Once again the season is upon us for singing one of our favorite hymns, ‘O come, O come Emmanuel.’ It is one of the very few plainsong hymns we ever sing and one of the most ancient. It may have 8th century Gregorian origins or alternatively it may have been written for Franciscan nuns in 15th century France. It still has a wide appeal – recordings have been made by King’s College Cambridge and Witney Houston! The composers Respighi, MacMillan and Pärt have incorporated the melody into their works.
The words derive from the prophecies of Isaiah (7:14 Immanuel, 11:1 Rod of Jesse, 22:22 Key of David) and from St Luke (1:78 Day Spring) which together form elsewhere in our services the great Advent antiphons or sentences sung during Advent before and after the canticles in Morning and Evening prayer. Together they provide a wealth of ideas to describe the long expected Saviour: wisdom, ruler, root, key, dawn, desire of nations.
The repeated phrase ‘O come, O come,’ represents a form of longing and each verse may hint at some of the things which we yearn for: wisdom – the accumulation of practical experience and insight which might enable us to find our way in an increasingly complex world; ruler – the kind of leadership which will listen and guide and be accountable and enable us to feel secure in the trust we place in it; root – the sense of being located in a tradition which holds but does not strangle us, and which gives us an identity and a rich and sustaining inheritance: key – that which will open doors for us into some new way of being ourselves which is more truthful and courageous and creative: dawn – the rising up within us of a hope which sustains and nurtures us to face whatever the day brings: desire of nations – this is the final epithet in the hymn and in some ways encapsulates all that has gone before, but what is this desire?
Advent is not just a time of looking forward it is a time of longing – a time when we have to address our human longing ‘to be spoken to, to be touched, to be judged and loved and absolved.’ (Rowan Williams) However well we may have been loved by parents, family and friends there is still in all of us at the heart of our humanity something that needs to be reassured and affirmed and understood. It was said that when so called ‘Primitive’ people first saw their own photograph they thought something essential in themselves had been stolen. The number of photographs our citizens take of themselves might be interpreted as a need for reassurance that we are really here.
In Advent we are invited to voice this longing for ourselves and for the human race. We are invited to realize once again that we have needs which we cannot fulfill for ourselves and which we can only inadequately fulfill for one another. We are invited to know our need for God and yet to accept that we cannot yet know how that need will be met. ‘Advent insists that we stay for a while in this tension of being “on the eve” if only in order that the new thing we celebrate at Christmas may have the chance of being truly new for us, not a stale and pious cliché‘. (Rowan Williams)
Advent teaches us to ponder what it might mean for us to be looked for. We cannot cross the gap between our confused and sinful yet needy selves and the reality of God. Only grace from beyond can do that. Yet the grace of God is searching for us and our Advent prayer is about standing still and waiting to be found.
With my love and prayers for a Blessed Christmas and a hope filled New Year,
The Vicar writes
Stephen Tucker