Deus Misereatur

[If you would like to listen to the sermon, you can go here ] O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Pt 1 Isaiah 7.10-17 (Matthew 1.18-25) O dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart: come and set thy people free, from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee! And as we meditate on the ancient Carol, Veni Emmanuel, fill our hearts and joys with your very self. Amen. “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is a beautiful carol, sung by hordes of people every year. It’s ancient, we know for certain that the stanzas are at least an 8 th century in composition (though there are hints it might be even older), and has long centuries behind it. Originally it had seven verses all beginning with “O” and was called the “O Antiphons”. A portion was sung each night from 16-23 December, one line each night. Then somewhere around the 11 th or 12 th century, the lines were coddled together into a kind of hymn. The tune we sing these words with surfaced in a breviary for nuns ...

Lord, your servant, our brother Paul, told us “ Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving ” (Colossians 4.2). Therefore, we continue to devote our selves to prayer, always looking for ways to give thanks. We pray for this upcoming Advent and Christmas season. Lord Jesus, thank you that you have promised that when you were lifted up from the earth, you would draw all people to yourself (John 12.32). Thank you that you drew us and many whom we know. Thank you for faithful preachers, Sunday School teachers, parents, grandparents, friends and co-workers who announced the Gospel to us. We ask that you would draw the wayward and willful; the wrecked and ruined; the prosperous and those in penury; Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, Secularists, Agnostics, Atheists, the “Don’t Cares” and “Could Care Lesses.”As the carols are playing on radios, music apps, store-speakers, and in our heads; we pray that the Gospel will seep through the b...

From Psalm 145.13b-21 “ The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The LORD upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down .” Thank you that on you we can rely; on you we can lean; and to you we can give ourselves away! We join together with those around us who have fallen or been pressed down under desperation, darkness, dreariness, or disquiet, and pray….hold their heads up, turn their faces to look up into yours and radiate your care and compassion through and through, that their hearts may rise in cheer, and their bodies stand straight and sturdy.  “ The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing .” Thank you for supplying us with wealth and welfare, for being there and bringing unlooked for help when we were in want and woe. There are many, some who live just down the block from us, or a street over from us, who work in the cubical next t...