12-8-2015

Good Morning All!!     

     Isaiah 7:14; “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

    We are well into December and well into Advent.  While the pace of life seems to pick up greatly this time of year, we often kind of miss a lot of what Advent is.  To many of us, it is really just a baby shower for Jesus.  We see it as simply as the days ahead of Christmas.  Yet as we look at Advent, we can really do it with one hymn and that is the very familiar hymn, “O, Come, O, Come, Emmanuel”

    This ancient hymn began in the Middle Ages and first started seven days before Christmas with each night one of the great “O” antiphons being sung. (An antiphon is sung in alternating fashion, preferably on alternate sides of the church).  The seven are “O Wisdom”; “O Lord”; “O Root of Jesse”; “O Key of David”; “O Dayspring”; “O Emmanuel”.  Each antiphon pleads for Jesus to come; that is to return and to free his people from the bondage of this world.  They plead for Jesus to come and to complete the restoration and perfection of creation.  They plead for Jesus to come and end pain, suffering and death forever.  This hymn, as the season of Advent, is about looking forward to the return of Christ for the final victory.

    As we look at the world, we can truly see that the only final answer is for Christ to come.  The works of men only seem to cause us to go deeper and farther in the hole.  It seems like violence, death, hatred, and anger are becoming more and more prevalent and the only answer is for Jesus to return and put an end to it.  The only answer is Jesus.  As we recognize this truth as the great truth.  We look forward and cry; O, Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

   Yet the ancient authors offered hope in the song that we don’t see; at least we don’t see it in English.  As we look at the message that emanates from Christmas and look at the verses in reverse order; the words in Latin are “O Emmauel”; “O Rex”; “O Oriens”; “O Clavis”; “O Racix”; “O Adonai”; “O Sapientia.” The first letters spell out “ERO CRAS” which is translated as “tomorrow I shall be there.”  We have our answer!!  O, Come, O, Come, Emmanuel, we cry and Jesus answers, “I am on the way.”  Our hope and our final reward are secured.

   Do not get so wrapped up in this world that we fail to remember that we “look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” 

O come Lord, free us from the vestiges of sin and the rule of sin in the world.  Come Lord and end the tyranny of sin and complete the work that you have begun.  We await your return; come Lord and end the night with your great light.  We wait for your blessed return.  In you we hope and in your name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret