Christmas Music in March?

Last December, a number of PCA churches in Chicago released an album of Christmas music called "Proclaim the Bridegroom Near". It is one of my favorite albums, and I listen to it at least once a week. Yes, I listen to Christmas music in March. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the music is beautiful - the musicians of the Chicago Metro Presbytery of the PCA have serious talent, and they really brought their A-game to this album. Second, the songs are rich in theology. You won't find songs like "Jingle Bells" here. Instead, you will find songs like "Hark a Thrilling Voice is Sounding" and "On This Day Earth Shall Ring". These are songs of worship, and they speak of sin and grace. The album was designed for a real Christian observance of Advent and Christmas, not the secular gift-giving extravaganza of contemporary America. Here are the album notes:

The Church has been singing the texts of some of these Advent and Christmastide songs for centuries. They capture the sojourn of God’s people in particularly poignant and haunting ways. It’s a beautiful and sometimes maddening paradox to live in the piercing light of the Incarnation and yet at times feel so helplesly lost and defeated. Advent and Christmastide is the story we live right now. We wait again expectantly for the return of the King in power ... and as we wait, we sing these pilgrim songs. When we return to these songs every year we are slowly formed into a people that are no longer ovewhelmed by the darkness around us: Our hope is confident, our love is selfless, our joy is contagious, and our peace enduring.

One of my favorite songs on the album is "We Three Kings". I hadn't listened to this song since I was a child, and I had never really listened to the lyrics. When I did, I was immediately moved to worship. How powerful these words are:

Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Some other favorites of mine are "Hark! 'Tis the Watchman's Cry" and "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence". The music for these songs seems particularly fitting. I can't imagine them being played any other way.

The songs are played in a number of styles, but I would describe many as bluegrass, or bluegrass-ish. However, I think that you would enjoy the album even if you are not an avid fan of bluegrass music, as I am.

The album can be found here. It costs eight bucks, but you can preview the entire album for free. Here is the embedded link:




God bless, and have a great weekend.