Encore Post: On Christmas Eve of 1818, two hundred and eleven years ago today, Joseph Mohr, the Catholic priest of a small parish in Oberndorf, Austria, learned that the organ was out of order and not available for mass that evening. A few years earlier, he had composed a poem meditating on the birth of Jesus. The times were very hard for his parishioners. Austria and all of Europe were still recovering from the wars of Napoleon, which were followed by a famine caused by a very cold year and crop failures. He did not want to disappoint them. He asked his organist and friend, Franz Gruber, to set it to music for the guitar.
The quiet tune and simple words struck a chord in people’s hearts. Traveling choir troupes soon picked up the song and spread it. The beloved carol has found a place now in Christmas worldwide. During the dark days of World War I, during a spontaneous Christmas truce, both sides joined in singing the carol together.
Like most poetry, the song takes some poetic liberties. Jesus probably did not have golden hair, as the German originally sings. A stable is not likely to have been very quiet, and Scripture does not tell us what time of day Mary gave birth. Yet it captures, as most carols do, the simple truths. In a rural, working town, in the far corner of a client kingdom of the Roman Empire, is where God Himself became a man, born of a simple, young woman.
Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, and by the greatest mystery of them all, true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is our Lord. He redeemed us, not with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood and innocent suffering and death. We are now his own and live in his kingdom. When God sees us, he sees Jesus. When we see Jesus, we see God.
So we sing this Christmas lullaby and go to sleep in peace, even in the midst of our turbulent world, filled as it is with sorrow, trouble, grief, and death. Sleep in peace, children of God. Rest merry. Christ was born to save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray. He has destroyed death and crushed the serpent’s head. You will live with him forever.
Encore Post: O Emmanuel, our King and our Lord, the Anointed for the nations and their Savior, come and save us, O Lord our God.
O Emmanuel, Rex et legisfer noster, expectatio gentium, et Salvator erum,veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster.
In most of the world’s religions, God is very far away. For some, he is the high god who made the world and left it to lesser gods and humans to manage as they can. In Eastern religious traditions, everything is god, a single being without differences. According to them, the problem is that we think we’re individuals and are weighed down by our bodies and material things. Deists of the Enlightenment — like Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin — think of God as a craftsman, like a watchmaker, who made a fine watch; the world wound it up and let it run as designed.
Over the last few years, we’ve caught glimpses of this in popular song. We’re told, “the three men I admired most, The Father, Son, and The Holy Ghost, they took the last train for the coast.” (Don McLean, American Pie, Verse Six) and “God is watching us from a distance” (Bette Midler, From a Distance, Refrain). We’re asked, “What if God was one of us?” (Joan Osborne, One of Us, Chorus)
Our last antiphon reminds us that this is not true at all. A virgin conceived and bore a son — Emmanuel — God-with-Us. (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23). This child — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), never left us. Instead, he left his throne and became one of us. He was in every way like us, except he did not sin. He lived a perfect life for us, suffered for us, bore our sins and died for us, and rose from the dead to open the gate to heaven for us. He is with us whenever we gather to worship. He gives us his body with bread and his blood with wine for the forgiveness of sins. He will come again to bring us home before very long.
So yes, God is one of us. “He’s by our side, with his good gifts and Spirit.” (Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress, Stanza Four) So, come, Emmanuel, come!
O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Encore Post: O King of the Nations, the Ruler they long for, the Cornerstone uniting all people, come and save us all, whom You formed out of clay.
O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unem,veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
Everyone wants a hero king. A strong, powerful, attractive warrior, a leader who inspires loyalty. In our stories, myths, and ballads, he is without flaw and brings peace through strength. Of course, this king is from our tribe! He conquers all and resolves all our disputes. The more arrogant among us think this king should be me!
There have been real kings who did most of these things. Alexander the Great unified the Western world. Augustus Caesar repeated the feat three hundred years later. There were Israel’s kings David, Solomon, and Hezekiah. Egypt had its Ramses and Cleopatra. England had Arthur and others. The problem with all of them, great as they were, is that they were flawed — and made lots of enemies.
Isaiah prophesied that the real King, the Messiah, would come to unite the nations. (Isaiah 2:2-5, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 60) The Messiah brings peace that lasts forever. He will prevail where mortal kings cannot because He is God and lays down His life for his people. He brings together all people as one because he removes the sin that divides them. He is the cornerstone on which the eternal, peaceable kingdom is built.
