Alleluia, Christ is Risen! 

He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

“O Come O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel who mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.  Rejoice, Rejoice Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.”  This hymn, one of the oldest hymns in the treasury of the Christian Church has been sung by countless numbers of Christians throughout the centuries.  This hymn repeats the heart-felt cries of God’s people – from the ancient Israelites to the earliest Christians, and to us – present day disciples of Jesus Christ.  God’s people long for God, Emmanuel, which in Hebrew means –“God with us”.  We cry to Him for freedom, for salvation, and for love.      

The hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel lifts to God in song our universal yearning as people in exile, mourning with tears for their freedom, their permanent home, and their God.  It echoes the cries of the Israelites in captivity in Babylon , mourning the conquest of their Holy City Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple , the house of God where they offered their sacrificial worship and received atonement for their sins.  The Israelites cried rivers of tears while they waited in exile for God to come to release and free them.  They waited for God to come and lead them home.  Through His prophets God told His covenant people he would create a new heaven and a new earth where all nations would come to a New Jerusalem to worship Him. 

Just like the ancient Israelites, we too are familiar with mourning and tears – when we stand at the grave of someone we love, when pain and illness overcome us, when we find ourselves in self-imposed exile – remote and alone.  We too wait for God to release us, free us and bring us home to His Holy City.  The promise of a new heaven, a new earth and a New Jerusalem is for us.  “Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.”

The hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel lifts to God in song our universal longing for a glimpse of God’s glory, power, and might as we wait for eternal freedom from death, and the grave.  St John , exiled on the island of Patmos , shared his vision from God to Christians facing severe persecution, the threat of death, false teaching, and the threat of being compromised by the larger culture.  The world around them was in turmoil.  They knew others who had died for their faith.  They may well have known eyewitnesses to the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

The resurrection of Christ had begun to re-create everything that God had made.  God had given St John a glimpse of what was in store for His people, suffering people in desperate need of hope.  To these St John shared the vision of a new heaven, a new earth and a new Holy City , Jerusalem .  The resurrection of Christ made the Temple in Jerusalem obsolete.  For the early Christians there was no more need to go to the temple to worship God.  There was no more need for temple priests to offer sacrifices for their sins.  Jesus Christ the perfect sacrifice, his blood from the cross staining the earth, completely paid the price for the sin of the world and secured our salvation.

Access to the power and presence of God was no longer limited to the Temple in Jerusalem .  At baptism God made each of his disciples a temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are temples of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Comforter.  Emmanuel is present among us now in our gatherings as we worship Him together, in His Word proclaimed and in the holy meal as Christ sustains us with his very presence in the bread and wine.

When the new Holy City comes which God Himself is preparing, he will dwell there with us forever.  For now, our sure and certain hope is that God, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, will one day bring all of His people to His Holy City, a city where there is no temple because God will dwell directly with us.  “Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.”

The hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel lifts to God in song our universal longing for the joy of God’s eternal presence -- his love, comfort and protection.  We know love, sacrificial love, because Christ first loved us and gave his life for us.  Christ demonstrated his love by going to the gates of hell for us and breaking the chains of death.  Christ demonstrated his love by laying down His life for His friends.  This is the love that Christ gave his disciples – us – as a new commandment to love one another. 

We show one other and the world that we are marked with the cross of Christ forever by loving one another with the very love that took Christ to the cross.  This love is stronger than suffering and pain.  This love is stronger than death and the grave.  This love compels us, in the name of Jesus, to befriend the lonely, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the dying.  In love, we continue Christ’s work until he comes again to bring us to the Holy City where we will dwell with God face to face. 

When Christ brings us home we will cry no more.  He will wipe away our tears.  He will gift us with water from the spring of the water of life.  The first things will pass away.  Death, mourning, and pain will be gone.  “Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.” 

“O Come O key of David come and open wide our heavenly home.  Make safe the way that leads on high and close the path to misery.  Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel.”

Amen

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed Alleluia!