Traditionally, on the third Sunday in Advent, the pink candle, or the "Mary" Candle is lit. I've been hosting an Advent hymn study each Sunday evening this season at Sergeanstville UMC. In the center of our dinner table (we enjoy a mug of soup with our study) is this Advent wreath that I've lugged from Kentucky to Virginia to New Jersey without ever lighting the square pillar candles in the five years I've owned it. This year, I decided, it was finally time to light them.What was I waiting for all these years by not lighting them? I don't really know exactly. I like the candles and that is precisely why I bought them when I saw them (besides the fact I knew they would go with a wreath and some decorations I already possessed). Maybe I never lit them the last couple of years because during the rush and crush of the end of the fall semester I wasn't interested in lighting one candle one week without being able to follow through and light the rest that Advent season. Maybe I didn't want to waste the candles on just me alone to enjoy them. Maybe I didn't want to burn them and then not have them in pristine condition for the next year. For whatever reasons I've subconsciously harbored the past five years, this is the year that I decided that they should be lit - and it's bonus points to be able to enjoy them with a small group of people each Sunday evening as we discuss Advent hymns and consider what it is that we are expecting at the start of the church year as we anticipate the arrival of the Christ child in the nativity at Christmas.
This evening we examined "Hail to the Lord's Anointed" written by James Montgomery in 1821. Granted, its a little more obscure than the last two we discussed (Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come, O Come Emmanuel). And the reason that might be (I am totally guessing here) is that this hymn really focuses on the other Advent we expect and wait for - the second and final triumphant coming of Christ. This hymn makes no reference to the birth of Jesus and does not really conjure up Christmas like visions of sugar plums or even idyllic pageants with kids wearing robes and cloaks pretending to be characters in the Nativity scene. Montgomery's hymn goes straight to the heart of what Christians believe Jesus will do when he comes again - bring mercy, end strife, break oppression and let peace reign throughout all creation. And though those ideas are linked to the baby born in Bethlehem, mostly we project them more on the man that baby eventually came and the ministry he inaugurated. In his hymn, Montgomery invites us to look past Bethlehem, look past Galilee, look past Jerusalem, look past even the passion, death and resurrection of Christ to the time when he comes again...when sorrow and sadness are no more. This hymn in my opinion - and admittedly its one I've barely ever sung in my lifetime - picks up the themes that are latent in our other Advent hymns and Christmas carols: there are really, really, really good things coming, things like joy to the world, peace on earth, and good will among all people. But now, in the meantime, we aren't simply stuck in the darkness on our own waiting for Christ to come rescue us. Advent candles remind us the light of God already shines in our lives and when we share it with others we know a little of that joy, peace and good will. Right now we only know it in glimpses and in part. And one day we will know it totally and for all eternity.
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, great David’s greater Son!
Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captives free;
to take away transgression, and rule in equity.
He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying, are precious in his sight.
He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;
love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.
Before him, on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;
his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever, that name to us is love.
Hail in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captives free;
to take away transgression, and rule in equity.
He comes with succor speedy to those who suffer wrong;
to help the poor and needy, and bid the weak be strong;
to give them songs for sighing, their darkness turn to light,
whose souls, condemned and dying, are precious in his sight.
He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth;
love, joy, and hope, like flowers, spring in his path to birth.
Before him, on the mountains, shall peace, the herald, go,
and righteousness, in fountains, from hill to valley flow.
To him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascend;
his kingdom still increasing, a kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never his covenant remove;
his name shall stand forever, that name to us is love.
1 comment:
i tend to save things like that, too, for 'just the right moment'... but i've recently decided to just start using things when i get them. now is the right time, if i enjoy them. or that's my resolution, anyway. =)
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