The Advent of Our King (v. 1-3)
by Charles Coffin, 1676-1749, tr.
John Chandler 1806-76
The Advent of our King Advent
– appearing/coming/arriving
Our prayers must now employ, employ – engage or use
And we must hymns of welcome sing hymns – a religious song or poem
In strains of holy joy. Strains
– the sound of a piece of music
The everlasting Son
Incarnate deigns to be, Incarnate
– in flesh/body
Himself a servant’s form puts on deign – lower
oneself/permits
To set His servants free.
O Zion’s daughter, rise Zion
– a city symbolizing the people of God
To meet your lowly King,
Nor let your faithless heart despise despise – consider worthless
The peace He comes to bring.
It is common to prepare when we are
hosting guests. We get a room ready, clean the house, and make special meals. The Advent of our King reminds us that
Jesus our King is coming. How shall we prepare? We turn to prayer and song:
prayers which call upon God for His mercy, blessings, and salvation, and songs
of praise to welcome Jesus as our king.
This is a special guest, indeed,
and deserves special preparation. He is everlasting and is, in fact, God in
human flesh. He has humbled himself so that we might welcome him. Why would He
need to humble himself? Because our sin so terribly separated us from Him that
we could not welcome Him as He is, but He loved us so much that He took the
lower place and come to us. No wonder we should rise to meet Jesus! He comes in
peace and delivers peace to His servants.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, fill our songs and
prayers with thoughts of Your coming and incarnation. Help us to marvel and be
in awe of your humility, and draw us to yourself. Fill us with your peace and
help us to prepare to welcome You in our lives. Amen.
One of the devotional practices of Advent is the giving of alms and other acts of generosity. Through the month I encourage you to find ways to give. The giving can be great or small, but in any case it should be selfless. You could pick up a stranger's tab at the drive through. You might notice someone is short on cash in the check out line. Drop some coins in the Salvation Army kettle. One of the ministries that I would like to suggest as worthy of your generosity is Lutheran Campus Ministry of Kent. You can check them out here: https://kentstatelutherhouse.org/
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