This past Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we sang the well-known hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” What perhaps is not so well known is that each verse draws on an ancient “O Antiphon” composed by Benedictine monks in the Middle Ages, each one based on Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus. Each begins with a beseeching “O,” and each addresses Jesus with a different title – Wisdom, Lord, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Dayspring, King, Emmanuel. Traditionally these “O Antiphons” are prayed in the final seven days of Advent leading up to Christmas.
This year I learned that the order of the prayers is significant! “Starting with the last [Latin] title in reverse order, the first letter of each (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapienta) forms an acrostic: the Latin words Ero cras, which speak Jesus’ response and promise to us. ‘Tomorrow, I will come’” (Ron Rienstra). Blessed are we who believe this promise!
Malcolm Guite’s poem “O Emmanuel” draws on the “O Antiphons,” to beautifully express the power of the Incarnation. I share it with you below, and remind you to join us for one service at 10:30am this upcoming Sunday, 12/29, for a unique Lessons & Carols on the first Sunday of Christmas.
O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.
Your Pastor in Christ,
