Now it is the custom in God’s congregation at this season that all the servants of God, in the divine services, both in holy readings and in melodious hymns continually recite the songs of the prophets. The prophets, through the Spirit of God, prophesied the coming of Christ in his incarnation, and wrote many books about it, which we now read in the services of God before the time of his birth, to honour him, because he so lovingly chose to come to us. Christ came to mankind visibly at that time, but he is always invisibly with his beloved servants, just as he himself promised, saying, “Lo, I am with you always, until the fulfilment of this world.” With these words he showed that until the ending of the world there would always be people beloved by him, who will become worthy to share God’s dwelling with him.
The holy prophets prophesied both the first coming in his birth, and also the second at the great judgement. We too, God’s servants, strengthen our faith by the services of this season, because in our hymns we confess our redemption by his first coming, and we remind ourselves that we should be ready for his second coming, so that we may follow him from that judgement to the eternal life, as he promised us. The apostle Paul spoke about the celebration of this season in the Epistle to the Roman people and to all believers too, urging thus: “My brothers, you know that it is now time for us to arise from sleep: our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is passed, and the day approaches. Let us cast away the works of darkness, and be clothed with the weapons of light, so that we may walk honourably in the day; not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in fornication and impurity, not in strife and hatred; but be clothed in the Lord, Saviour Christ.”
'Þeos tid oð midne winter': An Anglo-Saxon Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent https://t.co/2A797ZYb6k pic.twitter.com/lQQx9NICcA
— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) November 27, 2016