2020 Advent Devotional – Day 4

Peace

O Come O Come Emmanuel
Latin, c. 12th century; translator: J. M. Neale
Additional verse, translated by Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin, 1916

“Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.”

Video: O Come O Come Emmanuel

Reflection

“O Come O Come Emmanuel” has a long-established place in the history of Christian liturgy and worship. The translated hymn that we sing today evolved over many centuries from a series of chants sung in the week preceding Christmas, and there are indications of this practice going back as far as the 8th or possibly even the 6th century.

This connection with chanted liturgy can be heard in the musical setting used in our contemporary worship, with its slow and deliberate pace; almost as though the prayers of Christian worshippers reach out to us across the centuries and invite us to unite with them.

A much-needed invitation, for the people of God are still captive today; held prisoner by the “envy, strife and quarrels” referred to in the second verse of this arrangement. As the lyrics suggest, too often bitterness still sits in our hearts, fostering anger and discord. In our homes, as much as in our communities, friction flares and resentment takes root; scores are kept and bridges burnt. The idea of coming together in “one heart and mind” can seem almost as remote as the 8th century itself.

This is – to quote the title of the poem by Howard Thurman – “the work of Christmas.” Yes, it’s easier to skip straight to angels singing of peace and good will, effortlessly descending on us from on high. This hymn reminds us that it’s not that simple; that while we await the return of Jesus, heaven’s peace must also emerge from our hearts, must be our desire.

And so, we call to Jesus – Emmanuel – to be with us, to sustain us and to strengthen us. And we rejoice in the promise of Christmas that even in the depths of our hurt, God is with us, tending our hearts, soothing our pain, and bringing us closer to know heaven’s peace.

Further reading on the history of this work: https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/O_Antiphons/notes_on_veni_veni_emmanuel.htm

Reading

O Come O Come Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.

2020 Advent Devotional – Day 3

Afraid

Genesis 3: 8–12, 17-19

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid
because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3:10)

Video: Genesis 3: 8–12, 17-19

Reflection

The first reading in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols comes from Genesis and describes the fall of humankind – the early biblical explanation for human sinfulness and our estrangement from God.

Notably, it isn’t the event itself – the tempting of the human pair and the eating of the apple – that is included, but rather the aftermath: the guilty, resentful and regretful conversation with God, and the subsequent divine judgment and human need for reconciliation.

What this reading does have in common with the more ‘seasonal’ nativity accounts from Matthew and Luke, however, is the sense of human fear. As Adam acknowledges to God, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid.” It’s the same reaction that can be found throughout our nativity stories at almost every point when humans encounter the divine. Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds – each need to be comforted and reassured, “Do not be afraid.”

It’s the same reaction that we can find if we look hard at ourselves. “I heard you in my life, God, and I was afraid because I was unwilling, and so I hid.” We like our human lives with our self-interested concerns, with our illusion of control; they may not be perfect, but we’re used to them. The idea of stripping all that away – removing all the labels and trappings that give us identity and purpose – and of standing uncovered before God, is rightly terrifying.

And yet we are challenged to do so. To become as helpless as a babe in a manger and greet God in our lives. To look for God in each day, in our families, in our communities, in the stranger, in the unknown. To ask God how we can glorify his name through our actions and our choices, and to live out God’s answer. Fearful perhaps; wonderful indeed.

Reading

Genesis 3: 8–12, 17-19

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and  I ate it.”

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”