Tuesday 23. December 2014
Rorate Caeli: 4. Sunday in Advent
O Emmanuel
℣ O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Hope of the nations and their | Savior:*
℟ Draw near and save us O | Lord our God.
The O Emmanuel Antiphon is the final O Antiphon and is from Isaiah 7,14: »Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin conceives, bears a Son and calls Him Immanuel.« Immanuel means "God with us", and the birth of Jesus is exactly that: God has been born into our world and He is in our midst in a way never before seen. God has taken up into His Godhood human flesh and blood.
The Athanasian Creed beautifully explains Jesus' incarnation and birth: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His Divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity. Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ: one, however, not by the conversion of the Divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ." (Lutheran Service Book 320)
What this means simply is: Jesus, the Son of God, took up a human body and was born into this world in order to redeem us back to God the Father. This is the great joy and gift of Christmas.
The Athanasian Creed beautifully explains Jesus' incarnation and birth: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His Divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity. Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ: one, however, not by the conversion of the Divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ." (Lutheran Service Book 320)
What this means simply is: Jesus, the Son of God, took up a human body and was born into this world in order to redeem us back to God the Father. This is the great joy and gift of Christmas.
Prayer: Draw near, O Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, who mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Amen.
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