The Rebel Jesus

All the streets are filled with laughter and light

and the music of the season

and the merchant's windows are all bright

with the faces of the children

and the families hurry into their homes

as the sky darkens and freezes

We'll be gathering around our hearths and tables

Giving thanks for God's graces

and the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by the Prince of Peace

and they call him by the Savior

and they pray to Him upon the seats

and in every bold endeavor

and they fill His chuches with their pride and gold

as their faith in Him increases

but they've turned the nature that I worship in

from a temple to a robber's den

in the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns

and we guard our fine posessions

and once a year when christmas comes

we give to our relations

and perhaps we give a little to the poor

if the generosity should seize us

but if anyone of us should interfere

in the business of why there are poor

we'll get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seemed

to take the tone of judgment

for I've no wish to come between

this day and your enjoyment

in a life of hardship

and of earthly toil

there's a need for anything that frees us

So I bid you pleasure and I bid you cheer

from a heathen and a pagan

on the side of the rebel Jesus.

Amen!

 

"The foundation that this Christmas record was bult on is an old 

Jackson Browne song called "The  Rebel Jesus." I first heard this song 

years ago as I drove through a cold December landscape and was

instantly moved to tears by the honesty an poigancy of words that

somehow seemed to cut through the clutter of the Christmas

season directly to the heart of Christ himself. I have no idea what

Jackson Browne claims to believe spiritually, but I am convinced of

one thing: this self-professed "heathen and pagan" taught me more 

about the core cause of Christ and the true spirit of Christmas than 

perhaps any pulpit or prophet before him. The core cause of Christ.

It is the thing that we here in America, in our suburbs, behind our

fences, in our commerce and even in our Chruches seem to lose 

sight of more and more every year. From the moment I heard

Jackson Browne sing those words, I promise myself that I wouldn't 

make a Christmas record until I felt that the songs could fill the 

void that is left behind each year after the commercial Christmas

has passed. My hope is that Christmas...From the Realms of Glory 

is a collection of songs that lives up to the legacy of on old song

called "The Rebel Jesus", but even more so that it lives up to

the legacy of the rebel Jesus Himself. May all the hope and peace

of Christ be yours this Christmas."  

Bebo Norman about his record "Christmas...From the Realms of Glory"