Thursday, December 12
O Lord, How Shall I Meet You
[Paul Gerhardt, 1653; Trans. Catherine Winkworth 1863]
O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you, my hope, my heart's delight!
O kindle, Lord most holy, a lamp within my breast,
To do in spirit lowly all that may please you best.
Love caused your incarnation, love brought you down to me;
Your thirst for my salvation procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace
A love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race.
To my way of thinking Paul Gerhardt, pastor at Mittenwald and later assistant at St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin, captures the heart of Advent in these two verses. Love is the cause of incarnation. Love is the force which attracts any persons. In the case of incarnation, Love is the impulse of God's care for all of creation which manifests God's person in the person of the Christ-child. In Gerhardt's poetry, "O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace a love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race." Remembering in Advent that love is the catalyst which moves God to act is a good way to hold the two prongs of the season in a dynamic tension. Love led God to come as Jesus, and love will be the aim of Jesus' returning too.
God's love for us is a given. The important pondering for us in Advent is to ask, "Do I love God?" In Gerhardt's poem, "O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?" I think about the ways I will be greeting those I love in the holiday season. I will pray in eager anticipation of their arrival. I will probably procure special food or drink to honor them. I will joyfully embrace them and welcome them into my home. How will I plan to meet my Lord in Advent and Christmas? Gerhardt, once again, provides good counsel in the form of a petition, "O kindle, Lord most holy, a lamp within my breast, to do in spirit lowly all that may please you best."
One way to think about our discipleship is to say that all of the specifics of the things we do (all of the rules we follow and disciplines we embrace) are simply a way of responding to the question, "What would most please the God I love?" Gerhardt suggests the time-honored path of humility. We please God best when, with spirit lowly, we keep the lamp of the good news of the gospel well trimmed and shining from within. Let us be diligent in completing every good thing we begin this Advent, not growing weary in doing what is right, but letting our lives be a daily expression of God's love for this world.
Daily Collect:
Lord of Love: you come in love beyond telling to embrace us and to offer to us an alternative to our life in the rat-race which so often brutalizes us. Help us, Lord, to kindle within the fire of your life and light that we might see the lamp within and be guided in its radiance into a life like your own, which in gentle humility is at work for the redemption of all. In the name of God’s love come down. Amen.
[Paul Gerhardt, 1653; Trans. Catherine Winkworth 1863]
O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you, my hope, my heart's delight!
O kindle, Lord most holy, a lamp within my breast,
To do in spirit lowly all that may please you best.
Love caused your incarnation, love brought you down to me;
Your thirst for my salvation procured my liberty.
O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace
A love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race.
To my way of thinking Paul Gerhardt, pastor at Mittenwald and later assistant at St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin, captures the heart of Advent in these two verses. Love is the cause of incarnation. Love is the force which attracts any persons. In the case of incarnation, Love is the impulse of God's care for all of creation which manifests God's person in the person of the Christ-child. In Gerhardt's poetry, "O love beyond all telling, that led you to embrace a love all loves excelling our lost and fallen race." Remembering in Advent that love is the catalyst which moves God to act is a good way to hold the two prongs of the season in a dynamic tension. Love led God to come as Jesus, and love will be the aim of Jesus' returning too.
God's love for us is a given. The important pondering for us in Advent is to ask, "Do I love God?" In Gerhardt's poem, "O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?" I think about the ways I will be greeting those I love in the holiday season. I will pray in eager anticipation of their arrival. I will probably procure special food or drink to honor them. I will joyfully embrace them and welcome them into my home. How will I plan to meet my Lord in Advent and Christmas? Gerhardt, once again, provides good counsel in the form of a petition, "O kindle, Lord most holy, a lamp within my breast, to do in spirit lowly all that may please you best."
One way to think about our discipleship is to say that all of the specifics of the things we do (all of the rules we follow and disciplines we embrace) are simply a way of responding to the question, "What would most please the God I love?" Gerhardt suggests the time-honored path of humility. We please God best when, with spirit lowly, we keep the lamp of the good news of the gospel well trimmed and shining from within. Let us be diligent in completing every good thing we begin this Advent, not growing weary in doing what is right, but letting our lives be a daily expression of God's love for this world.
Daily Collect:
Lord of Love: you come in love beyond telling to embrace us and to offer to us an alternative to our life in the rat-race which so often brutalizes us. Help us, Lord, to kindle within the fire of your life and light that we might see the lamp within and be guided in its radiance into a life like your own, which in gentle humility is at work for the redemption of all. In the name of God’s love come down. Amen.
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