Now that Thanksgiving is over and December is here, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas (though, as usual, I began to see the Christmas décor creep into stores before Halloween was over). Nevertheless, the season of Advent reminds us that before we can celebrate Christmas, we must first endure a season of waiting, expectation, and anticipation. Advent is less a season of celebration and feasting and more a season of repentance and fasting in preparation for the arrival (advent) of Christ.

While the Church has a lot of good music for Christmas, I have found Advent music to be relatively thin. While there are a couple of exceptional Advent hymns (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”), it takes some searching to find much more. So when I decided to put an Advent playlist together, I had to look beyond “church music” and go to the other kind of music I like: rock music.

Over these next few weeks, I will share a few of my favorite Advent songs that we did not know were Advent songs. We start with a classic: “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

While many churches probably sang “Joy to the World” on the first Sunday of Advent, “Bad Moon Rising” would have been a better choice. It certainly would have better fit the gospel lesson.

John Fogerty sings, “I see the bad moon risin’/ I see trouble on the way/ I see earthquakes and lightnin’/ I see bad times today.”

Jesus says, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves” (Luke 21:25, NRSV).

It sounds a bit like the end of the world — “Looks like we’re in for nasty weather…there’s a bad moon on the rise.”

When we put Jesus’ teaching here in context, Jesus is answering a question posed by his disciples that has nothing to do with the end of the world. Jesus has just told them that the temple in Jerusalem is going to be destroyed and the disciples ask when this is going to happen. Jesus then describes for them events that will take place when the temple is destroyed — which, for us, happened a long, long time ago (70AD).

As terrifying as these things sound, Jesus is simply revealing the world to us as we know it. There are frightening things that happen outside of our control. There is fear among the people. Everything seems to be falling apart. Almost every generation that has heard these words from Jesus have looked around at the world in their time and said, “This is our time.” “There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

Jesus is not describing the end of the world, he is just describing the world.

Advent does not begin with a sentimental, heart-warming story of a child being born (that comes later) — Advent begins with the world as we find it: broken, falling apart, frightening. The good news is that we believe it is in a world just like this — a world that is broken, falling apart, and frightening — that we wait for Jesus to show up. And it is in a world just like this that he does come to make all things new.

‌We do not control the circumstances and the world in which we wait for Christ to show up. We just get to decide how it is we are going to wait.

‌CCR released “Bad Moon Rising” at the tale end of the 1960’s. The 1960’s were not wholly unlike the original 60’s which culminated in the events that Jesus describes in Luke 21. It was a time of political turmoil, assassinations, violence, and riots. But when you listen to “Bad Moon Rising,” you quickly notice a sharp juxtaposition between the song’s music and lyrics. The lyrics are dark and haunting — trouble is coming, the world is ending. But the music is upbeat, something you can snap your fingers to. The music almost provides a sense of confidence while facing the apocalypse.

“Bad Moon Rising” captures for us our two most common responses in times of trouble.

The first response is fear. It is the response we see in the lyrics: “Don’t go around tonight, it’s bound to take your life.” Everyone need to take shelter because the sky is falling! Fear inevitably leaves no room for love. So rather than caring for our neighbor, fear leads us to sing, “One eye is taken for an eye.”

Jesus says that there will be those who see what is happening in the world who will “faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world” (Luke 21:26). The Greek word that Jesus uses is aposycho and literally means to stop breathing. People will “stop breathing” from terror. The word is sometimes used to describe dying. There will be those who will be so overcome by fear that their fear will actually kill them. It will take their breath away.

When the world is falling apart, one way that we can respond is fear.

But not everyone responds to a bad moon rising with fear. The second response we often have is that of avoidance and distractions. It is the attitude that is captured in the music and beat of “Bad Moon Rising”. The world is falling apart but I am going to crank the music up to eleven and dance the night away. I am just going to pretend like it is not even happening and everything is okay.

Jesus says, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly” (Luke 21:34).

Most people turn to alcohol or any addiction as a way to avoid and numb the painful realties of life. When the world is falling apart — or maybe just when our own world is falling apart — we often try to find ways to numb the pain. Of course, not everyone turns to addictive substances as a distraction from the end of the world. Many church-goers who are too “righteous” for drunkenness will turn to church-approved forms of distraction: nitpicking and criticizing everyone else, trying to solve everyone else’s problems so they do not have to consider their own.

When there is a bad moon on the rise, most of us tend to move to a place of either fear or avoidance. We either become consumed by it or plug our ears to it in one way or another.

But Jesus invites us to have another response: “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Rather than responding with fear or avoidance, Jesus invites us to respond with trust. We do not look away from the fearful things in our lives. We do not run in fear. Nor do we look away and plug our ears. We look at the world and acknowledge it as it is. We stay alert. And we pray that God will bring us through the darkness.

Skipping Advent and rushing to the celebration of Christmas is just one more way that we distract ourselves from the real troubles that we face. Before we can sing “Joy to the World,” we must first sing “Bad Moon Rising”. We must first acknowledge and accept the truth of this world’s brokenness and need for redemption. We must pray for strength to endure the darkness and hope that the darkness will not have the last word. For the light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.

For now, we wait.

My full Advent playlist can be accessed here.