Wait for the Lord, whose day is near

Today is Advent Sunday, and the song I chose from Sing Praise is titled ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’. It’s a phrase often used in Advent, as it sums up what the season is about, not only getting ready for Christmas but also for the final return of Christ in glory, whenever that may be.

But the song, one of the chants from the Taizé community, is actually better known by the start of its refrain or ostinato, ‘Wait for the Lord, whose day is near. Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart’.  This also describes the spirit of Advent: waiting for future fulfilment while at the same time being encouraged in the faith (‘take heart’) and making the most of the present time (‘his day is near’).

I made a mistake in sight-reading it at first, wondering why the first line of the ostinato is repeated, then the second, as that’s not how I’ve normally heard it. But then I realised the music staves carry on across the double page spread on each line, which is an odd way of setting it out.

The cantor’s verses, as often with a Taizé chant, don’t follow a fixed metre but fit in and around the ostinato.  The phrases are a mixture of familiar Biblical verse (‘Rejoice in the Lord always’, ‘God heard my cry’, ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’) and what I presume are fresh ones (‘Joy and gladness for all who seek the Lord’, ‘O Lord show us your way, Guide us in your truth’).  But they all fit in with the atmosphere of this season, when we seek better knowledge of God and ourselves, balancing the sober introspection of a time of penitence with the joy of forgiveness (and of course unless you spend the whole four weeks on retreat it’s not possible to ignore the ramping up of festivities in the world around).

Jesus Christ is waiting

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is the second of two on consecutive days by the Scottish hymnwriters John Bell & Graham Maule, both in the series on social justice issues.  Both of them invite us to join our own concerns with those of God. 

This one, “Jesus Christ is waiting”, has a much more active Jesus than yesterday’s.  He is pictured in various actions, beginning with ‘waiting in the streets’.  Is ‘waiting’ an action?  In Christian theology, yes.  Waiting can be about anticipation, praying into a situation knowing that God will move when it’s the right time to do so and not before.   The waiting here, though, is linked with loneliness, and we ask him to make us ‘fit to wait on him’ – a subtle pun on two meanings of ‘waiting’ in English. Are we the sort of waiters who stand around idle and lonely, or the sort of waiters (as in a restaurant) who work tirelessly to satisfy the needs of others who are lonely?

The other actions of Jesus are much more energetic: raging, healing, dancing, calling. Raging at life’s injustices, healing in response to need, dancing in triumph when goodness wins out, and calling for more people to follow his example. All these are seen in his life, indeed all are seen in his actions in the Temple: raging at the money-sellers, healing those excluded from the temple because of their disabilities, calling ‘on the last and greatest day of the feast’ (when surely there was dancing) for disciples to follow him, but also of course waiting on God in prayer.

What unites the words of the verses are that all these actions take place ‘in the streets’ – in the public realm, not in our private prayer rooms and chapels but where the need is and where our actions are visible.  And that in each verse our response is to say “I am … too”: we share Jesus’ concerns and seek to copy his actions.

I think the choice of tune – ‘Noel Nouvelet’ – is just right.  Its minor key suits the theme of dealing with injustice, but at the same time it has a lively dance rhythm (it’s described as a French carol tune) that goes with the image of Jesus dancing and calling in particular.  The verses should be varied in pace and volume when sung – slower and quieter for ‘waiting and healing’, faster for ‘dancing’, louder for ‘raging and calling’.