Dear Faith Family,
It's hard to believe that we are just ten short days away from the morning that has garnered so much of our attention, efforts, and even anxiousness over the last month! In just under 240 hours (depending on when you read this), most will be up and in the middle of a half-groggy, frantic tearing into the treasures built up under our trees. All this before we splurge on sweets family staples as we move from one gathering to the next. The thought of it all rises in me a mixture of elation and angst!
While much of life seems too swift, it is even more true of the final sprint to Christmas morn. As in every good story and song, the pace quickens, building to the crescendo, which is why I want to invite you to join me in an Advent practice we started a few years ago. A habit meant to help us do what we've been doing all month: slow down and step into the depth of the flow of these last days before Christmas, rather than to be swept up by them.
In the first centuries after Christ's resurrection, our faith forerunners developed a custom of praying seven great prayers to call afresh on Jesus to "come." These prayers are prayed without using our customary designations for Christ; instead, they address Jesus by titles found in the Old Testament, especially in Isaiah: "O Wisdom!" "O Root of Jesse!" "O Emmanuel!" etc.
They called these prayers the "O Antiphones," for they are sung as much as prayed. Seven brief songs calling us into the quickening anticipation of our salvation needed and provided. Malcome Guite explains their design and aid for you and me this way,
"Each antiphone begins with the invocation 'O' and then calls on Christ, although never by name. The mysterious titles and emblems given him from the pages of the Old Testament touch our deepest needs and intuitions; then each antiphon prays the great Advent verb, Veni, 'Come!'
There is, I think, both wisdom and humility in this strange abstention from the name of Christ in a Christian prayer. Of course, these prayers are composed AD...but in a sense, Advent itself is always BC! The whole purpose of Advent is to be for a moment fully and consciously Before Christ...Whoever compiled these prayers was able, imaginatively, to write 'BC,' perhaps saying to themselves: 'If I hadn't heard of Christ, and didn't know the name of Jesus, I would still long for a savior. I would still need someone to come. Who would I need? I would need a gift of Wisdom, I would need a Light, a King, a Root, a Key, a Flame.' And poring over the pages of the Old Testament, they would find all these things promised in the coming of Christ. By calling on Christ using each of these seven several gifts and prophecies, we learn afresh the meaning of a perhaps too familiar name.
It might be a good Advent exercise, and paradoxically an aid to sharing the faith, if for a season we didn't rush in our conversation to refer to the known name, the predigested knowledge, the formulae of our faith, but waited alongside our non-Christian neighbors, who are, of course, living 'BC.' We should perhaps count ourselves among the people who walk in darkness but look for a marvelous light."
The O Antiphones officially begin on Friday (17th) and will carry us through the 23rd. We'll post them in our Collective Prayers and send out a push reminder each day via the app.
But in the day or so between, take a moment and consider Guite's exhortation, to ponder afresh "Who do you need to come this Christmas?" and find in Jesus' arrival your need met.
Love you, faith family! Merry Christmas, and God bless.