O Come, O Come Emmanuel
My heart is breaking, as I know yours is, for all those affected by the shootings in Connecticut. It’s hard for us to contemplate the horror, grief, and loss of the families of those poor children, teachers and staff. It’s even harder for us to understand the madness that could motivate someone to such a heinous act. Contemplating any of this, let alone all of it, is nearly overwhelming. All we can do is hold them in prayer, surround them with love, and when the time comes ask hard questions about the elements of our culture and policies that contribute to such atrocities.
Before these awful events, I had been thinking about using an Advent or Christmas carol as the poem this week. Over the last 24 hours, one verse of one of my favorites keeps coming to mind:
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
This verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” is based on one of the 7 “O Antiphons,” each of which calls on God by one of the divine attributes attested in Scripture. This one comes from the prophet Isaiah, who said, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1).
And that’s where I am right now: darkness, sadness, grief, gloom. We need light. We need cheer. We need hope and more. We need, in short, Emmanuel, God-with-us, and we believe that God is present to those who suffer in Connecticut and all over this world God loves so much. But some times it’s hard to see, hard even to believe.
Advent, I know, is a time of waiting. But suddenly the wait seems interminable. At times like this, we need to remember — and remind each other — that we do not, any of us, wait alone. We are in this together, as a community, as a nation, and as a family of faith.
Some wait for healing this season, and we wait with them. Others wait for relationship, and we wait with them, as well. Some wait for work, others for word of their loved ones, and some wait for the numbness and pain to abate, even as they fear what life will be like once it does. We wait with them all.
I suspect that for the families whose children were gunned down, Christmas will never be the same. And as we wait with them, we also pray and, if we find our courage, maybe we will also sing, asking our Lord the Day-Spring and giver of light and life to bring us cheer, to disperse the gloomy clouds of night and put death’s dark shadows to flight.
It may be a long time until we believe again the words we are singing, but I believe it’s worth the wait.
For those who could use the solace of the music as well as the words, I’ll put the recent version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by The Piano Guys and all the verses below:
Note: For those receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go. Refrain
O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave. Refrain
O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight. Refrain
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. Refrain
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain
O come, thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call. Refrain
O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace. Refrain
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear. Refrain
Words: Latin, twelfth century; trans. John Mason Neale (1818-1866), 1851
Thank You for this! I’m preaching 4 of the Antiphons on these 4 Sundays – and the one I’d picked for tomorrow was “O Dayspring.” A good word to be sure. Advent Four will be O Emmanuel. Words seem trite to express how desparately we need GOD WITH US!
Thank you for taking the time to post this on this day after such a horrible event, in the lives of the families dealing with the child that will not be there to unwrap a gift alread bought, first responders who carry with them the pictures of those classrooms, the janitors who may be cleaning this scene up shortly, the town that thought this couldn’t happen to us, the state that was prepared even though it couldn’t happen, and for us that must stand before faithful people and say yes there is a Loving God and we are here to worship that God this Day with all the angels in heaven and its newest members of the throngs of saints. Thanks
Dear John G., Your thank you to David Lose was poetry. Thank you for that.
To make sense out of this senseless tragedy is perhaps impossible but your insight and compassion does help the pain.
Thank you David, I used the ‘O Come O Come Emmanuel’ video clip to conclude my sermon on Sunday. It offered some measure of solace to a grieving Canadian congregation
Thank you
Horrific events like this one, among people who are “one of us” affects even those far removed at a very visceral level. I certainly identify with all of the feelings you mentioned in this article and in your post on Preaching This Week. The thing that has been weighing even heavier on my soul, however, is how OFTEN senseless violence claims the lives of innocents (including children) and yet we remain unmoved. When it happens all at once in an elementary school, we of course feel a deep and “compassionate” grief. But when they come one at a time, to parents and communities isolated from each other, it can go by without even a mention. A disturbed boy takes the lives of school children and we rightly ask “Why?” Yet when bombs and rockets fall upon innocents and children caught in the crossfire of war, we still find a way to sing joyful songs of Yuletide with unaltered conscience. Even in our own country, we completely miss that in terms of numbers of gun deaths, Sandy Hook happens everyday! My heart aches for the grief of the people in Newtown. But my consciences seems complicit in the ongoing violence that fuels the continuous grieving happening 24/7 in the world. So it is the second to the last verse, “bid thou our sad division cease and be thyself our king of peace” that is resounding in my mind today. Come Lord Jesus come.