Here am I
This fourth week in the Advent season, we are gathered around the symbolic candle of love. We began with hope, peace, joy, and now we arrive, on the Sunday before Christmas, at love.
The Christmas story, I have always felt, it a great love story – this is one of the reasons it captivates everyone, within the church and beyond. It has all the ear marks of a great romance, the initial upset in a prospective marriage, a dangerous journey, opposition, rejection, uncertainty, twists and turns in its plot, angelic visitations, and the eventual triumph of the couple at its centre. And intertwined with this very human story, is a story of divine love and devotion, of God’s love for humanity, God’s care and concern. This romance between the great mysterious divine spirit and the great collective mystery that is humanity in a never-ending dance to discover how they might waltz together without stepping on one another’s toes. As romances go, it’s BIG.
O Ancient Love, Words: Michael Jonas
O ancient love, processing through the ages:
O hidden love, revealed in human form:
O promised love, the dream of seers and sages:
O living Love, within our hearts be born,
O living Love, within our hearts be borne.
O homeless love, that dwells among the stranger:
O lowly love, that knows the mighty’s scorn:
O hungry love, that lay within a manger:
O living Love, within our hearts be born,
O living Love, within our hearts be borne.
O gentle love, caressing those in sorrow:
O tender love, that comforts those forlorn:
O hopeful love, that promises tomorrow:
O living Love, within our hearts be born,
O living Love, within our hearts be borne.
O suff’ring love, that bears our human weakness:
O boundless love, that rises with the morn:
O mighty love, concealed in infant meekness:
O living Love, within our hearts be born,
O living Love, within our hearts be borne.
“On the domed ceiling God
is thinking:
I made them my joy,
and everything else I created
I made to bless them.
But see what they do!
I know their hearts
and arguments:
“We’re descended from
Cain. Evil is nothing new,
so what does it matter now
if we shell the infirmary,
and the well where the fearful
and rash alike must
come for water?”
God thinks Mary into being.
Suspended at the apogee
of the golden dome,
she curls in a brown pod,
and inside her the mind
of Christ, cloaked in blood,
lodges and begins to grow.”
Fourth Week of Matthew Myer Boulton’s Must Listen Advent Podcast Series
“Reading the story of the Annunciation through the lens of this week’s Advent theme of “Love” is an invitation to reflect on what love really is, both God’s and ours. The Christmas story is an epic, multigenerational love story, a story of God coming to be with us through prestigious prophets and “nowhere” towns; though venerable priests and vulnerable young women; through stars and shepherds and scripture and song..”
Welcome to “Strange New World,” a show about understanding the Bible, the world’s most influential, misunderstood book — a podcast tailor-made for skeptics, believers, and everybody in between.
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Here’s the fourth and concluding episode in our four-part series, “Understanding Christmas - Part Four.”