Our antiphon calls on him to come and save us. We are mortal and cannot save ourselves. He is eternal and is salvation itself. He has already come and made his people a kingdom of priests to serve for the sake of others. When he comes again, he will remove the darkness cast over us and live with us forever.
Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind In one the hearts of all mankind; Bid Thou our sad divisions cease, And be Thyself our King of Peace. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Encore Post: O Dayspring, splendor of light everlasting, come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae,veni, et illumina sedentis in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
In the Northern Hemisphere, December is the darkest month of the year — and December 21st the darkest day of the year. The winter solstice occurs in the early evening. On that date, dawn occurs at the latest time in the morning, and sunset comes at the earliest time. It reminds us of the dark times in which we live — where sin is not restrained, evil seems to rule unhindered, and death casts its shadow over us.
Into this darkness, the Daystar shines. The Sun of Righteousness rises to heal us. (Malachi 4:2) We see his great light, and it gives us great joy. He breaks the power of sin and death over us. The child born in Bethlehem is now our Lord. (Isaiah 9:2-7) He will guide us in the way of peace.
Our antiphon today calls for Christ, our Dawn, to shine on us in our dark times, to dispel its gloom, bring joy to us, and remind us of the last day, soon to come, when the King shall come. On that day, all shadows will disappear, and he will dry every tear from our eyes.
O come, Thou Dayspring from on high, And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh, Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, And death’s dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Encore Post: O Key of David, and Scepter of the House of Israel, You open and no one can close, You close and no one can open. Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death.
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel, qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit, veni et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.
Even in monarchies, kings cannot rule by themselves. They need quite a few officials to carry out their will and control access to the throne, so that royal time is not wasted on trivial matters or those not on the King’s agenda. Isaiah announces God’s appointment of such an officer for King Hezekiah. He was the former Chief of Staff. The symbol of his authority was the Key of David, so that he would open doors no one could close and close doors no one could open. (Isaiah 22:22)
In the letters to the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation, Jesus announces he has the Key of David and opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven, which no one can shut. (Revelation 3:7) Many try to place burdens on God’s people, restrict those who can come to the Father, and block the way to Heaven.
But Jesus is the Key of David, who opened the kingdom of Heaven by his sacrificial death and by breaking the seal of the grave when he rose from the dead. For those who believe in him, heaven is always open and is never shut. He removes the sin that blocks our way and bars the door to hell forever.
Now, through pastors whom he sends to his people, the keys to open heaven unlock doors for us, remove the chains of our sin and shame, and provide bread and drink for the journey — His holy body and his precious blood. These sustain us until we arrive home at last and enter its open door forever.
O come, Thou Key of David, come, And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high, And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel!
Encore Post: O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom they will do homage, come quickly to deliver us.
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur,veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardere.
The title in today’s antiphon comes from Isaiah 11. The people of Israel had been unfaithful to God, worshiping the idols of the surrounding Gentiles. He had already destroyed the northern kingdom with the Assyrian Empire. Isaiah predicted that eventually the same would happen to the southern kingdom. The house of David would eventually be destroyed as well. Isaiah prophesied that the root of this tree would sprout again. The messiah would come to be that branch from the root of Jesse, King David’s father. His will be an everlasting kingdom.
Isaiah then switches images. The Root of Jesse was to be a flag to which the Gentiles would rally. Before electronic communication, armies used trumpets and flags to keep their forces together and is send orders to every unit. An old proverb says that even the most thorough battle plan does not survive the beginning of conflict. Loud sounds, explosions, the clash of weapons, and, in modern times, the smoke of firearms cause chaos impossible to shout over. When soldiers lose track of where they are, they look for their unit flag and the national flag. They make their way to the flag, and the forces reassemble.
The Messiah will be, Isaiah tells us, the flag to which the people of Israel and the Gentiles will gather. He will bring people together in peace. The antiphon focuses on the absolute power the Messiah will have over all kings. It calls on him to free us from their control and not to be late.
When the Messiah came, the freedom he granted was over Satan, sin, and our flesh. He did this with the sacrifice of his own life in our place. When he rose from the grave, he broke its seal and opened the kingdom to all believers. When he comes again, he will complete that liberation, when we, free from sin, will live for him and with him forever.
