The Fifth Day of the O Antphons: O Come, Thou Dayspring from on High

O Come, thou Dayspring from on high,

And cheer us by the drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadow put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel.

Today is the shortest day of the year. Tonight is the longest night of the year. It is especially holy that today we sing about Christ, the Dayspring, and the promise of bringing light to the darkest places of our lives.

In Houston, our shortest days are not that short nor our longest days all that long. However, when I was in Iceland in May, the only challenge for me was that even though there was a supposed sunset in the middle of the time we call night, it never really got dark; it was always light. Hotel rooms in Iceland were rated by travelers by how well the curtains would darken the room at night for sleep.

Today in Reykjavik, the sun rises at 11.30 in the morning and the sun sets at 3.30 in the afternoon; however, those four hours in the sun are actually full of darkness. The shortest day of the year in some places in our world may never have any apparent sun light.

On this winter solstice, we sing of the Light of the Son that goes into the darkest places of our lives and hearts. For some of us this Advent, our darkest place is the fear and grief of the separation of death. In our hymn, we pray as we sing that Emmanuel, God is with us, even there, especially there.

Once again, we sing that in Christ there is no darkness at all, the night and the day, life and death, are both alike in him.

How will Christ’s light come to you today?

Today we are invited as we sing to look for Christ in our very darkest moment.

Fourth Day of the O Antiphons: O Come, thou Key of David, Come

At St. Mary’s at nine o’clock this morning, three of us gathered to pray Morning Prayer. We lit three blue and one pink candle on the Advent wreath, and sat to listen and knelt to pray.

After hearing the lesson from the First Testament appointed for the Tuesday in the fourth week of Advent, we sang and prayed:

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel.

My soul proclaims your greatness, O God;

My spirit rejoices in you, my Savior,

For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed;

You, the Almighty, have done great things for me,

and holy is your Name.

You have mercy on those who fear you

from generation to generation.

You, O God, have shown strength with your arm,

And scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones

and lifting up the lowly.

You have filled the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away empty.

You have come to the help of your servant Israel,

For you have remembered your promise of mercy,

The promise made to our forebears,

to Abraham, Sarah and their children for ever.

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emanuel shall come to thee,

O Israel.

We were using the translation of the Song of Mary provided from the breviary of the Order of Saint Helena, an Episcopal religious community for women (yep, Episcopal nuns). I love this translation of the Magnificat because it has been reframed to make it a prayer, using the second person pronoun to address God, rather than the third. This also opens our hearts for God to be gender neutral and expands the possibility of the mystery of God. I believe that singing is a way to pray, and rephrasing the Song of Mary to make it a more intentional prayer is helpful as we listen to God’s answer to our question for this fourth week of Advent:

How is God coming to us today?

The Third Day of the O Antiphons: O Come, thou Branch of Jesse’s Tree

O come, thou Branch of Jesse’s Tree,

Free them from Satan’s tyranny,

That trust the mighty power to save,

And give them victory o’er the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

I can recall the first time I ever learned about the Jesse Tree. It was early days in my walk in the Episcopal Church, and I was learning about the difference between Advent and Christmas. At St. Cuthbert, when it is was still housed in temporary metal buildings near Bear Creek, during Advent we created Jesse Tree ornaments tracing the lineage of Jesus through the Hebrew Scripture.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel, is also a journey through the Scripture Jesus would have known, read, studied, and loved. Each verse has ties to the First Testament, and if those passages were important enough for Jesus to know, read, study, and love, they are for us, too.

Jesse’s Tree in the hymn connects Jesus to his ancestors, those cloud of witnesses that were part of who he became. Ruth married Boaz, and they had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse, and one of Jesse’s sons was David, who became King and was the fixed hope of the Jews for the coming Messiah, who Jesus is.

At this time of year, most, if not all of us, feel connections to those we love and see no more. For some, this grief is still so sharp that this season brings more pain than joy. We sing today, as the antiphon for Mary’s song of the world being turned right side up again by the son she will bear, that we carry our sorrows, but not as those who have no hope. Today as we sing, we pray for the trust to know that in God there are no longer graves but a new birth and a life after we die. For some, this may be at best a small comfort, but it is truth.

So we have the courage to sing:

Rejoice! Rejoice.

Emmanuel: God is with us.

Israel: God prevails.

Always.

My grandson, Austin Jack, at the grave of his great grandfather, Austin Jack Jernigan.

Second Day of the O Antiphons: O Come, Thou Lord of Might

How will God come to us?

At St. Mary’s today we will offer this question as an oblation, a prayer that offers our lives to God, especially each day this final week of Advent.

As we listen for the answer, we are invited to sing the O Antiphon appointed for the day. Today we will sing the verse for December 18, verse 4, before and after praying Mary’s Song.

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

My soul proclaims your greatness, O God;

My spirit rejoices in you, my Savior,

For you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed;

You, the Almighty, have done great things for me, and holy is your Name.

You have mercy on those who fear you from generation to generation.

You, O God, have shown strength with your arm,

And scattered the proud in their conceit,

Casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly.

You have filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

You have come to the help of your servant Israel,

For you have remembered your promise of mercy,

The promise made to our forebears, to Abraham, Sarah and their children for ever.

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

How will God come to us?

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel, that is, God is with us.

Israel, that is, God prevails.