First Sunday of Advent: Even So Come Lord Jesus

Dear Georg Friedrich,

Today we sang our way into the Christmas season with the annual Messiah sing-along. Yes, I suppose it sounds either hokey. . . garnering about it fuzzy feelings of Kum Ba Yah about a campfire, or pretentious. . . right. . . we are all plopping open scores of one of the world’s most difficult oratorios and sight reading it for our own enjoyment. Ok, you are correct, we were bad (and not just a little bit) especially when we stumble through passages like that from Chorus 21, “His yoke is ea-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-easy, His burthen is light.” (Burthen, what the heck is burthen?)

Well, you wrote this music. Don’t criticize us when even seasoned choir members slide off pitch.

Nonetheless, advent is here and it is not bad entering it with a high musical tour of the images of the season.

“Who, indeed may abide the day of His coming? And who of us may stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s (refi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-iners) fire.” I’m standing there singing, (or maybe listening at this juncture) and looking around saying, “Who indeed, of this motley off-key bunch will be left standing if He advents like Loge rather than the Jesus we have come to know and love. That Jesus, a.k.a. holy child born in a manger, is certainly where we want to head in this advent season. Let’s try to keep the refiner’s fire out of this thing or at least reduce it to a campfire for a few shepherds, motley like ourselves, huddling for warmth on a cold winter night, intoning “Come by here.”

What we need to behold is “the Lamb of God, that taketh away, taketh away, the Lamb of God, of God, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, of the world. Behold!”

Yours,

Betsy

P.S. Here is a great advent poem by Rich of Pilgrim Path.