O come, Thou Branch of Jesse’s tree, Free them from Satan’s tyranny That trust Thy mighty pow’r to save, And give them vict’ry o’er the grave. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to you, O Israel!
At Just the Right Time Sermon on Galatians 4:4 Third Wednesday in Advent Our Hope Lutheran Church 17 December 2025
Text: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. (Ga 4:4).
Time is a funny thing. We use clocks that measure the vibrations of atoms, coordinated with telescopes to record their passage with great precision and consistency from place to place, transmit them to us via computers, satellites, radio, television, and other digital signals, and synchronise our clocks with them. We barely notice that time is a human thing — except on leap years or when we change our clocks twice a year or move from time zone to time zone.
Time is how we record the changes we notice more and more each year of life. Time passes quickly. When you are a child, an hour drags on forever. As an adult, it passes before you realise it. What is important, our culture has noticed, is not time itself, but what you do with it. It has become our new currency. We would sooner write a check than hang out.
The Greek of the New Testament uses two different words for time. καιρός (kairos) translates roughly “the right time.” χρόνος (Chronos) is about the passage of time, minute after minute, hour after hour, year after year. Seasons like Advent, days like Christmas and New Year’s Day are χρόνος, times that we plan for, come and go, forming a part of the rhythm of life. That Christmas when you opened your first present is καιρός
These Advent Wednesdays, we’ve touched on the descent of Jesus. Pastor looked at the Son of Abraham, Seminarian Joe looked at the Son of David. Tonight, we look at Son of the Woman — two women, actually. Eve, the mother of us all, and Mary of Nazareth. These women represent particular right times — the first gospel promise to Eve and its fulfilment, and all the promises of God to save the world, when the Word became flesh in the womb of Mary.
The fullness of time when God sent his son, born of a virgin, is God’s καιρός (Galatians 4:4-5). His acts and plans unfolded slowly, one building on another, leading to just that right time. The next big καιρός is the Second Advent, when time itself will come to an end in God’s eternal life with his people.
Time began when God created the world in six days, concluding it with making man in his own image, creating him in his own image. He formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, and then made Eve from his side. As he rested on the first Sabbath Day, he looked at it all, and it was very good.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they brought sin, suffering, grief and death into the world. But God still loved us, even loved us before he made the world. Even while placing the curse on Eve, he had already set in motion his plan to save us. The sons of the serpent would bruise the heel of her Seed, the Son of the Woman, and that Son of hers would crush his head.
One son of Eve, faithful to God’s promises, built an Ark. Through this son, God saved eight souls and the animals of his creation. Now it would be a son of Eve, a son of Noah, Abraham, through whom he would bless the world. But not just any son whom he loved, but a Son of Sarah.
Later, a son of Abraham and Sarah had mercy on his widowed sister-in-law, Ruth, and married her. Boaz and Ruth’s son, David, would be King of Israel, and God promised one of his sons would be the Messiah.
David, though a man after God’s own heart, was promised that one of his sons would sit on his throne forever. After repenting of his sins, God gave David and Bathsheba a son, Solomon, through whom God would keep his promise.
As the years flew by, God sent one prophet after another, calling his people to repentance and promising the coming of yet one more son of a woman to come to redeem his people from their slavery to sin and death. He shaped kings and kingdoms, put in place one condition after another, so that the times were just correct for his son to become flesh and live among us, born of a virgin.
God had become one of us. He perfectly obeyed the law we disobeyed, bore our sins to the cross, where he paid the price of our sin for us. Having died for us, he rose again to break the seal of the grave forever and ascended to the throne of God, where today he prays for us.
Now, when we are baptised, he places his name on us, adopting us as heirs of our Heavenly Father, so that now we can call him our Father. When our Chronos runs out, and our Kairos comes, he will welcome us home and dry every tear in our eyes. We will wait with him for one more Kairos, when we will return with him to make all things new.
On that day, he will call our bodies from their graves, unite them with our souls, and transform them into glorious bodies, fit for eternity. Then we will go with him and all his saints to the new heavens and new earth, where we will shine like the sun in the joy of our heavenly Father. At that last Kairos, he will say it again: “It is very good!”
Encore Post: O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai, come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.
