046 Lo, we come with pods descending

Advent is back! And so are all of your favorite Advent hymns.

Download this episode (mp3).

Pictured: David spots a hymn tune in the wild

Hymns mentioned in this episode (numbers refer to the Hymnal 1982):

• 57: Lo, he comes with clouds descending (Helmsley)
• 58: Lo, he comes with clouds descending (St. Thomas)
• 61: "Sleepers, wake!" A voice astounds us
• 56: O come, O come, Emmanuel
• 100: Joy to the world! the Lord is come
• 76: On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry
• 67: Comfort, comfort ye my people
• 60: Creator of the stars of night

A Service for Advent with Carols from the Chapel of St. John's, Cambridge, England; service leaflet (PDF)

Fermata

"Lo, he comes with clouds descending" in the news:

The [Church of England] report offered the example of Charles Wesley’s well-known hymn, ‘Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending’:

“Every eye shall now behold him/ Robed in dreadful majesty;/ Those who set at nought and sold him,/ Pierced and nailed him to the tree,/ Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,/ Shall the true Messiah see.”

“It is possible to read lines 3-6 and imagine they are about the Jewish people as collectively guilty of crucifying the Messiah,” the report notes, “who when he comes again in power and glory recognise - too late? - the terrible crime they have committed. “Understood in that way, they convey the ‘teaching of contempt’ which the Church of England now rejects. If that were the only way to read them, they should no longer be sung in public worship.”

Swerling, Gabriela. "Centuries of Christian anti-Semitism led to Holocaust, landmark Church of England report concludes". The Telegraph, 21 November 2019.

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