Sunday, December 17, 2023  

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Today’s Hymn

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
in love, all loves excelling,
our lost and fallen race.

You come, O Lord, with gladness,
in mercy and goodwill,
to bring an end to sadness
and bid our fears be still.
In patient expectation
we live for that great day
when your renewed creation
your glory shall display.

Paul Gerhardt’s “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You”
trans. Catherine Winkworth et. al.
from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal

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Reflection

We have only the second and third stanzas of this Advent hymn for today. However, the opening line of the first stanza begins “O Lord, how shall I meet you, how welcome you aright?”

The author was a Lutheran minister and prolific hymnodist of the seventeenth century. He is reflecting on the significance of God incarnate, not so much demanding that God respond to entreaties. What does the incarnation really mean?

First: God’s love for God’s creation, despite inherent sinfulness. Next, God is happy about God’s creation (“gladness,” “mercy” and “goodwill”). The hymnist is also positive, despite bloody battles in Germany in the mid-seventeenth century. He hopes that sadness and fears may end.

As we continue through this Advent season in the twenty-first century, our world, both internationally and here at home, is dealing with battles on many fronts. So it is difficult to think about meeting God “aright.” Maybe that’s the challenge: we should actively strive to be hopeful and positive and try to spread that attitude around us — now — not just wait for the second coming.

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Prayer
Loving God, help us in this season to remember your goodness and mercy strongly enough that we might be able to share that attitude with others who face being overcome by sadness and fear.

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Written by Rebecca Dixon, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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