Welcome to Advent. The latin word advent means “to come”, so to observe Advent is to focus our thoughts on the three ways Jesus has, is and will come. He came as the long-awaited, long-promised Messiah to Israel 2,000 years ago, and we will be reading those promises in our services; He comes to us now through His Spirit and the Word; and He will come again one day as King and make all things right.
Many people are familiar with the powerful sense of longing expressed in the song, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. The Latin version of the text, on which our English carol is based, has a long rich history in the church going back as far as the 6th Century. Originally comprised of seven phrases that each used a messianic title for Christ, one phrase was sung/chanted on each of the seven days leading up to Christmas. During this advent season we want to sing and share our growing anticipation for Christ’s coming, looking at four of these titles; for He is the WISDOM of God who brings us HOPE, the KING of the nations who brings us PEACE, the DAYSPRING, the light who brings us JOY, and EMMANUEL, who brings us God’s LOVE.