O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
who mourns in lonely exile here,
until the Son of God appear;
Rejoice, Rejoice,
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

     Today is December 23rd and we come to the end of the O Antiphons. Emmanuel -God with us. One way of looking at the Great Story in the Scriptures is that it is a story of lost relationship between God and his creation. Genesis, using picture language, speaks of God and Adam and Eve walking together in the cool of the day in the Original Garden. Due to disobedience, that fellowship (that “hanging out together” in modern parlance) was lost. This is what the hymn above describes as “lonely exile.” A colossal separation between God and humanity was the result. The Great Story is one in which God refuses to let this continue. In countless ways God has worked to  bring about reconciliation and renewal of relationship.
     Finally God determine to come near to us, to actually come among us, in a unique way. In the person of Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, God entered into his broken world and provided the forgiveness and restoration which make “hanging out with God” possible.

   This is incredibly good news! “Rejoice,” the hymn says. We no longer are by ourselves outside of the Garden. God has come to us, sought us out, welcomed us back into relationship, and promises to restore us to a renewed earth filled with the Heavenly Kingdom. REJOICE!

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver,
the Desire of all nations, and their Saviour:
Come, and save us, O Lord our God.

O come, thou Dayspring from on high,
and cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadow put to flight.

    It is fitting that on this the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, the Antiphon focuses on the Messiah as the bringer of Light. In spiritual matters, darkness has often been associated with sin, death, and the absence of Divine Presence. When Adam and Eve broke relationship with God, they hid from God’s presence. Mankind has been hiding from God and dwelling in darkness ever since. Isaiah prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (Is. 11.1).
      The Dayspring, or the Morning Star, is the star that shines right before the dawn. It is a signal that the dawn is near, that night is almost over. This is a fitting and meaningful name for Jesus, the Messiah. When he appeared, it was the sign that the long sentence of darkness that has prevailed over God’s creation is almost over. The light is dawning in the Coming Messiah.
     Once when I was in the Army, I had to stand an all night guard duty. It was at an ammunition station out by the beaches of Monterey. I still remember it as one of the longest nights in my life. I was cold, it was dark, there was no light to read by aznd I had no book, and it seemed endless. There was a marine layer and so I could not see stars, but I remember distinctly the feeling of hope that came over me when the first, faint light appeared on the horizon. It meant a warm place, a hot meal, and a bed was on the way.

O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
                                                              Fr. William Saunders

Advent calls us out of darkness into light. It involves confession and repentence from the ways of darkness and death. It involves daily turning to the source of Light – Jesus, the presence of the Messiah with us.

Open your eyes, look up, the Morning Star has come. Hallelujah!

O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

     In the eighth century B.C., the prophet Isaiah spoke God’s message of Judgement and Promise to the Southern Kingdom of Judah with it’s capitol city at Jerusalem. Jerussalem and Judah were under threat from the outside (rival, larger Kingdoms which wanted to capture Judah) and from within (political instability, injustice, but above all failure to trust in God’s promises). Isaiah called Judah and the Kings of Jerusalem to account: predicting the judgement of God unless Judah repented and returned in faith to God.
     In the 22nd chapter, Isaiah prohesies judgement on Shebna, and proclaims God’s message that God will raise up Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, in his place. God says, “I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.”
     I can only imagine the long centuries of meditation within the monastic communities on the Scriptures. Somewhere in time, the connection was made that this”key of the house of David” applied to more than Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. In the development of thought, it came to be a way of understanding the Messiah who is to come. He will ascend the throne of His father David and will possess the keys – the ability and authority to open and shut at will.

O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel,
Thou that openest and no one shutteth, and shuttest and no one openeth:
Come, and loose the prisoner from the prison-house,
and him that sitteth in darkness from the shadow of death.
                                          A.C.A. Hall, Bishop of Vermont

What a fitting metaphor for the life of so many people, sitting in a prison-house under the shadow of death, or on a path to misery. What a great hope, that the Messiah who is coming has the Keys of Authority, and can close that path to misery, and can set free those who are in bondage.

Blessed be the name of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who has sent us this Messiah to redeem us.

The hymn translates the Antiphon this way:

O come, thou Branch of Jesse’s tree,
free them from Satan’s tyranny
that trust thy mighty power to save,
and give them victory o’er the grave.

O Flower of Jesse’s stem,
you have been raised up as sign for all peoples;
kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down before you.
Come, let nothingkeep you from coming to our aid. 
                                         Father William Saunders.

Jesus is the Messiah of God, the Annointed one who will rule forever. He comes to set his people free.

O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times didst give the law,
in cloud, and majesty, and awe.

O sacred Lord of ancient Israel,
who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,
who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain:
come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.
                                                    from Fr. William Saunders

O Lord and Ruler of the house of Israel,
Who appearedst to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush,”
and gavest him the Law in Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.
                                  From A.C.A.  Hall, Bishop of Vermont

Isaiah 33:22 says, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
                                             the Lord is our King; he will save us.”
For centuries, in all kinds of circumstances, and locations all over the world, God’s people have mediated on the powerful ability of the LORD to save and rescue. The prophets began this way of thinking as they struggled with the exiles and survivors of Israel through their dark years of captivity and oppression. They remembered the strong arm of the Lord which had rescued Israel from Egypt. They looked forwared to the coming of the Messiah, who would continue the rescuing acts of God in their circumstances. The church discovered in these prophetic words ways of understanding who Jesus of Nazareth was. And for centuries these antiphons have prepared Christians for the celebration of the Messiah’s coming.

   One of the earliest prayers of the Christian was, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Not only has God intervened in the history of the world through Jesus, God promises that he will not quit until all things have been caught up in the peace and love of the Messiah. So as much as we remember God’s saving deeds in the past, we look at our dark and sin ravaged world and pray with the saints through the ages: Come, O mighty Lord, stretch out your powerful arm and save us.

     One of the possible uses of these antiphons for modern Christians, especially if you don’t gather with others and pray Evening Prayer (which would be the tradtional usage) is to use them as reflections during these last days of Advent. The seven antiphons each use an Old Testament name for the Messiah, and they are all based on the prophets, especially Isaiah. So using the antiphon as a way of directing your thinking throughout your day will help you to open your heart and mind to the wonder of God’s gift to us in sending His Son. (The hymn O Come, O come, actually starts with the last antiphon about Emmanuel. The first one for Dec. 17th is about
Wisdom.)
     I hope this helps you in your Advent worship and prayer. So here is the first Antiphon.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
and order all things far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go.
                                              from the hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Wisdom, which camest forth out of the mouth of the Most High,
and reachest from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things:”
Come and teach us the way of prudence.
                                           from Bishop A.C.A Hall, bishop of Vermont

O Wisdom, O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care.
Come and show your people the way to salvation.
                                           from Father William Saunders.

As you can see, whichever translation is used, the emphasis is on the Messiah as the Wisdom of God, who shows God’s people how to live and the way to salvation. The Isaiah passages which this is based on are 11:2-3 and 28:29. This is what we can expect from opening our hearts to the coming of the Messiah, God’s provision of wisdom and understanding so that we may live righteous lives in this world. What a wonderful prospect!

Come, O Wisdom!

“I do not say that ‘felt needs’ are to be disregarded, but in human affairs the ‘presenting problem’ – the thing that needs to be fixed now — is rarely the real problem. One should of course be sympathetic with people who are lonely, guilt-ridden, and incapable of dealing with life, and so on, but these are not their problem.
    Their problem is that they have rejected God, for whatever reason, and ha ve chosen to live life on their own. They have not surrendered their will to him. They do not want to do what God says to do, but what they think is best. And they are lost because of that, in the sense explained in an earlier chapter. They do dnot know what their real needs are and do not think of themselves as rebels and outlaws who must radically change because they are not acceptable to God. They do not think they need the grace of God for radical transformation of who they are, but they just need a little help. They are good people. Or so it seems to them.”

Advent is all about waking up to reality. Reality is that we have been rebels against God, even though we thought we were living well on our own. When we ran into problems, we thought we needed a little adjustment in our lives. But God sees this ‘natural life’ as one of rebellion against his design and will for us.

The coming of Jesus is God’s remedy for the human condition. In God’s wondrous love and mercy, he had compassion on us, and rescued us from our lost condition. In his mercy, he continues the process of restoring our souls to the goodness for which we are designed and created. A long time ago, my father had a friend who regularly used to moan, “People are no damn good.” It was kind of comical at the time. But he was right. People aren’t naturally good. They can produce goodness, even though they rebel against God. That is because they were made in the image of God. Even though the image is tarnished and marred in our natural state, we are still capable of producing a good deed. But a good deed does not mean that we are good. Even truly wicked people can under the moment produce a kind act. But underneath is the rebellion that produces all of the corruption of this world.

Whe God decided to intervene in this world to rescue us, and ultimately sent Jesus to save us, He confronts the basic human problem – submit our lives to God or live autonomously on our own. Advent is about waking to our need for rescue.

“The Messiah comes,” the angels sing,

“Salvation for all is what he brings.”

The life of hope for you and me,

The babe is what will set us free.

HIs life begins and we will see

The Glory of God is what this will be.

For God is working, HIs will is known;

He will claim us for His own.

So light the candles and sing the songs,

God is coming, He won’t be long.

We come to worship, to sing and praise,

Glorious Hallelujahs to Him we raise.

                                                                Susan Englund

     One way to think about this is the phrase “You’ve got mail” which AOL and the tech age have made common to us. The computer is on, work is in progress, and of a sudden there is the computer beep and the notice – You’ve got mail! So, what do we do? If we are in the middle of a project, we often ignore the beep because we don’t want to be distracted. Sometimes, we go and look at the source to see who is sending the mail. After all, it might be spam. Or even worse, it could be some hacker trying to infect our computer with a virus. God forbid! If we approve of the source, we open the message and listen.
     The Scriptures (especially the texts of Advent), the tradition, the liturgy and worship, and above all, the reality of the Risen Jesus who is God’s Word in flesh are all ‘beeps’ in our lives, that keeps saying to us – You’ve got mail! The Holy One is trying to get through to you.

     Will we listen?

Have a good Advent!

Father David