O Adonai, et dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti,veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
Moses was minding his father-in-law’s business — his sheep — when he saw a bush on fire that did not burn up. When he went up to see what was happening, the Angel of the Lord (the pre-incarnate Son of God himself) spoke with him from the bush. He commissioned Moses to free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Doing everything he could to avoid the subject, Moses asked for the Name of God. “I am who I am,” the Messiah replied. (Exodus 3) That name we pronounce Yahweh. It is spelled with four consonants in Hebrew — יהוה (YHWH). After the Babylonian exile, the Jewish people decided not to pronounce that name so it could not be taken in vain. Instead, they said, “Adonai” which means “my Lord.” Wherever the Angel of the Lord appears in the Old Testament, this name is given to him. He revealed God’s law to Moses on this same spot after the Exodus.
Because the Messiah is God, there is nothing he cannot do. He loved his people, Israel, so he sent Moses to free them. He displayed his power to free them with plagues and miracles, including the parting of the Red Sea. Later, the Scriptures would describe it as his outstretched arm.
The prayer calls on the Messiah to come and redeem us, which he did. This time, the miracle was not raw power, but the power of God himself paying the price of our salvation — not with silver or gold, but with his own blood. He himself became the sacrifice of our sin, paying its price in full.
One day, he will come again in glory to redeem the world once and for all, defeating death, sin, and the devil. On that day, his outstretched arm will restore all things and bring all to his throne. There, all will confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father.
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might, Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height In ancient times didst give the Law In cloud and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Encore Post: O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things, come and teach us the way of prudence.
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, suaviterque disponens omnia,veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
In the formal language of the church, important days are celebrated for eight days. The eighth day is called the Octave (Latin for eight) of the festival. It is a symbol of eternal life. Since there are only seven days of the week, the eighth day is thought of as being beyond time in the presence of God himself, where angels, archangels, and all the company of Heaven worship the Lamb-Who-Was-Slain. In a sense, all worship services are conducted on the eighth day. The Octave of Christmas is New Year’s Day, when the church remembers the Circumcision of Jesus and begins the new year in the Name of Jesus. December 17th is kind of an octave in reverse. On this day, the O Antiphons begin.
The first prayer meditates on the title “Wisdom.” In the popular philosophy of Greece and Rome, Wisdom is taught by the Word (the Logos — λόγος), a part of God Himself who comes to the world to instruct the worthy in Wisdom. (σοφία — Sophia) Isaiah prophesied that the Spirit of Wisdom would be in the Messiah. (Isaiah 11:1-9) In the Scriptures, knowledge is about knowing facts and the way things work. Wisdom is about knowing the best way to apply knowledge. Wisdom is not about what you know, but who you know. It begins with the fear of God and is built upon trusting God to keep His promises. (faith) Wisdom hears the Word of God, judges possible actions by it, and acts deliberately according to it. In this prayer, we ask the Lord to teach us to live in this way.
The highest form of wisdom is the cross. Here, God himself is sacrificed to pay the price of our evil. It seems foolish to the world, the good dying for the sake of the evil and conquering it once and for all. Yet for us it is the most profound wisdom of all. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) The way of prudence, then, teaches us to confess our sins, receive pardon for them, and lay down our lives for others.
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, Who ord’rest all things mightily; To us the path of knowledge show, And teach us in her ways to go. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel!
Encore Post: Among the most ancient prayers still used by Christians are the O Antiphons. Seven prayers settled into the evening service in monasteries, at least by the time of King Charlemagne (700s-800s). They are used for the seven days before Christmas. An antiphon is a Psalm verse or prayer used as a refrain when Psalms or liturgical songs are sung. These prayers begin with the Latin word “O.” They are in collect form and focus on titles given by the Prophet Isaiah to the Messiah.
In most Lutheran parishes, the O Antiphons go by unnoticed. There is typically only one devotional evening service conducted that week. Yet they will sound very familiar to you. Five of them were paraphrased by an unknown hymn writer into the carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” In fact, the Lutheran Service Book provides the actual O Antiphons along with the dates they were traditionally prayed.
Each antiphon begins with a title of the Messiah. It then describes what God has done, making this title appropriate for the Messiah. Finally, the prayer asks the Messiah to do something that fits the title. If you use it as a prayer, end with “who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, forever and ever. Amen.”
During the next week, I’ll write a post about each of them. Why not use these prayers in your devotions as a kind of countdown to Christmas?
