O Lord, How Shall I Meet You (ELW 241)
1 O Lord, how shall I meet you,
how welcome you aright?
Your people long to greet you,
my hope, my heart’s delight!
Oh, kindle, Lord most holy,
your lamp within my breast
to do in spirit lowly
all that may please you best.
2 I lay in fetters, groaning;
you came to set me free.
I stood, my shame bemoaning;
you came to honor me.
A glorious crown you give me,
a treasure safe on high
that will not fail or leave me
as earthly riches fly.
3 Love caused your incarnation;
love brought you down to me.
Your thirst for my salvation
procured my liberty.
Oh, love beyond all telling,
that led you to embrace
in love, all love excelling,
our lost and fallen race.
4 Rejoice, then, you sad-hearted,
who sit in deepest gloom,
who mourn your joys departed
and tremble at your doom.
All hail the Lord’s appearing!
O glorious Sun, now come,
send forth your beams so cheering
and guide us safely home.
Devotion
The Lutheran Calendar of Saints marks Thursday, October 26 to remember the hymnwriters Philipp Nicolai (d.1608), Johann Heermann (d. 1647), and Paul Gerhardt (d. 1676). One of Germany’s greatest hymnwriters, nine of Gerhardt’s works appear in the ELW. As in this Advent hymn, Gerhardt hymns often depict a bold, confident faith and joy in Christ’s conquest of death in the resurrection and of Gerhardt’s own anticipation of heaven. “A glorious crown you give me, a treasure safe on high that will not fail or leave me as earthly riches fly.”
This confident faith was true in spite of many losses in life: both parents died before he turned fifteen; a first ecclesiastical appointment delayed by the Thirty Years War; loss of a year’s income because of a church dispute; and in the 1660’s his wife’s death leaves him with one surviving child.
May Gerhardt’s example and words encourage us too so to live.
Prayer
“Oh, kindle, Lord most holy, your lamp within my breast to do in spirit lowly all that may please you best.” Amen. (Paul Gerhardt)