12-9-2014

Good Morning All,

          Luke 12:51; “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”

  “O Come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel!”  This is the opening line of a very popular Advent hymn.  It is based on the Great “O Antiphons”.  These are prayers of lament.  This may seem kind of strange given that we are coming to the Christmas season and we are supposed to be full of Christmas cheer.  Yet the Advent season is best seen, not as looking forward to Christmas but to Christ’s return on Judgment day.  We don’t look forward to the coming of the Baby; that is already occurred.  Rather we look forward to the coming of the victorious king delivering the final victory over the final enemy death.

    This grows out of the basic truth of our verse.  There will be no peace on earth.  The devil, even though he is in the throes of death, will continue to cause havoc.  The sinful world will violently reject believers.  The pain of suffering and death will continue until Christ returns so we pray, “O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom us from all the evil.”  It will be the only way to have true peace; when Christ returns the victory will be complete.  We will battle, suffer and experience the pain of a broken creation until Christ’s return.  So we pray for his return, “O come, O come, Emmanuel!”

     The early church understood this.  As they were persecuted, as they lived under harsh and adverse conditions; they comforted each other with the Aramaic word “Maranatha” which roughly means “the Lord is coming” or if prayed it means “come, O Lord.”  When you met a Christian who was having struggles you would encourage him with the word “Maranatha- the Lord is coming”

   We, too, can draw comfort from “Maranatha- the Lord is coming!”  The darkness, the pain and sorrow will be short-lived.  For the Lord is coming; he is going to return in his glory and share it with us.  We will receive our glorified bodies and be reunited with our family, friends and loved ones who have gone on ahead of us.  But until that time we wait; we wait and we pray, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”  We pray for the victory to come and for the night to be over.  We pray for the suffering and the sorrow to end we pray “O, come, O, come, Emmanuel”

    This is what we look forward to, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  This is what we desire for the complete and total healing of God’s people and God’s creation.  We wait, we struggle and battle.  We bring healing and comfort where we can but above all we pray, “O, come, O, come Emmanuel and free your people from the night.”

Gracious Lord, we pray that you would come and rescue us.  Bring your victorious arrival that all creation may be freed from the pain of sin.  Bring about your complete healing.  Bring about your holy light and our eternal salvation.  O, come, O, come Emmanuel!  Rescue us we pray.  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret