On the Mark December 6th 2009
Awake and Hearken
On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh
Awake and hearken, for He brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings.
Then cleansed be every heart from sin
Make straight the way of God within;
Oh, let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there.
In this ancient Advent carol from 1690, we sing the word hearken. We don’t use words like hearken anymore, but look at the word and you see within it “hear”. Hear the announcement of John the Baptist that the Lord is near. Hear him as he calls us to prepare for the Lord’s coming. Hear him as he tells us how to prepare: Cleanse your heart! Align your life with God! Repent! Remove the hindrances…the things in your life that would set up a roadblock. The Christ wants to come to YOU!
Hear the psalmist also as he exhorts us to praise and prepare: “Sing to God, sing praises to His name; cast up a highway for Him who rides through the desert; His name is the LORD, exult before Him!” Psalm 68:3-4. Praise builds the highway for the King to come to us! Let’s sing our hearts out to Him this season, looking for deeper meaning for our lives in the sometimes too-familiar words of the carols. They hold glad tidings for each of us! Come to think of it…we don’t use words like tidings anymore either.
With anticipation,
Roberta
The Rev. Roberta Schneider
Deacon
Themocracy
I always receive a word to repent. I have found that no matter how supposedly clean my life is, in the human eye, it truly is like filthy rags in reality.