The Dark Side of Christmas

A friend gave me the CD, "A Child is Born", by Sojourn Music for Christmas. It's not your typical Christmas CD, which I like, but this indie rock record has some great lyrics. I really liked their "take" on the Christmas story.

The Christmas story itself is one of contrasts – God as a baby. A king in a manger. His birth was welcomed not by crowds and royalty, but by outcasts and foreigners. Because the Christmas story is ultimately a story of hope for the hopeless, healing for the broken, and light in the darkness.

We’ve sought for many years to capture that emotion in our Christmas music. There’s a place for joy, a necessary and central place for celebration, but that joy and celebration has it’s most weight when seen in the context of the suffering and longing from which it emerges. So Christmas music at Sojourn has always had a dark edge, a sense of tension and angst, which points us to the darkness of our own hearts that longs for the light of Christ. (source)

Angst, tension, hopeless, suffering, broken. Sound like something you can identify with? It's something we all deal with whether we know it or not. This is why Jesus who is God came as a baby to make right what we had wronged. This is one of my favorites on the album. I also really like "A Voice is Sounding" and "This is the Christ". You can listen to all the tracks here.

Well all doubts and depression born of guilt and separation

Push your boat of hope from the shore.
But like a lighthouse beacon, his heart is always seeking
And then he comes a knockinʼ at your door.

Amid the problems of the pain of ambition and sorted gain

This grinding of the face of the poor.
He will lift up the lowly, the humble, and not slowly
And then he comes a knockinʼ at your door.

Chorus

When he comes knockinʼ at your door

Weʼll understand what this all meant
When he comes knockinʼ at your door
You wonʼt be disappointed

Amid the conflict and confusion of winning and then losing

Whether against terror or oil
He was heaven sent even for our president
And then he comes a knockinʼ at your door.

Amid the fears and frustrations tumults and tribulations

All of the whys and wherefores
Itʼll all flee as the night vanishes with morning light
And then he comes a knockinʼ at your door.