Merry American Machine Christmas!

Lyrics

[INTRODUCTION] [VERSE 1] The lights came on in October The ads arrived in June The soundtrack started playing Before we finished Halloween The reindeer run on diesel The sleigh runs on demand And somewhere in a warehouse A million wishes scan The influencers are unboxing The children refresh feeds The algorithm knows exactly What to teach them how to need And everybody’s counting down To something they can’t name While singing songs about a Savior We’ve learned to rearrange [PRE-CHORUS] Five… Four… Three… Two… Everybody smile for the camera [CHORUS] Merry American Machine Christmas Everything’s on sale Merry American Machine Christmas Swipe your card and ring the bell Merry American Machine Christmas Look how holy it all looks tonight While the Child we say we’re waiting for Gets lost beneath the lights [VERSE 2] The mall becomes a chapel The registers a choir The escalators carry us Like pilgrims of desire The windows preach abundance The coupons promise peace The baby in the manger Can’t compete with urgency The children learn the jingles Before they learn the hymns We teach them how to hunger Then shame the hunger in them And somewhere under everything The stable still appears With a King too small for empire And too holy for souvenirs [PRE-CHORUS] Five… Four… Three… Two… Everybody smile for the camera [CHORUS] Merry American Machine Christmas Everything’s on sale Merry American Machine Christmas Swipe your card and ring the bell Merry American Machine Christmas Look how holy it all looks tonight While the Child we say we’re waiting for Gets lost beneath the lights [BRIDGE] We built a golden calf And wrapped it up in ribbon Taught it how to sing along To songs about forgiveness We hung a star above it We gave it holy names We called it joy We called it blessed We called it how the season changed We fed it all our wonder We gave it all our time We let it sell us back the peace We already had inside And now it keeps on asking For another sacrifice Another hour Another dollar Another family Another night [BREAKDOWN] Faster Louder Bigger Brighter Another shipment Another flyer Another promise Another screen Another version of the dream Another purchase Another debt Another thing we can’t forget Another package Another light We can’t afford a silent night And somewhere Beneath the noise A child is sleeping And somewhere Beyond the glow A voice is speaking And somewhere Under all this glitter The story still remains But can we hear it? Can we hear it? Can we hear it Over the machine? [FINAL CHORUS] Merry American Machine Christmas Everything’s on sale Merry American Machine Christmas Swipe your card and ring the bell Merry American Machine Christmas Look how holy it all looks tonight While the Child we say we’re waiting for Gets lost beneath the lights Merry American Machine Christmas One more year goes by While peace on Earth keeps waiting For us to finally arrive Merry American Machine Christmas The belts keep moving on And the God we tried to package Still refuses to belong [OUTRO] The lights stay on The belts keep moving The music plays The orders fly The child still sleeps The star still shines The machine keeps humming We couldn’t afford a silent night