Sufjan offers some of his own holiday compositions and gives a unique twist to most of the Christmas songs you typically hear sung at cathedrals and office parties, adding banjos, accordions, horns, and no small amount of reindeer bells. But what I love just as much is that he also introduces the listener to other traditional tunes that are sometimes lost in the shuffle of odes to Rudolph and Frosty. One of the lesser known songs is found at the end of disc two (my favorite disc of the bunch): the traditional French carol "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabelle."

Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella
Bring a torch, come swiftly and run.
Christ is born, tell the folk of the village,
Jesus is sleeping in His cradle,
Ah, ah, beautiful is the mother,
Ah, ah, beautiful is her Son.

Hasten now, good folk of the village,
Hasten now, the Christ Child to see.
You will find Him asleep in a manger,
Quietly come and whisper softly,
Hush, hush, peacefully now He slumbers,
Hush, hush, peacefully now He sleeps.

Though I can't remember ever singing this song at a Christmas Eve service or in some classroom when I was a little boy, I know I've heard it before. I also know I've never heard it sung the way Sufjan sings it on the disc: through a telephone. Why did he record it that way? Sufjan can answer that better than I, and he stubbornly doesn't in the linear notes (just a curious little disclaimer: "as sung through a telephone"). Perhaps he did it to get a grainy sound that effectively mimics a phonograph or an old vinyl record. Perhaps he did it to remind us of those moments in our youth when our Mom or Dad or some other relative would sing to us over the phone. Perhaps he did it only to set himself apart stylistically. I like to imagine he did it for this reason: because when Good News is birthed right in the middle of an awful mess, it's worth picking up the phone to give someone a call.

It's not hard to see that the story of this old carol is one person telling another about a baby who may very well change the world. It's the story of one person who can't quite keep to themselves the scene they've just seen. Singing it through a phone, then, seems about right to me (even if Sufjan did it for other reasons). In fact, I would argue it should always be sung that way. Most pieces of music come with editorial notes as to how the song ought to be played: "in driving fashion" or "with gusto" or "meditatively." "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabelle" would have this note at the top: "through a phone, breathlessly."

I've been thinking a lot about this season and its rich opportunities for proclamation. At the top of our sermon notes, we ought to jot this editorial note: "as if through a phone, breathlessly."

How richly blessed we are to be given the opportunity to tell many others about a baby who has changed—and is changing—the world. How privileged we are that we don't have to keep to ourselves the scene we've seen ourselves. How staggering that we are afforded however many ears into which we can whisper, "Bring a torch, come swiftly and run."

So, let's "sing" it all once more this coming Sunday. But in driving fashion. With gusto. Meditatively. As if through a phone, breathlessly.