Second
Sunday in Advent
Year
B
December 4, 2011
Isaiah
40:1-11
Psalm
85:1-2, 8-13from BCP
2 Peter 3:8-15
Mark 1:1-8
O Come, O Come
Emmanuel!
Redeem thy
captive Israel,
That into exile
drear has gone
Far from the face
of God’s dear son
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel
Shall come to
thee, o Israel
~~
O Come, thou
branch of jesse, draw
The quarry from
the lion’s claw;
From the dread
caverns of the grave,
from nether hell,
thy people save
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel
Shall come to
thee, o Israel
The
second verse of the 15th century French carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, will be sung from the loft of Grace Anglican Church in Boise this week.
As
is the case with several carols and hymns for Advent and Christmas in current
common use, our opening hymn, Hark, a
Thrilling Voice is Sounding has gained greater acceptance and use in
American Churches through the recordings of Advent lessons and Carols by the choir of
King’s College, Cambridge. This hymn is
found in two tenth-century sources. In
Roman use it is assigned to Lauds (3 AM morning services, often combined with
Prime or Morning Prayer) during Advent.
O Day of God, Draw Nigh will be the
hymn surrounding the reading of the Gospel.
The words were composed and contributed by R.B. Y. Scott for a hymn
sheet of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order in 1937. In view of its expressed hope for peace and
justice on the verge of a cataclysmic Second World War, it gained inclusion in
hymnals under the General Hymns in the section, “Social Religion” under the
subsection “War and peace”. The text of
the hymn is calling for Christians to pray for God’s promise to “…..make all
things new”.
At the Offertory,
the choir accompanied by the organ and piccolo, will sing, Comfort, Comfort Ye My People by John Ferguson, an organist,
composer and teacher.
Gretchen
Ediger, flute and Pat O Neil will play the familiar piece from Handel’s
Messiah, Come Unto Him and He Shall Feed
His Flock during Eucharist. Again,
looking forward to Christ’s coming as predicted in Isaiah 40.
On Jordan’s Banks the Baptists Cry, our
recessional hymn is one of the most widely used of the Advent hymns. This is because it was one of the few texts
in the hymnal related to the ministry of John the Baptist and the Baptism of
our Lord. The Gospel reading will make that connection. The original Latin text was a hymn, again,
for Lauds during Advent. It was
published in 1763 in the Paris breviary by Charles Coffin.
What
is the wilderness that John the Baptist refers to?
It is the
wilderness of solitude, making time to be in contemplative prayer so that we
may deepen our awareness of God’s presence in everything, of Christ’s boundless
compassion and mercy, and of the surprising, ever-changing and life-renewing
movements of the Holy Spirit.
It is the
wilderness of attachments, where we find the spiritual reserves to break the
chains that keep us in bondage to idols such as money, material goods, power
and fame.
And it is the
wilderness of that music which springs from God’s own heart, pure in
expression, filled with love and free of prideful affectations. Let us cultivate this music and convey it’s
truth.
O Come,
O Come Emmanuel!
Sources:
Wikipedia.com
Augsberg Press
Hymnal ’82 Companion
Deacon Ron Jutzy
One Minute Devotions
English Hymns and
Hymn Writers
YouTube.com
