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Welcome back to Advent of Carols from [VerseNotes][vn]. I’m Jerry Towler.
[vn]:
Today’s going to be a little bit different. We’re looking at two songs that people assume are Christian or Christmassy, but really aren’t. This isn’t about being a snob; it’s just about clarity. Advent is about real hope, not about sentimental despair or eroticized biblical language.
And speaking of that, one of today’s songs is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, which gets a little spicy, so fair warning. If you want to listen to the songs before we dive in, you’ll find some links in the show notes. So let’s get started.
Hallelujah drives me up the wall. People treat Hallelujah like sacred music just because it sounds sacred. But if you think this belongs in a hymn book, please read the words. The biblical references are basically just like spiritual wallpaper—David and Samson, a holy dove, seeing the light—but they’re all scrambled into this melancholy sex poem.
The author, Leonard Cohen himself, said, “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess. And that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah’.”
Which is a nice sentiment, I guess, but Advent says exactly the opposite. The mess isn’t embraced. It’s healed. Jesus doesn’t shrug at the brokenness. He reconciles it at infinite cost to himself, laying down his life because the mess is not okay.
Journalist Larry Sloman, who knew Cohen well, I think nailed the song’s meaning. He said it’s, quote, “one part biblical, one part the woman Cohen slept with last night,” end quote. Mixing holiness and horniness, which are Cohen’s two favorite themes.
And honestly, that’s exactly what this song is. It’s romantic disappointment and existential ache with a kind of light dusting of Bible names. It’s a good song—don’t get me wrong; I actually like this song. But it’s not Christian, and it’s definitely not Christmas.
It is, however, one of the most covered songs ever, with at least 300 known versions. Which kind of makes sense because Cohen himself wrote more than 150 verses across five years, and then when he recorded the album, he just picked a few. And then when John Cale of the Velvet Underground wanted to cover it, he sent him 15 pages of verses. Cale picked out the ones that he called the cheeky ones.
And then Jeff Buckley covered Cale’s version, not Cohen’s original, and that’s the one that turned this song into a phenomenon. But the reason that I know it, and probably the reason that you know it, and everybody else knows it, is that in 2001, Shrek used John Cale’s version in the film. Weirdly, the soundtrack actually swaps in Rufus Wainwright’s.
But at this point, every cover changes lyrics anyway, sometimes inventing entirely new ones. Alison Crowe’s version says “Holy Ghost” instead of “holy dove.” Others say “holy dark.” It’s just a lyrical smorgasbord, and you pick and choose the ones you like. Even Cohen himself changed the words every show.
But here’s the strange part: it keeps ending up on Christmas albums. Which says to me that no one’s actually reading the lyrics. It sounds sacred because the word “hallelujah” is sacred. But the content absolutely is not.
The second song I want to look at today is “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. And to start out with, I have no problem with “Xmas.” That is not an issue at all.
And at least this one mentions Christmas. It talks about, you know, peace and equality and hope, which are very December-y themes. My problem with this song is instead that the hope is thin. It’s extremely thin.
Let’s talk about it.
The song opens up with, “So this is Christmas, and what have you done?” Which is a guilt trip, exactly what you want around Christmas. A performance review is not my idea of the holiday.
And then we get, “I hope you have fun,” which apparently to Lennon and Ono are the meaning of Christmas. Have fun, and maybe mess up less next year.
Then, “Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.” And this is where I really have trouble. Why? On what basis should we hope?
In Scripture, especially in the New Testament, hope means expectation—something grounded in God’s promise, not just optimism. But Lennon offers hope the same way that you throw a coin into a fountain. It’s wishful and sentimental. It’s foundation-free.
This song assumes that peace comes from human goodwill, which history has proven repeatedly false, especially during the Vietnam War, which is the moment when this song was written.
The song gestures towards unity. It says black and white, yellow and red—but the world is not united. It wasn’t in 1968, and it’s not today. Even Christians can’t stop fighting with each other.
It’s technically a Vietnam protest song, right? But if you read it, it doesn’t actually protest anything. It just repeats the slogan that Lennon had plastered all over billboards that year: war is over if you want it. The problem is that people did want it, desperately, and war was decidedly not over. And it’s still not over so many decades later.
So yeah, it’s a catchy song. It’s pleasant, and it’s got this universalism to it, but it gives absolutely no grounds for the peace that it longs for. It’s Christmas optimism, but with the theological calories of cotton candy.
This is empty Christmas.
These two songs reveal one version of Christmas available this season—that, you know, vague spirituality and vague hope, vague goodwill, the stuff from commercials that are trying to sell you cars.
The real Advent tells a different story. It says that real peace is coming, that real reconciliation is coming. Real justice is coming. And not just because we wish for it, but because Jesus Christ entered the mess to redeem it, to dry the tears, to heal the hurt, to end the wars. Not just to shrug and say, yeah, that’s kind of rough.
So, you know, enjoy the melodies. Like I said, I love “Hallelujah.” It is a gorgeous song. “Happy Xmas” is super popular, but it’s very much not for me. This Christmas, don’t confuse them with the hope that we’re actually waiting for.
That’s not why we sing.
Thanks for joining me today for Advent of Carols. If you’d like to help make more projects like this possible, check out Advent Commons at versenotes.org/commons. And we’ll be back tomorrow with some actual carols of Christmas.
If you’ve got thoughts about today’s songs, I’d love to hear them. You can always reach me at [email protected].
And if you enjoyed the episode, the best gift you can give me is to pass it along to someone else who would enjoy it too.