
Peace is a central theme of Christmas. If Jesus is any kind of King at all, he’s not a leader of armies or worldly governments.
Despite the fact that this hymn is 175 years go, notice how strident the lyrics are:
“But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring; –
Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!”
If our society survives, it will be spiritual teachers, artists, musicians…all those led by Spirit, not by might…find ways to reclaim a sense of God’s Peace…that all humans be treated with dignity and respect.
May the true Peace of Christmas be with you this season.
