A belated Advent meditation

O come, O come Emanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That waits in lonely exile here
Until the Son of Man appear.

Dear God,

We are held captive in Babylon.
We are captive to a system that values everything with money
so it only values that which can be bought and sold
and buys and sells everything of value.
We are captives of a way of life that has plundered the earth
until the earth itself is turning against us.
We are captives of as economic system that extracts wealth from the poor
and distributes it to the rich.
We are captives of a political system that values power as an end in itself
and does not have compassion for the poor and the powerless.

Forgive us Father for what we have done and for what we have left undone.

We have taken your good gifts and have turned them into idols.
We use them to fill the holes in us that are the places where you would reside.
We use food and drink and lust and gambling and a thousand other addictions to keep us from seeing the truths about ourselves that You would show us, and in the showing, heal us.
We have forgotten You, thinking that somehow we can save ourselves with our own power and wealth and technology.
We have each of us turned to our own way, prizing individuality as a supreme virtue and forgetting that you said you would be with us when we were gathered together.

Forgive us Father for what we have done and for what we have left undone.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Israel – the one who strives with God – Rejoice.
Emanuel – God With Us – will come to you and lead you. Rejoice!

You will set us free and lead us to the New Jerusalem
Where Your presence is with us all the time
Where Your Light and healing have removed our sin and brokenness.
Where all may come because the gates are always open and never close.
Where there is a new heaven and a new earth because the old have passed away.

Thank you, God, for your blessings, for your healings and for your promise.

Amen