One of my favorite Advent hymns – and actually one of my all-time favorite hymns in general — provides an excellent catechesis and devotion on the entire Advent season. I’m thinking of Paul Gerhardt’s “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You” (LSB 334), which calls to mind the Holy Gospels for all four of the Sundays in this Season (in both the one- and three-year lectionaries), especially if one considers all of Gerhardt’s original stanzas. The hymn comprised ten stanzas, nine of which were included in The Lutheran Hymnal. Lutheran Service Book was supposed to include seven, but the intended fifth stanza was inadvertently omitted from the text as published. All ten stanzas may be found in The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal (CPH, 1958). Stanza 2 confesses the triumphal entry of Advent 1 (as discussed last week). Stanza 7 (stanza 9 in TLH 58) anticipates the coming of the Lord for the final judgment, as proclaimed on Advent 1 (three-year) or Advent 2 (one-year). Stanza 3 easily recalls the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Advent 3). Stanza 5 in TLH 58 calls for the rejoicing that characterizes Advent 3 (Gaudete), even under the most dire of circumstances: “Rejoice, then, ye sad-hearted, who sit in deepest gloom, who mourn o’er joys departed and tremble at your doom. Despair not, He is near you, yea, standing at the door, who best can help and cheer you and bids you weep no more.” And stanza 6, in particular, emphasizes the bearing away of sin and guilt by the one who is the Lamb of God, as heard on Advent 4 in the historic one-year lectionary (and on Advent 3 in Series B).
In looking at the full scope and sequence of this season, it is clear that the “advent” or “coming” of the Christ at hand is not so much the historic event of His Nativity, nor simply the celebration and remembrance of that singular event (as appropriate and salutary as that surely is each year), but as much or more His coming to us now and at the close of the age. As He came in humility when He was born in Bethlehem and went to His Cross, so does He come to His Church by the Ministry of the Gospel, hidden under the Cross in the preaching of His Word and in the Holy Sacraments; and so shall He come in glory for the final judgment at the last. His advent thus embraces all three of the ways we comprehend time: past, present, and future.
Two other Advent hymns call particular attention to this threefold coming of Christ. “Once He Came in Blessing” (LSB 333) confesses that He once came “in likeness lowly” to bear the Cross and save us (st. 1), that He now comes to feed us with “precious food from heaven” (st. 2), and that He will come “in splendor” to render judgment and bring the faithful into “joy beyond comparing” (st. 3). The fourth and final stanza is a prayer, especially fitting to Advent, that the Lord Jesus would come to release us from our sins and to “keep our hearts believing.” Similarly, “Jesus Came, the Heavens Adoring” (LSB 353) begins by acknowledging that He came in lowly humility “to win redemption” by His death upon the Cross (st. 1). The next three stanzas affirm that He now “comes again in mercy” (st. 2) to comfort and sustain His people with His “words of gladness” and forgiveness of sins (st. 3), and that He is with them “in joy and sorrow” (st. 4). In a fifth stanza (inadvertently omitted from LSB) the hymn declares that “Jesus comes on clouds triumphant when the heavens shall pass away,” and it calls upon the Church to pay Him homage in expectation of His coming, singing “Alleluia” until the dawning of that great and glorious day. That missing stanza, which is found at TLH 56:5, is in the public domain and may be reprinted: “Jesus comes on clouds triumphant when the heavens shall pass away; Jesus comes again in glory; let us, then, our homage pay, ‘Alleluia’ ever singing till the dawn of endless day.”
It is in view of this threefold coming of Christ that Advent is not only a season of remembrance but a season of repentance and rejoicing. We remember and give thanks for the promises of God fulfilled in the flesh and blood of Christ, and we rejoice in His presence as we receive Him in the Ministry of His Gospel. But so do we also return to the significance of our Baptism in His Name, especially as we hear and heed St. John’s preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the hope and expectation of the coming judgment. Thus do we pray in several of the Collects of the Day in Advent that our Lord would “stir up His power” to come and help us by His grace and mercy, and that He would “stir up” our hearts to receive Him rightly in repentant faith. Amen! Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!