Advent is only 22 days long this year. Is that cheering from people who hate singing Advent hymns? Shame, shame! I love Advent hymns so I’ll use my three Thursdays in the season to write about some of them.

I learned my first Advent song when I was 11 years old and singing in a children’s choir. It was “People, Look East” (ELW # 248). Here’s the first verse:

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today,
Love, the Guest, is on the way.

The text was written by Eleanor Farjeon for the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928. She’s probably best known for the hymn “Morning Has Broken.” I think what grabbed me as a kid was the tune, a lively French carol probably from the sixteenth century.

Farjeon starts with people preparing the house which most people were probably doing in preparation for Christmas. She uses this mundane activity to remind us “Love, the Guest, is on the way.” The song turns next to the earth itself preparing (furrows be glad), stars keeping watch and finally the angel’s announcement. Each verse takes us closer to the wondrous birth and gives Love (Jesus) another name: the Rose, the Star, the Lord. It’s a great song to sing while lighting the Advent wreath at home.

May Love be on its way to you this Advent.

Read Psalm 80:1-3 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

“Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.” Psalm 80:1-3