This third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice as the celebration of Christ’s birth comes ever closer, as we eagerly anticipate Christmas.
Luke 3:15-18
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah.
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtjL-l9sVAw
Stella's Place 
“O Come O Come, Emmanuel”–we sang all 8 verses in church today:
Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel
Translated: John Neal, 1818-66
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might,
Who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times gave holy law,
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come O Rod of Jesse’s stem,
From ev’ry foe deliver them
That trust your mighty pow’r to save;
Bring them in vict’ry through the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
[Hymn # 31 from Lutheran Worship
Author: French Processional
Tune: Veni Emmanuel
1st Published in: 1854]
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That’s my favorite. That’s why I posted it last Sunday. I like the Ode to Joy almost as well.
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Another lesson to me to read more carefully. Or eliminate some of the extraneous stuff that clogs up my inbox, so I have more time for the good stuff.
Did you post all the verses? Many people don’t know there are so many.
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No, I posted a video, and I’m sure they didn’t sing all the verses!
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The words of hymns are so important. Older songs and hymns transmitted tons of theology–like learning during play.
Eliminating verses or simplifying lyrics often damages or even distorts the theological impact of a hymn.
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I remember O Come, O Come Emmanuel from choir, and from my hymnal (which I still have). It has been my favorite since I was very young. I think it is the message, but also because it is written in a minor key.
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I should have added that I am now fondly referred to as the “Black Sheep of the family” because I grew up and became a Byzantine Catholic. (Horror of horrors!)
My family was not pleased, one sister is an atheist, one agnostic, my father remains a skeptic agnostic and my mom is christian.
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That’s quite a bit of diversity in one family!
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It makes things interesting 🙂
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I was raised agonistic, I have always believed that part of the reason was my analytical father drove my mom crazy if we did go to church.
A morning of worship and songs and an afternoon and evening of discussion of whether or not the composer/songwriter would be offended that the pastor only had the congregation sing verses 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 of a particular hymn. Did the omission of verses change the composer/songwriters meaning? Did the pastor think he knew better than the songwriter?
I would have to articulate a reason why I agreed or disagreed with my father’s opinion.
I could go on 😀
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Not exactly calculated to instill a love of worship into a child. JMO–hope you’re not offended, lovely.
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No offense taken Mary 🙂 I had a very colorful childhood. We were unfortunately not big on faith.
Live and learn though.
It isn’t that my dad holds faith to any different standard than he does anything else he simply has to rationally analyze everything, though on the matter of faith he does agree that it would not be called “faith” if it could be solely intellectually arrived at.
Sorry I don’t mean to offend anyone, the talk of lyrics simply brought back those childhood memories about “pastors taking liberties with holy music”. While it didn’t instill much in the way of faith in me then, having to intellectually approach faith and question myself along the way did make my journey all the more interesting, challenging, and in the end, deeply personal and real.
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Mary, I went back to check – I used an instrumental version of Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel (so, no verses at all).
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O Come, O Come Emmanuel
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An Advent reflection I found from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood.
Oh dear children, every soul is a candle, every soul in the whole world is a candle…. Let them burn cheerfully with an unsmoking flame, which is a symbol of a simple intention a pure intention of the glory of God.
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That is beautiful, Menagerie. Thank you.
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I wanted to post this on twitter, but it’s too long!
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