Today was our fourth and final Advent lunchtime reflection using the 'Mary had a Baby' material as a jumping off point.

I think it is fair to say we all enjoyed listening to African American spirituals, learned a lot about the latter days of slavery, the struggle for justice, the civil rights movement and the power of songs to carry both truth and coded messages!  We also raised ~£60 for the Christian Aid Christmas appeal which is concerned with maternal health in Africa (as well scoffing yummy food and having lots of fun along the way) and which the UK government will match fund.

Now we begin the last stretch of our journey... Advent 4 proper on Sunday, carols round the piano on Tuesday, Families watchnight on Wednesday and the main event a week today.

Golly that's flown past!!

BPW 404 Awake, wakes: fling off the night!

It has that ring of the parent trying to rouse a teenager, a comedy sargeant major stirring his troops.... wakey, wakey, rise and shine!  No gentle Advent hymn this one, from the cross reference section, and no you tube clip to share (perversely in the offerings it gave me was Sooty and Sweep do the Highland fling....!).  Just to complicate matters further, BPW has a version heavily editted from the one in HymnQuest and in any case there is no permission to copy it... this so does not feel like what I want, as Advent marches relentlessly on towards its conclusion... Maybe that's the point, as lethargy threatens to engulf me, just as the list of seasonal extras yet to be finalised lengthens, I need a bit of a liturgical kick up the derriere!

Anyway, here are the first and final verses manually typed in from BPW...

Awake, awake, fling off the night!

For God has sent his glorious light;

And we who live in Christ's new day

Must works of darkness put away.

Then sing for joy, use all your days;

Give thanks for everything, always.

Lift up your hearts; with one accord

Praise God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Or, as one of those choruses of yester year expressed it:

Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory

Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory

Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory

Children of the Lord!

OK, so Noah's ark has zippo to do with Advent but this video from Lourdes is just so uplifiting... Enjoy!  (and whoa, you are a nice person :-) )

Good news from the Church of England here

Another first woman in the unenviable position of being historical, of being watched, of being lauded, or being insulted, of being called...

May God bless you, Libby,

With true friends to share the joys and sorrows,

With indefatigable courage and the infinite capacity for diasspointment

With moments of unbridalled laughter and fathomless love

With compassion and grace, confidence and humility

And with a real sense of fulfilment as, through you, God blesses others

And, in the words of one Afrcian Archbishop - Yippee!

This link was sent to me by a friend - after I had appeared at church last Sunday wearing my Christmas sweatshirt:

Thankfully the Baptist Union of Lilliput has no such canons!  In any case, surely a grey jumper is suitably penitential for Advent (no violet available!).  Just wait for the Christmas Day one, that's all I'm saying :-)

BPW 397 - Thou art the everlasting Word, by Josiah Conder, early to mid nineteenth century, and a hymn I don't think I've ever looked at before. 

I don't have any idea if anyone is actually following this hymnic (is there such a word?) Advent Calendar, but I am enjoying discovering the hymn/carol for each new day; many well known and loved, some less known and some new.  This one is new to me, and so different, that I think I like it!

Thou art the everlasting Word,
the Father's only Son;
God, manifestly seen and heard,
and heaven's belovèd one.
    Worthy, O Lamb of God, art thou
    that every knee to thee should bow.

In thee, most perfectly expressed,
the Father's glories shine;
of the full deity possessed,
eternally divine:
    Chorus.

True image of the infinite,
whose essence is concealed;
brightness of uncreated light;
the heart of God revealed:
    Chorus.

But the high mysteries of thy name
an angel's grasp transcend:
the Father only-glorious claim-
the Son can comprehend:
    Chorus.

Yet, loving thee, on whom his love
ineffably doth rest,
thy glorious worshippers above,
as one with thee, are blest:
    Chorus.

Throughout the universe of bliss
the centre thou, and sun;
the eternal theme of praise is this,   
to heaven's belovèd one:
    Chorus.

Josiah Conder (1789-1855)
Public Domain

HymnQuest has a whale of a time identifying scriptural links for this hymn - whether Conder intended them is another matter!  Clearly there are Johannine echoes - the Word made flesh - and a sense of awe and wonder that too often seems to be missing in later hymnody.

The mystery exressed in Rosetti's "heaven cannot hold him, not earth sustain" is also seen here, in less gooey terms.  Angels cannot comprehend it any more than earhtly creatures - it is mystery, mysterion.  We don't need to comprehend, don't need to make sense of it, it just is... maybe that's a helpful reminder as we enter the final gallop to Christmas...?  Less logic, more logos?  Less analysis, more angels?  Less cerebral, more celestial? Less adult, more child?  Less angst, more awe?  Something like that anyway!

I can't find a video of this being sung, but if you search for the tune "Palmyra" there are assorted tinny electronic versions online!!  Does not do justice to what is actually a lovely hymn.