LOOK: I Am Born by Ihor Paneyko
LISTEN: “The Infinite a Sudden Guest” by Josh Rodriguez, 2015 | Performed by New City Music on Songs from Engedi, 2015
The Infinite a sudden guest—
Awake, mankind!
For your sake God has become man.
Awake, you who sleep:
God has become man.
Awake, rise up from the dead,
And Christ will enlighten you.
For your sake, God became man.You would have suffered eternal death,
Never freed from sinful flesh,
Had he not taken on himself
The likeness of sinful flesh;
Lost from everlasting unhappiness,
Had it not been for this mercy.
You would never have returned to life,
Had he not shared your death.Let us celebrate the coming of salvation and redemption!
Let us celebrate the day who is the great and eternal day,
Came from the great and endless day of eternity
Into our own short day of time.Christ, born of Mary.
Eternity entered time.
Truth has arisen from the earth:
Christ who said, “I am the Truth.”
And Justice looked down from heaven:
Because believing in this newborn child,
Man is justified not by himself but by God.Truth has arisen from the earth:
Because the Word was made flesh,
And Justice looked down from heaven.
Justified by faith, let us be at peace with God.
For Peace and Justice have embraced in Jesus Christ.The Infinite a sudden guest—
God
In time
In God
In time
In God
In time
In God
In time
In God
In time
In God
In time
In God.
In 2015 Josh Rodriguez [previously here and here] composed this piece for SATB choir, violin, and percussion for New City Presbyterian Church in Royal Oak, Michigan, where he served as music director at the time.
Its striking title and first line come from a short poem by Emily Dickinson, and the rest of the text is taken from a Christmas sermon by Augustine of Hippo (cataloged as Sermon 185 by scholars), which centers on Psalm 85:11: “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Augustine sees this prophecy as fulfilled in Christ. The full sermon can be read in St. Augustine, Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons, trans. Mary Sarah Muldowney, RSM (vol. 38 of the Fathers of the Church series) (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1959), 6–9. Section 1 can be read for free here.
Celebrating the entrance of God into human history, this choral work alternates between vigorous, exuberant passages and ones that are slower and more introspective. In the opening, there’s a wonderful crescendo on “guest”—an expansion that reflects the possibility opened up by the Incarnation. The final passage alternates between the phrases “in God” and “in time.” God is in time and time is in God, the infinite contracted to a span.
This post is part of a daily Christmas series that goes through January 6. View all the posts here, and the accompanying Spotify playlist here.
Art & Theology 