O ANTIPHONS an advent devotional As the darkness of winter draws in around us, we feel the darkness of the world drawing in with it. The warm sounds of carols don’t seem to fit the cries of the homeless, the orphan, the grieving, the cold, and the hungry. We the church hears those cries. We notice the strange mix of voices. We stand in the shopping mall and hear the cry of the needy. As we gather to pray in the darkness, we remember the words of God’s people, crying out to God for salvation, for help, for healing, for new life. In the last seven days of Advent as we pray for the coming of Christ, the “O Antiphons” are the words that we sing. Each verse of the “O Antiphons” is a name of Christ, mentioned in Scripture. Each verse ends with a plea for the Messiah to come. As Christmas approaches the cry becomes more urgent. This devotion follows the pattern of the “O Antiphons,” one for each of the last seven days before Christmas Eve: December 17 O Sapientia (O Wisdom) December 18 O Adonai (O Lord) December 19 O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse) December 20 O Clavis David (O Key of David) December 21 O Oriens (O Dayspring) December 22 O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) December 23 O Emmanuel (O With Us Is God) Join with the church in this Advent devotional, a journey of preparation as we remember Christ’s first advent among us and await his return. The first letters of these titles in reverse order form a Latin acrostic: “Ero Cras.” “Tomorrow, I will be there.” Pray with the church, with one another, as we cry out together, “Veni, veni Emmanuel.” “O come, o come, Emmanuel, and save your people.” O SAPIENTIA O WISDOM 17 O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence. Read Proverbs 1.20; 8; 9 1 Corinthians 1.30 Sing (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) 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. Reflect Wisdom cries out to us in the streets, Wisdom who was with God in the beginning of all things. She was there when the circle of the seas was written on the deep waters, and she is there now, crying out to us to turn and seek after the Lord. Wisdom is something after which we all seek. We want to be thought of as wise people, as people who know something about the ways things work. Being wise means we know something about the order of things, and Lord knows, we want to be wise. But wisdom is something more than just an astute understanding of how to get along in the world. It is more than common sense and street smarts. These words from Scripture remind us that wisdom is rooted in the Lord. Wisdom is the One who comes to be with us, the One who was there when we were made, the One who became for us righteousness and sanctification and redemption in order that we might know God. Prepare What is happening in my life that I need to examine in light of God’s Wisdom? Am I doing something that is an obstacle to the happiness of heaven? O ADONAI O LORD 18 O Lord, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. Read Exodus 3 Micah 5.2 Matthew 2.6 Sing (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) 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. Reflect “Lord” is the name that the people of God used in place of the four-letter name too sacred to pronounce. And yet that same Lord made covenant with a people. God bound God’s self in relationship with a people, a people who often rebelled and disobeyed and turned away from God. In this covenant God gave the people the law as the ways to live with God among them. The Lord delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh and unending slavery. He went before them with arm outstretched. Then the Lord came as a shepherd. He came in the form of a servant, as one born in a manger. Foreign kings feared him and wise men came looking for him, and yet he was wrapped in thin blankets and laid in a cow trough. What a strange Lord we have, full of beautiful contradictions. He came among the flames of a burning bush and the thunder of Sinai’s mount. He came in Mary’s womb and on the wood of the cross. He comes even now in the bread and the wine. Come, Lord, come and save your covenant people once more! Prepare Am I seeking after a relationship with God? What can I do to prepare myself for a deeper relationship with Christ? O RADIX JESSE O ROOT OF JESSE 19 O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer. Read Isaiah 11.10 Romans 15.12 Revelation 5.5 Sing (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) 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. Reflect The Lord promises the people a great ruler, one who will come from the house of David, Israel’s beloved king. In this word for today, Isaiah tells us that this kingdom of David son of Jesse would be destroyed. The people of God will be scattered for their disobedience and sin. As the darkness grows, as the people turn further away from God, the sounds of destruction and war grow louder, the people are scattered among the nations of the world. Even after destruction, a root remains. From this root grows the tree of our salvation. But roots are sometimes small and unnoticed. Hidden in the earth, the life, the promise waits in the roots for spring. Christ, the Root of Jesse, does not come as we expect. He comes hidden in Mary’s womb, not as the conquering king we might have hoped for. But we also know that no matter how messy our lives become, no matter how tossed about we are by the ways of the world, we can cling to this sure and deep root. This tender shoot is an ensign, a rallying flag for all peoples that becomes the mighty tree of a great kingdom open to all. Prepare What must be cut out of my life to make way for Christ? What am I hoping for this Advent? O CLAVIS DAVID O KEY OF DAVID 20 O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open; Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. Read Isaiah 22.22 Revelation 3.7 Sing (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) 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. Reflect Keys are the things which open doors and shut them. Jesus is the Key of creation, of new life and new possibility. He can open our prisons and free us. He can also lock the city gates for our safety. What he opens, none may close, and what he locks away, none may open. In Christ God entered our history. He entered our lives, unlocking them in the ways only he can. He will come again at history’s end. To his church he gave the keys of the kingdom, to bind and to loose. So today we praise the authority of the Messiah with the symbol of a key, as we ask him to unlock the prisons of darkness and the chains of sin and death that still bind us. We ask him to free us from our boredom, from our selfishness, from our power to harm others, and from our bent toward sin. We ask him to bind the evil powers of the world, to lock them up and cast them into the outer darkness. And what this one frees, none may bind up again. For this one is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. Prepare What can Christ free me from that is keeping me from loving him and loving my neighbor more freely? O ORIENS O DAYSPRING 21 O Dayspring, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness: Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. Read Malachi 4.2 Luke 1.78-79 Sing (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) 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.