This Advent we are digging into the fascinating history and rich scriptural foundations of several beloved classical Christmas carols. Today’s message is both for skeptics and believers as we look into the incredible story behind the Advent Carol “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”

Isaiah 61:1-4,10-11

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has
anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives… to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair…
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will
renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
:
10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me
with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so
the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

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Come, thou long expected Jesus

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 forever
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

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“Our Hearts are Restless Until They Rest in You”

From the Confessions
Saint Augustine of Hippo

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and
your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation,
long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our
sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you
may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is
unquiet until it rests in you.
Grant me to know and understand, Lord, which comes first. To call upon you or to
praise you? To know you or to call upon you? Must we know you before we can call
upon you? Anyone who invokes what is still unknown may be making a mistake. Or
should you be invoked first, so that we may then come to know you? But how can
people call upon someone in whom they do not yet believe? And how can they believe
without a preacher?
But scripture tells us that those who seek the Lord will praise him, for as they seek they
find him, and on finding him they will praise him. Let me seek you then, Lord, even while
I am calling upon you, and call upon you even as I believe in you; for to us you have
indeed been preached. My faith calls upon you, Lord, this faith which is your gift to me,
which you have breathed into me through the humanity of your Son and the ministry of
your preacher.
How shall I call upon my God, my God and my Lord, when by the very act of calling
upon him I would be calling him into myself? Is there any place within me into which my
God might come? How should the God who made heaven and earth come into me? Is
there any room in me for you, Lord, my God? Even heaven and earth, which you have
made and in which you have made me – can even they contain you? Since nothing that
exists would exist without you, does it follow that whatever exists does in some way
contain you?

But if this is so, how can I, who am one of these existing things, ask you to come into
me, when I would not exist at all unless you were already in me? Not yet am I in hell,
after all but even if I were, you would be there too; for if I descend into the underworld,
you are there. No, my God, I would not exist, I would not be at all, if you were not in me.
Or should I say, rather, that I should not exist if I were not in you, from whom are all
things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things? Yes, Lord, that is the truth,
that is indeed the truth. To what place can I invite you, then, since I am in you? Or
where could you come from, in order to come into me? To what place outside heaven
and earth could I travel, so that my God could come to me there, the God who said, I fill
heaven and earth?
Who will grant it to me to find peace in you? Who will grant me this grace, that you
should come into my heart and inebriate it, enabling me to forget the evils that beset me
and embrace you, my only good? What are you to me? Have mercy on me, so that I
may tell. What indeed am I to you, that you should command me to love you, and grow
angry with me if I do not, and threaten me with enormous woes? Is not the failure to
love you woe enough in itself?
Alas for me! Through your own merciful dealings with me, O Lord my God, tell me what
you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart
is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let
me run towards this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me
die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed.
Excerpted from the Confessions of St. Augustine (Book I, Chapter 1)