(Pastor Peter 16 Dec)
Do you ever have the experience of constantly “tripping over’ the same thing again and again? I’ve had that experience this Advent season, where – in random contexts – I have found myself coming across the old Advent Hymn, Come thou long expected Jesus. It’s not a hymn that I can recall singing much in the past – but it seems to have become my song for the season. I’ve discovered that it was written in 1744 by Charles Wesley, one of the great hymn-writers of the past. (That maybe explains its somewhat archaic language!) Here are its words:
| 1. Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. | 2. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone; by thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne. |
It’s an Advent hymn, because it echoes the longing cry of the whole of creation for the coming of Christ – the promised Messiah, the saviour. As we sing it, we are, in effect, foreshadowing what happened that first Christmas Day, as Christ was born, as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But it’s a hymn that also points us forward to a future time when all will be restored and united with Christ forever.
The words, and tune, have been stuck in my mind this Advent. I had thought I would deal with that by including it as one of the songs in our service 2 weeks ago. I gave you a link to a version on YouTube showing the song being sung in the middle of a fairly run-down area of a city, reminding us that the cry of the song is a real-world cry, even for us today in our contemporary world. There is something John-the-Baptist like, I think, about the singer – the lone voice which is crying ‘in the wilderness’. https://youtu.be/pkZFhzNbp8k
Then another – very different – version from an American Indie Rock band, Future of Forestry, came my way and took me to a much more contemplative place: https://youtu.be/mBR68XItb1Q
And, of course, I have since discovered no shortage of YouTube versions of this old hymn. Take your pick!
The question I have for you, though, is this: as Christmas looms large, what are your longings, your desires for this season in this year, with all that is going on your life and all that is happening around us in the world right now? Think about what you would truly love to see happening differently – and then, perhaps, take the words of this hymn as your prayer … or sing the song as an offering of worship and cry to God for your deepest longings.
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This coming Sunday we are meeting as “Ilam in Groups”. You should have received an invitation. We have decided that this week all of the groups will be designated as “Vaccine Passports Required”. We have no desire to exclude anyone from Sunday services – however, at this stage we are still feeling our way a bit around what Sundays should look like at Traffic Light Orange in this Christmas season when so many people are away. We don’t have unlimited people resources to run services of different kinds in alternative locations. (We’re also very aware that everything may change totally in the coming weeks if COVID spreads much more widely round our communities.) This week, though, there IS a Service Sheet linked to the Newsletter, and you will find various videos and other resources included in that to help maintain a sense of connectedness, should you be unable to attend a group for any reason.
Would you please let me know (peter@ilambaptist.org) if requiring Vaccination Passports creates a problem for you in any way? I know of one or two who are not yet fully vaccinated at this stage. We’re very keen to be able to journey with you
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We are into the last week before Christmas – a time when, in some western Christian traditions, the 7 so-called “O Antiphons”, short verses, are recited in evening prayer – paraphrased for us in more recent years in the words of the verses of the hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Each of the Antiphons takes a different name for Jesus from Isaiah the prophet. They are often summarised into a prayer of one sentence. I wonder if these are words that you might like to incorporate as part of your daily prayer during these last 7 days of Advent this year.
O wisdom, Lord and Ruler, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Rising Sun, King of the Nations, Emmanuel.
Come, Lord Jesus.