Below is a piece written by BSK student Leigh Anne Armstrong as well as two short choruses she wrote about the journey from Advent to Christmas. Read and listen below!
I am told that “Advent” is taken from the Latin adventus, which is from the Greek word parousia, which means “coming.” The season itself is one in which Christians traditionally anticipate the coming of Christ – through most of the church’s history the “second coming” at some future time, and more recently the coming of the newborn Jesus whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. It seems to me, then, that this makes Advent a time of invitation, a time for yearning after Christ’s presence, a time for flinging open the doors of our lives – as they are, right now – in anticipation. It feels like a time for welcome, for meeting Jesus in our own lives. With this song, which might fit nicely with the longing of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, I hope to express that sense of welcome.
“I Will Welcome You”
I will practice your presence; I will see you in my sister
I’ll surrender to the holy, I won’t be a resister
I will practice your presence; I will see you in my brother
I will celebrate the sacred; I will find you in “the other”
I will welcome you to my here and now
to the messy midst of life, to the teary eye, to the furrowed brow
I will welcome you so come right in – be born in me again.
-laca.
The funny thing about this season, though, is that we are not the only ones inviting. Jesus’ birth, lit by stars and warmed by stabled beasts and announced by a swirling mass of heaven’s messengers, is also an invitation to come. “Emmanuel”. The very name announces God’s desire to invite us in…and if the name “God with us” didn’t do it, the angel chorus urging us to hurry to Bethlehem surely would! In the stunning reciprocity of the season, God in Jesus accepts our invitation (again! again!) to “come” – and in hopeful compassion, extends an invitation all God’s own (again! again!) to “come.” In this song, which would perhaps complement the beckoning of “Angels We Have Heard on High” (“Come to Bethlehem and see!”), the invitation is to celebration and to re-creation, is for those ready and for those wondering. “Come.”
“If You’re Ready (Come)”
If you’re ready, and your heart is celebrating, come
If you’re ready, and you’re in need of re-creating, come
Ready or not, if you’re in a tough spot, wondering if the hour’s too late
That voice that you heard was just a whispered word
and now you’re ready to step out on faith…
or you’re not…it’s a lot…
If you’re ready, and your heart is celebrating, come
If you’re ready, and you’re in need of re-creating, come
Come, come.
-laca.
