Monday, December 9, 2024
Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.
Luke 21:27
On the first Sunday of Advent, we were standing in the narthex waiting for the procession to begin. As the organist began to play the first few introductory notes of the entrance hymn, our lector for the day turned to me and with great excitement said, “I’m going to have this hymn in my head all day today!”
She was referring to the well-known Advent hymn, “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending,” written by Charles Wesley, one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time, in 1758.
By the lector’s mere suggestion I was hooked. I found myself humming it into that evening and the next day. Whether the tune, or the text, it is one of those hymns that sticks with you. In popular slang, we call it an “earworm.”
The first verse of the hymn paints a majestic portrait of Jesus coming in the clouds, as the Gospel writer Luke depicts, “with power and great glory.”
Lo! he comes with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand, thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.
Despite the fact that many scholars maintain that Christ’s return, as described in scripture, was intended to strike fear in the hearts of the wayward (and the third verse alludes to that), the opening verse of this hymn does quite the opposite. It fills one with anticipation and eagerness for that day.
Take about five minutes to listen to the choir of Trinity College in Cambridge sing the hymn in the video below. You can thank me later for getting your day started off on a joyful note.
Let us pray.
O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 819)
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Artwork: Charles Wesley (1707-1788), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons