Christmas Service Mary Did You Know
For Marking Lowry, virtually every day is Christmas.
Whenever the storyteller and singer takes the stage for a concert, he always closes the show with the same song—"Mary Did You Know?"—no affair what time of year it is.
"When you lot have one hitting, you lot meliorate end with it," Lowry said in a recent phone interview.
Lowry co-wrote "Mary Did You Know?" with Buddy Greene, a well-respected songwriter and instrumentalist, in 1991, while both were on tour with famed gospel singers Beak and Gloria Gaither. Recorded first by Christian singer Michael English, the song has get a mod Christmas staple—covered by some of the biggest names in the business: Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, Mary J. Blige, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, and the a cappella vocal group Pentatonix.
The idea for the song dates back to conversations the 63-year-former had with his mother near Jesus and Mary. Nigh revolved around the question: What was it similar to raise the son of God?
"Literally, what was it similar pedagogy the Discussion of God to talk," he said, referring to a championship used for Jesus in the Gospel of John. "What was it like to requite him a haircut? Did she ever walk into his room and say, 'clean this mess up'?"
He added that almost of the questions he had did not brand their way into the song—only the ones that rhymed made it.
Image: Courtesy photograph
Mark Lowry, cowriter of "Mary Did You Know?"
Those conversations also touched on spiritual topics, similar the mystery of the incarnation, said Lowry—the Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus. They eventually inspired a series of brusk monologues Lowry wrote in 1984 for a Christmas concert at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, then led by Jerry Falwell. Those monologues were the glue that held the show together, serving as a transition from 1 Christmas song to another.
They stuck with Lowry, who idea they might work for a song if he could detect the right music. Several musicians tried to come up with melodies, only none fit, said Lowry. Then, while on bout with the Gaithers, he showed the lyrics to Greene and asked him to have a get. Greene took them dwelling house and started working on some music. Lowry recalls that Greene, who could not exist reached, had spent a twenty-four hours listening to Christmas carols written in minor keys, similar "What Child is This?" and "We Three Kings" before composing the melody for "Mary Did Y'all Know?"
"It was cute," he said. "It was haunting, and it made the song work. It didn't take away from the message—information technology elevated the message."
While writing lyrics, Lowry said he imagined himself as an overly enthusiastic affections who showed upwardly at the manger during the Christmas story and was filled with questions. He used the phrase, "Did you know" to express that enthusiasm—as if the affections was bubbling over with joy for what the nascence of Jesus meant. The questions in the song are the questions Lowry would accept asked if he had been there.
Simply that phrase has gotten Lowry in trouble in recent years—seen equally a kind of theological mansplaining.
"Listeners accept complained that, aye, Mary knew that she was going to bear the Messiah, the promised conservancy of Israel, and that, therefore, the rhetorical question upon which the song rests is either redundant or cavalier," author Joy Clarkson, host of the "Speaking with Joy" podcast, wrote in a 2018 CT article entitled, "Yep, Mary Knew."
That phrase has also inspired a series of sarcastic social media posts. "Mary did y'all know … that at that place's a male child on his way to souvenir your newborn with a drum solo," tweeted author and pastor Courtney Ellis. "Mary did yous know we've been trying to achieve y'all about your extended warranty," tweeted Texas attorney Robert Callahan II. There's fifty-fifty plainly a satire of the song, entitled "Mary Freaking Knew."
Lowry is pretty good-natured about the criticism of the song. He'southward quick to admit information technology has shortcomings—which he thinks are more evident to his fellow Christians who are more familiar with theology than the average person who hears the song. The last thing he wanted to practise was to insult Mary or acrimony his fellow believers.
"I never meant for it to starting time a state of war or irritate people," he said. "I definitely didn't want that."
That response fits Lowry's graphic symbol. He's long used sense of humor to help his beau evangelicals lighten upwardly, preferring laughter to a fight any twenty-four hours.
"Nosotros've portrayed to the world that we're superhuman beings, and we're not," he told Religion News Service in a 1999 interview. "Nosotros're merely sinners in need of a savior."
Still, he's grateful for what he called the "phenomenon of the song." Lowry, who has never been married, views his songs as his children. None of them, he said, has grown and had a life of their own the way "Mary Did You Know?" has. Well-nigh of all, he hopes the song will betoken people to the story of the baby Jesus and what his arrival would mean.
"I hope the vocal makes people recollect about the infant Jesus," he said. "I hope it sends them running to Luke ane to discover out what Mary knew."
Source: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/december/mary-did-you-know-controversy-mark-lowry-lyrics-theology.html
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