O Emmanuel, Come!

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, Advent, Christmas, fulfillment, God with us, Jesus Christ, O Come O Come Emanuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One might call the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” the theme song of Advent since it is sung throughout the season of Advent in almost any Christian Church. Perhaps not everyone knows all seven verses or that the lyrics come from these symbolic titles we have been considering for the past week. Today, however, we are in familiar territory. Many of us know that Emmanuel means “God with us.”

What a concept! What an astounding theological truth! Do we really believe that God is, in fact, in our midst? This is the central Christian message: that God “is not far from any one of us.” It is in Jesus, the Christ who has come and is always coming to us, that “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:16-34) He does not come with fanfare and there is often little notice paid, but come he will to us who long for his presence. So let us be prepared.

And let us pray: “Come, the fulfillment of every longing, like the child’s wildest Christmas dream realized. Alert us to your quiet, attune us to your silences, show us your hidden ways. Emmanuel, come!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isaiah’s Gifts

Tags

Confirmation, courage, David, God, Isaiah, knowledge, Messiah, O Come O Come Emanuel, reverence, right judgment, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding, wisdom, wonder and awe in God's presence

The Book of Isaiah is full of prophecies that chronicle events predicted for the life and salvation of the Hebrew people. They are not easily understood without a commentary as Isaiah often uses images like those in today’s lectionary where he says that “a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse…” which is interpreted as a recognition that the Messiah would be descended from royalty (the family of Jesse, father of David). But Isaiah was writing about a time when the fortunes of the house of David would be at their worst, thus the reference to the “stump of Jesse.” An interesting point of the commentary was that of the “shoot” as different from simply speaking of growth out of the stump as a branch. A shoot, notes the commentator, would be slender and insignificant, in contrast to the girth of the stump, thus indicating that the fruit would come from one person at a time of humiliation and obscurity. Thus, the surprise of a Messiah like Jesus.

One could spend a lifetime studying the Book of Isaiah. Even those of us whose knowledge of the text is sketchy at best recognize images or snippets that appear in other places, as the most familiar Advent hymn – O Come, O Come Emmanuel – reminds us with its titles for the long-awaited Messiah. Additionally anyone who was ever prepared for the sacrament of Confirmation in Christianity has probably memorized the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, taken directly from today’s first reading of chapter 11 of Isaiah. I learned them in sixth grade and was happy as an adult catechist to teach a slight change in translation that made me better understand such “gifts” when fear of the Lord morphed into wonder and awe in God’s presence. I was also glad to know and teach that it was a lifelong living into my faith that matured  those gifts in me rather than a direct transmission expected immediately at the age of 12. If that had been true, I reasoned, I had definitely failed!

Here’s the list. See what you can claim at this point in your growing faith: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, right judgment, courage, reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence. (Isaiah 11:1-2) Don’t forget that we’re all still growing!

 

 

 

 

 

O Emmanuel, Come!

Tags

child, Christmas, families, fulfillment, gathering, God, Hebrews, joy to the world, longing, Messiah, O Antiphons, O Come O Come Emanuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

Today there seems a greater intensity in the call of the O Antiphon. It is the last one, the end of the Advent season, since tomorrow we shall keep vigil for the birth of the Messiah. Into the musical corner of my mind this morning as I read the antiphon came the tune and words: “Come thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.” I don’t remember much of that hymn but I think the important idea is that the waiting had been centuries long for the Hebrews, yet they kept an expectant hope alive. I’ve had several conversations in the past week about the sad state of the world and the reasons to lament. On the other hand I hear on the news that travel in the United States, especially tomorrow and on the weekend, will set records because of low gas prices and good weather, at least in the Northeast. That means that families will gather in whatever way they can (some just by phone or computer) to celebrate, however they do, the holiday of Christmas. I choose to believe that the love that is shared during this season does have a positive effect on the world.

Expectations vary today, to be sure, as we approach the very day of Christmas. May it be a fulfillment of our longing, a little or a lot, for personal peace, for more light in the world, for reconciliation…all wrapped in recognition of the child who became and continues to become God with us.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of nations and their Savior. Come and save us, O Lord our God!

O Emmanuel, you are God-with-us and the savior of all nations. Come, save us and make of us your own joy to the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Wisdom…Come!

Tags

Advent, dance, hymn, Magnificat, Messiah, O Antiphons, O Come O Come Emanuel, teach us, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom

Today we enter “the home stretch” in the run up to Christmas – in a liturgical sense anyway. Many Christians have been singing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel…for weeks by now, not knowing the genesis of the text. The hymn is believed to have been composed by a cantor in the 7th or 8th century and thus became truly popular in the Middle Ages. But there is a greater history in those words which are a collection of phrases from Biblical texts largely from the wisdom and prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Christian tradition they found their way into monastic liturgy as the antiphon for the Magnificat at evening prayer and at Mass as the verse before the gospel reading, calling persistently for the promised Messiah to “Come!”

The series of antiphons begins by addressing the Messiah as Wisdom. Here are two translations, one the traditional, the second a more creative imaging to help us grasp an additional nuance from the Book of Wisdom, where Wisdom is seen as God’s consort in the creation of the universe.

O Wisdom, You came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reaching from beginning to end, You ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, teach us the way of prudence.

O Wisdom, playing before God from the beginning, the dance of all creation comes from you. You keep our world spinning. Come, teach us the order of things, the steps of your dance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O Desired of Nations…Come!

Tags

Advent, cornerstone, humankind, joy, kestone, king, O Antiphons, O Come O Come Emanuel, Prince of Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I have failed to mention during this journey through the O Antiphons that some of us are quite familiar with them, perhaps without knowing it. The song that is sung most often during the entire Advent season in many Christian churches is O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Some of us don’t realize that there are seven verses to this hymn because they are rarely all sung and frequently it is the first two or three that we hear. Thus, we are not exposed to all the antiphons on which the verses are based. I was reminded of this fact this morning as I looked at different translations of today’s antiphon. Below is a translation of the actual antiphon and then the verse of the song. Although the message is similar, often certain words call to us in different ways. See which you prefer as a theme for reflection today.

ANTIPHON: O, King of all the Nations, the only joy of every human heart, O Keystone of the mighty arch of humanity, the Cornerstone that binds two into one, come and save the creatures that you have fashioned from the dust!

SONG VERSE: O, come, Desired of Nations, bind in one the hearts of all humankind. Bid us our sad divisions cease and be for us our Prince of Peace.