Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

First, listen to this version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, listening particularly the second verse of this rendition which goes like this:

O come, O come, great Lord of might,

who to your tribes on Sinai's height

in ancient times did give the law

in cloud and majesty and awe

I love that this verse draws from the past ~ a reminder of how God was with God's people in the time of Exodus.  Remember the second book of the Bible details how a people were captive to the Egyptian insatiable demand for more and more bricks.  Just as we today can be captive to our demands for the latest, greatest iphone or vacation or car.  And the God of liberation entered in, led that out of that place, through a Red Sea ~ which initially blocked there way - they feared there was no way out - but suddenly the sea parted.  Suddenly we sea after the phone is in our hand or we are back home from vacation or the car gets a scratch/dent...that the promises those things made were not as true or trusted as we first thought.  

God journeys with the People of Israel through the wilderness.  God tents with them ~ with is an echo of the Gospel of John saying that, "The Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhoods."  God journeys with us through the wilderness of our life.  Then, when the time was right, God and Moses chit chatting on Mount Sinai through a cloud.  But it wasn't only majesty and awe, but also fear.  Fear because having God that close and personal isn't exactly what the church has taught us.  We have kept God up and out rather than down and in.  We preach God as the stern judge, rather than the compassionate, caring One right next to us.  We do this so God stays distant and we can still feel in control/charge.  

Are there ways you keep God at arm's length?  I don't ask that to awaken any guilt.  So, just go ahead and set that aside.  I'll wait.  I keep God at arm's length when I race through my day rather than starting in prayer.  When I want to race to my conclusions rather than pausing to ask, wait, for what God is up to?  I keep God at arm's length when I think it is all up to me, rather than leaning into the ever lasting arms of God.  

Listen for the coming of Emmanuel right into the messy middle of your life today.  Let God rummage and roam around...not like a drill sergeant pointing out the flaws but as a co-creator who can help us envision another way of living.  One of my favorite quotes for Richard Rohr is that, "We cannot think our way into a new way of living (see post from yesterday), we have to live our way into a new way of thinking."  That is a what Advent is all about if we let, trust in the slow work of the Spirit.

Prayer:  Enter in, O God, with a tenacious love and tender grace I need for this day.  Amen.