O Come, O Come Emmanuel

#211 in our United Methodist Hymnal has, for some time, been my favorite song of the Christmas season. The haunting melody bears the familiar pain of the exile, and yet this song about deep desire and current pain is filled with hope. Not just any hope, but hope of deliverance. It is the hope for the return of God.

Emmanuel had been here before. Adam and Eve walked with Him in the cool of the day. But those days are long forgotten. The years of rebellion had pushed them so far away that all they had left was an ache to be remembered. O come, O come Emmanuel!

Can you identify with this song? Christ came and brought about our redemption. He walked with us in the cool of the day. But years of rebellion have pushed our world to the edge of evil. Listen to the echoes of wars and conflict. Those wars happen between countries, but they also happen between family members, they happen between
friends. A thousand shattered relationships make us cry out, "O come! O come, Emmanuel!"

We are exiled, caught between the already and the not-yet. We already have our redemption from our sins, but with creation we groan for the redemption that is to come. We already have seen Christ come in victory on the cross, but we long for His victory in the skies. We already have seen God implement His Kingdom on earth in Christ through the Church, but we long for His rule and reign to be seen and acknowledged by all. O come, O come, Emmanuel.

Homework this week comes in three parts. Pray for the Peace of Israel. Pray for the return of Christ! And "Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."

Popular posts from this blog

The Power of a Memory

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, " This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. " In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, " This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me ." —1 Corinthians 11:23-25 Has it ever happened to you? You walk into a room and suddenly the sight, smell, or feel of that room transports you thousands of miles to your grandmother’s house? In an instant you are 10 again. It is so real that you could almost walk to the kitchen and grab a cookie. What you have just experienced is the power of a memory. Our brains catalog, not just the sequence of events, but the sounds, sights, smells, tastes and touches of those events and places as well. And every time we come into contact with those senses again, our brain, quick as lightni
Read more

Commission

"Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you." —1 Thessalonians 3:1 Each year, we at Faith participate in commissioning several mission teams. We declare that those who go out from us in mission are “Ambassadors” not only of God’s Kingdom, but also of the Faith family. When I tell friends and colleagues at other churches about our missions involvement, they are consistently astonished, both at the number of trips we take, and the number of participants on those trips. After participating in so many commissionings, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect this past Sunday as you commissioned the Guatemala trip. I have been looking forward to this trip for many months; but as you commissioned us, the trip became real. I felt a deep joy swell over me, both that I had the opportunity to go, and that the church, my church, was praying for me and sending me out. I don’t know that I will
Read more

Finding Freedom: Part III - When Is Enough, Enough?

" Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.' " —Matthew 18:21-22 We've spent the last two weeks talking about Forgiveness. We established that forgiveness is a choice, for we know that God is not a tyrant commanding the impossible; and we defined Forgiveness as "releasing my right to be angry and/or bitter toward a person for the wrong they committed and releasing the outcome to God." We have addressed what forgiveness looks like in response to an offence, but what happens when the wound in question is not as a result of an event, but rather of a behavior. What happens when you can’t even count the number of times you have been wronged? The Rabbinical teaching of the day stated that forgiving someone three times was sufficient. Peter knew of Jesus tendency to require more than the other Ra
Read more