One of the joys of my life in recent years has been America Magazine. Almost four years ago exactly, I was nearing the end of a lengthy meditation on attempting education in the days following the Presidential election of 2016, but I couldn’t find anyone who would publish it. I was pretty sure it was the best thing I’d ever written, but it didn’t seem to fit in anyone’s slot. Enter Nathan Schneider (whose writing I’m often trying to imitate). I believe he talked them (or someone among them) into me. They’ve been a primary go-to ever since. They get it. They really get it. And…because I probably read more Daniel Berrigan than any other writer. The Jesuit part makes a lot of sense.
CASE IN POINT, Zac Davis, one of my favorite people I’ve yet to meet in person, saw this ridiculous tweet which arose, as so much does, out of my obsessive compulsion:
This gave Zac the (to me) excellent idea of asking Matt Maher, another favorite person I have yet to meet in person, and me to cobble together an Advent Playlist. We did! And I encourage you to take both parts in. The geopolitical vision of Beloved Community discourages me from giving too much credence to these divisions, BUT, if I can allude to them for a moment for entertainment’s sake, there’s something lovely about Matt, a Roman Catholic, and me, an Anabaptist Presbyterian with Buddhist leanings, having an occasion to team up in this way. Or as James Joyce puts it, Here Comes Everybody!
Here’s Matt and his partner, Kristin Fisher, with another favorite person I’ve yet to meet in person:
There is so much to love about Matt’s Advent Playlist. Great Big Sea, for instance, is entirely new to me. And Bruce Cockburn’s “Cry Of A Tiny Babe,” is now new to me all over again. Matt’s characterization of the song and the way it got through to him when he was in high school takes me back to the way it once got through to me. And, if you read the comments, you’ll see that this playlist has served as one lovely soul’s introduction to the song. Here’s a passage that reverberates still:
Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever,
Redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe.
You really need to listen to the whole thing. Matt notes that the song overcomes our tendency to reduce Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus to the size of our own devotion. Cockburn adds dimensions to whatever we thought we had in mind. Songs can do that.
Here’s my playlist. I was especially happy to have the opportunity to refer to David Bowie as a mage, introduce some of you to Jeanne Lee, and say a little something about the time Chance the Rapper prophetically addressed a sitting President’s incitement of violence against American citizens. There’s also KLF to think about. One commentator thinks the lyrics are gibberish. To that, I say this: There are so many ways to hate God.
Happy holy days, everyone.
Great big Sea rocks. My Canadian bro heads!