An annual tradition at Immanuel is a choral Evening Prayer service toward the end of Advent, featuring student and faculty choirs and instruments. This year, the central part of the service was the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, with students and faculty singing in Latin, alternating with the congregation singing in English. The following meditations came after the highlighted stanzas.

FIRST MEDITATION

After man fell into sin and death, God promised that a Savior would come and restore life to man. Throughout history, God gave in His Word different images, pictures, titles for this Savior. In the final days of Advent, the Church has gathered up seven of these as prayers to the Messiah to come rescue us. They’re called the “‘O’ Antiphons” because they all begin with “O.”

O Emmanuel

“O Emmanuel,” come to us who mourn in lonely exile! Not very cheerful, is it? But it’s the reality of all our existence. All the emphasis on family at Christmas has this unpleasant flip side: what happens when you cannot be with your family? Christmas for many is the loneliest time of the year.

The loneliness we experience when separated by distance or death is just part of the deeper loneliness that comes from being separated from God. But God’s promise is that our loneliness, our separation from Him and other people, has an end in the final appearing of Immanuel, the God who is with us.

O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

What do you want for Christmas? I have largely happy memories of Christmas. But one year, after opening up my last present, I gave it a mighty kick and said, “Is that all?” My parents, wisely, took everything away. The best present is to have parents who will discipline you. Yet it is not children alone who want more, bigger, faster. Never satisfied, we go through life still asking, “Is that all?”

The book of Proverbs tells us, “In all your getting, get wisdom.” Wisdom is a gift better than any other, for Wisdom shows us the source of every good gift. The things we get leave us unsatisfied. “In all your getting, get wisdom.”

SECOND MEDITATION

O Adonai (O Lord)

If you look at the first line the Latin teachers just sang, you’ll see the word Adonai at the end. It’s not actually Latin, but Hebrew. It means “Lord,” and the Hebrews would substitute it for another name, Yahweh, the name revealed to Moses from the burning bush.

So convinced of God’s majesty and awe were these Jews that the name of God they dared not utter. So they said Adonai, “Lord,” instead. But the focus in the original prayer is missing in the hymn: “O Adonai … Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.”

God redeemed the Jews, rescuing from slavery in Egypt. But there is still much redeeming to be done. Little boys kick toys, while grown men go to war, for there is much evil in the world. Anger, pride, sorrow, death enshroud us in gloom. We need a mighty Lord, a powerful Adonai to bring an end to the world’s madness.

THIRD MEDITATION

O Radix (Root of Jesse, translated in the hymn, O Branch of Jesse’s Tree)

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas has all the elements of a good story – a villain you can love to hate, a tragedy, and a happy ending. The tragedy is that the Grinch steals all the material things – presents, trees, dinners – only to find that Christmas cannot be stolen because it is in the hearts of the people.

It’s a good story. But, dear friends, Christmas is not something in our hearts. We cannot “have” Christmas, and we cannot experience Christmas. Christmas is much more and far better than anything like that. Christmas is about material things, or rather, the Material Thing: Jesus, God come in the flesh. O Branch of Jesse’s Tree shows us that Jesus, true God, became true Man from a real family, the family of King David, whose father was Jesse. Christianity is not an idea, philosophy, or feeling, because Jesus is not an idea, philosophy, or feeling. He is a real person, God in the flesh, who has come to deliver you. That is the real meaning of Christmas.

O Clavis (O Key of David)

I grew up in Minnesota, where Christmas always included snow. I still dream of a white Christmas, but the song by that title is really a sad song. Written in 1942, many families were separated by the war. The song was an instant hit because it gave voice to the loneliness people felt.

Built into the human heart is the longing for home, and as the years pass the longing becomes more pronounced as we remember those who will not be coming home again. Christ proclaims into this loneliness that He is the KEY OF DAVID, who opens wide our heavenly home. Jesus is the Key who opens the way to real life in the kingdom of God. So wherever you are, and whoever is with you on Christmas, and whether it snows or not, rejoice in the Key who will close the path to misery.

FOURTH MEDITATION

O Oriens (O Dayspring)

In the book The Return of the King, the evil Lord Sauron fights against his enemies with a cruel cloud that covers the land of men in a shadow of deep darkness. The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was picturing what life in this world is like apart from Jesus.

How fitting that one of the titles for JESUS is DAYSPRING; He is the true Light that shines in the darkness and gladdens the hearts of men. The cloud of sin and death can lead us to the depressing thought that our lives are meaningless. Such a cloud bids us despair of hope and embrace death. We are a people walking in darkness. But in JESUS, we have seen a great Light. He is our DAYSPRING, dispersing the gloomy clouds of night, putting death’s dark shadows to flight.

O Rex (O King of the Nations)

The next presidential election is nearly two years away, but already candidates are jockeying for position. Presidents, rulers, kings and emperors promise so much, but can achieve so little. None can bring true and lasting peace, because none can do away with sin and death.

The true King came at the first Christmas, but He was rejected. “Behold, your King!” cried Pilate, but the people replied, “Crucify Him!” The King is coming again, and He will resolve all of our sad divisions. Whether men know it or not, Christ our King is the true Desire of every nation. He is the King we need, the true King of Peace.

CONCLUSION

As we have journeyed through this beautiful and ancient hymn, we have surveyed the landscape of human pain. But to every sorrow, the hymn trumpets, Gaude, Rejoice!

Rejoice! Because Jesus is Immanuel—God with us. God became man to end man’s separation from God. So Gaude, dear friends, rejoice, for in Jesus our Immanuel, God is with us. God bless you the rest of this Advent season, and may you have a holy Christmas, filled with rejoicing at the birth of our Immanuel.