Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free.

These are the opening words to a very familiar Advent carol written by Charles Wesley. Advent is about the anticipation and expectation of the birth of the Messiah. It is an exciting time for children and adults alike.

Since I am 8 months pregnant right now, the idea of expectation and anticipation of the arrival of a child is much more directly meaningful to me than Advent usually is. Actually, that is a term that people often use for pregnant women: "Are you expecting?" Expectation at this point (with about four weeks left to go in this pregnancy) is not as much about excitement as it is about endurance and the long haul.

For me it mirrors what the Israelites must have felt as they waited for the Messiah to come. I had never quite realized until recently that God was silent for the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the appearing of Gabriel to Mary. That is as long as the time between the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, which was even before the pilgrims arrived, and the present day. That amount of time is hard for me to wrap my head around.

I only have nine months to anticipate and expect the coming of my child. And although I don't know precisely when my child will come, I have a general idea, which makes this last few hard weeks less difficult to endure. They had to wait for hundreds of years for their Messiah, and they didn't have any idea when the Messiah would come.

For Christians, the liturgical year is a way of framing different aspects of our faith. And Advent, though only 25 days long, is a way of expressing the waiting and anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. For children, Christmas seems a long time away (as it does for some adults), but let us use this time of waiting and anticipation and expectation to turn our hearts toward Christ in a new way this year.

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art:
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child, and yet a king,
born to reign in us for ever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal Spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all-sufficient merit
raise us to thy glorious throne.

- Charles Wesley (1707-1788), 1744