O Wondrous One,
Who rides the skies
and consorts with the earth,
haunting the heavens,
hounding mere mortals
with the expectation of ecstasy,
come and rouse hungry hearts
wandering this famined land
with the aroma of your presence.
Come, angelic envoys,
with renewed announcement
of glory (to God) and
peace (for the earth).
Your people long for
Messiah’s rejoinder,
through wombs made welcome
to the news of reversal:
the annulment of enmity
and the Advent of promise.
From Jesse’s ancient stump
raise again a voice consonant
with hope’s manger-laid disclosure,
of delight with wolf and lamb,
and children marshalling the
cavalcade astride the Lion of Judah.
O Majestic One,
whose passion spills
into flesh and blood,
set our hearts on the edge of our seats,
shivering in hope, longing,
longing for the age
when bitter memory
dissolves into magnificat.
As with our ancient sister Mary,
entreat us with the subversive promise
of Only Begotten freedom, begat
in the belly of holy submission.
May our lips echo
the jubilant manifesto
of creation’s destiny
with justice and with joy.
Holy One of heaven,
mark these dark nights
with the brilliance of your star
to guide emissaries of exclaiming grace:
of contradiction and scandal
to the insolent innkeepers of this age;
of blessing and bounty to the indigent,
to all who find no lasting home
save in the age to come.
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Advent 1998. Inspired by the nativity stories in Matthew and Luke and lines in Isaiah 11.