An Arcade Fire Advent Devotional

Journey through Advent with Arcade Fire!

It's become something of a tradition for people to walk through the season of Advent (the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas day) by reading an "Advent devotional", that is, a set of readings meditating on the themes of Advent: waiting, preparing, hoping, obeying, the coming of Christ as a child, the second coming of Christ, light, darkness, and the salvation of the Lord.

A couple of years ago I put together my own Advent series of readings of sorts based around a rather unconventional subject: the rock band Arcade Fire. It was more of a serious effort than you might think at first glance. There are three main articles (an ANTI-Advent reflection and then a two part Advent reflection) and then two other articles consisting of lists of Arcade Fire songs dwelling on the themes of Advent (as I perceive them). These Advent focused articles were the culmination of a long series on the songs of Arcade Fire. For a list of those articles please check the end of this article.

It might sound strange to take the work of a "secular" rock band as a jumping off point to think about the coming of Christ, but I assure you Arcade Fire has given us a lot to think about in their work. If you can take something from these articles and if they can help you to journey through Advent or to learn a little of what Advent is about then they will have accomplished the task I set out to do.

Here now are the articles:
"I need the darkness someone please cut the lights!": A Very Special Arcade Fire ANTI-Advent Reflection

"We used to wait": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 1)

"Sleeping is giving in": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 2)

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs For Advent (on the themes of waiting, preparing, arriving, and the light

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs Mentioning Light, Darkness, Mirrors, and Reflections
Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire

"Sleeping is Giving In": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 2)

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

+++Ephesians 5:13-14 (ESV)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 

+++Romans 13:11-12 (ESV)

The Scripture readings during the season of Advent typically focus on two people who integral in readying the earth for the coming of Christ: Mary, his mother and John the Baptist, his cousin. Much can and has been said on both these people, but for now were are going to focus in a bit on the place John the Baptist has as a forerunner to the coming of the world's Savior.

"We Used to Wait": A Very Special Arcade Fire Advent Reflection (Part 1)

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God...For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:18-19,22-25 (ESV)

  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD

  in the land of the living!

 Wait for the LORD;

  be strong, and let your heart take courage;

  wait for the LORD!

+++Psalm 27:13-14 (ESV)

Advent is a season of waiting. And waiting for anything can be tough.

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs For Advent (on the themes of waiting, preparing, arriving, and the light

As I have noted before, Arcade Fire have written a number of songs against the themes of Advent. I call them ANTI-Advent songs, "songs that portray light in a conflicted, confused, convoluted, ambivalent, and often negative tone"; songs that encourage us to enter into the darkness."

"I need the darkness someone please cut the lights!": A Very Special Arcade Fire ANTI-Advent Reflection

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

+++Jesus, from the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 12

Statement 1: For as long as I can remember I have been awaiting Christ's second return, longing for his light to shine in our world of darkness, expecting the world's redemption, and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.

Statement 2: For as long as I have listened to them, Arcade Fire have been singing about getting away from the light, to escape to a place where technology and the burdens of our modern age cannot find them, a place of darkness.

In other words, whereas I have lived my life in a perpetual state of advent, Arcade Fire have been living in nonstop anti-advent, thus making almost exclusively Anti-Advent music.

Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire (a list)

I just posted a list, an index if you will, of every Arcade Fire song that contains a reference to light, darkness, day, night, and anything having to do with mirrors or "reflektors"

But here now is another list of common and continual themes found within their work. If you take their work as a whole it really is amazing how much the same subjects and topics and imagery keep coming up.  Sometimes I actually reference a song that contains the theme just mentioned.  In no way is every song represented in every category--there just was not time to do this.

An Index: Arcade Fire Songs Mentioning Light, Darkness, Mirrors, and Reflections

"Look into the light...Look hard into the light..."
Related Post: "Continual Themes and Subjects in the Work of Arcade Fire (a list)"

For several years now I have been made powerfully aware of a theme that runs throughout a significant amount of the work of my (current) favorite band, Arcade Fire. The theme began to occur to me after I started digesting the lyrics to their 2010 work The Suburbs. I began forming some critical (as in "literary or music criticism") thoughts about their lyrics but nothing really gelled until they released their current album Reflektor.  It now became apparent to me that they are obsessed (obsessed I tells ya!) with imagery surrounding light, darkness, day, night, mirrors, and reflections.  In fact, it permeates a great majority of their work.