Words of Light and Hope from Jane McLarty LLM.

WORDS OF LIGHT AND HOPE
Sunday 10th December  2023                                                                                                                                                                         By Jane McLarty LLM

There are two themes that are traditionally associated with the second Sunday in Advent: the
prophets of the Old Testament, Jesus’ bible, who point forward to the coming of the Messiah; and
peace. The two themes do not at first sight seem to be connected, since the Old Testament
prophets did not on the whole live peaceful lives, or die quietly in their beds. But in their
tumultuous times, the prophets looked ahead to the new world that God will one day bring about, a
world where old enemies in nature (such as the lion and the lamb) will lie down quietly together in
friendship. The coming of Jesus started off the growth of the Kingdom of God, which as Jesus himself
said in one of his parables, at first grows quietly and unseen like a seed in the earth: but one day will
come to full growth and ripeness and bear its fruit of a new heaven and new earth, God’s kingdom
of goodness and peace.
This sonnet by Malcolm Guite speaks of the longed for coming of Jesus with words from the
prophets (eg ‘root’ Isaiah 11:1) and from the gospels. Some traditions associate faith or waiting with
he second Sunday in Advent, and this poem speaks to our sense of expectancy as we look towards
the coming of Christ.
Advent by Malcolm Guite
O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.