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The hymn ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel‘ is the most popular Advent hymn, It dates back to more than 1500 years and its author is unknown, It was translated into English by John Mason Neale. All the verses begin with an antiphon, a short line to be sung before and after each psalm. Each antiphon begins with the letter ‘O’ and they are known as “the O antiphons.” In churches that follow the catholic traditions these antiphons are used at Evening Prayer and Mass the last week of Advent, one for each day.

 

The antiphons are based on Isaiah: Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel is Hebrew for “God with us.” The “Rod of Jesse” refers to Isaiah 11:1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.” Jesse was the father of David, second kind of Isreal. “Day-Spring” comes from Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, in Luke 1:78: “The dayspring from on high has visited us.” “Thou Key of David” is in Isaiah 22:22: “The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder,” which in turn refers to Isaiah 9:6, “The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Traditionally, the hymn is sung daily from the Third Sunday of Advent.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1).

The prophet Isaiah spoke of ‘a shoot from the stem of Jesse’ whose reign would have ushered in a time of peace and stability for a nation that had suffered great hardship and instability. The promised king was going to be endowed with gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge and fear of the Lord; gifts that were necessary for him to accomplish his mission of establishing peace; a task given to him by God.

In today’s Old Testament reading the prophet speaks of an era of peace characterised by justice for the poor. In this period of time wild animals, domestic animals and human persons will live and co-exist with each other in an environment of bliss. The prophet writes to encourage hopeless people; a Saviour is coming. The advent of this Saviour will give hope to the despairing, peace to the troubled and light to those who live in darkness. It is a message of hope.

The message of today’s Old Testament reading is relevant to us as we go through this testing period in our history. Rightly understood, it invites us to live with the conviction that deliverance will come and a new day will dawn. It asks us to be hopeful.

Sometimes the impression is given that hope means acceptance of the situation until it blows itself away; it does not. Hope more than a nice feeling. Hope is more than a pious idea divorced from reality. We must be careful that we do not make hope a cliché or tired expression which makes no contribution to what we hope for in our life and nation. In this we regard when we speak of hope we must be clear in our minds what we mean and this must be conveyed to those who will hear us. We must not make hope the opium for the people; it is not something to numb people’s feelings and keep them passive and submissive. Hope is action.

The Christian understanding of hope suggests that tomorrow will be better than today. Hope is not a passive idea. Hope is dynamic; it challenges us to do something so that what we hope for can become a living reality. (What do you hope for in your life?) Hope demands that we cooperate with God and this cooperation must be expressed in action.

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead …. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. (James 2: 15-17, 26)

This passage from James makes the salient point that a person who says to one who is naked and cold, “go in peace, be warmed and filled,” but does nothing to bring relief is just speaking empty words. Such a person’s faith is empty and lacks substance; so it is with hope. In the same way that faith without works is dead; hope without action is dead.

Hope is more than going into Independence Square and praying and claiming to have the power to banish Satan from our midst. Hope is more than saying God does not downgrade us. Hope is action.

Our present situation can become a living experience of hope but it will not materialise by just saying have hope, all will be well. Tomorrow can be better but we must take action now to ensure that tomorrow will be better. Without meaningful action hope will not be realised. If we believe in hope we will not be afraid to make difficult decisions in our personal lives and life at the national level. To believe in hope is to face the situation and do what is best based on all available evidence so that tomorrow can be better. To live in hope is to be pragmatic even if it means a reversal of policies and decisions, a change in the course of action, an acknowledgement that we made mistakes and a willingness to accept responsibility for our actions. As a people we must have the political and social will to take informed action on all the issues we face at the present moment and suffer the consequences of our decisions. Never let it be said that we did not act.

The ‘shoot from the stump of Jesse’ gave meaningful hope to Israel because he acted: with righteousness he judged for the poor, he decided with equity for the meek of the earth; he smote the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked.

Nelson Mandela whose life we remember at this time was the embodiment of hope. He expressed his hope in action as he led demonstrations, refused to obey the apartheid laws, call for trade boycotts against South Africa, confronted the rulers of the day and denounced them as evil. He was pragmatic and from time to time he changed his policies so that his hope would be realized. Above all he expressed his hope in a better tomorrow for oppressed people in South Africa and the world by accepting torture and imprisonment. This is hope.

We live in the hope that tomorrow will be better. We live in the hope that the:

wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

However, if this kind of peaceful living is to come to our land we must have the collective political, religious and social will to create the environment that would allow the lion to dwell with the lamb.

As such we must ensure that we live in a society that does not practice discrimination of any kind, a society that respects and safe guards the basic rights of all its citizens, a society that uses its resources to ensure a decent standard of living for all its citizens , a society that treasures truth, honesty and transparency, a society that has a visionary leadership, a society that is willing to embrace the knowledge of the Lord and to believe that in our time he is working his purpose out. This is not utopian thinking; it is possible if we allow our hope to take action.

To hope is to act.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1).

 

Wayne E. Isaacs