Patrick Comerford
The countdown to Christmas begins officially in the Church today with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.
The Sunday cycle of lectionary readings is divided into three years: A, B and C. Year B begins today, and for this year we are reading from Saint Mark’s Gospel and Chapter 6 of Saint John’s Gospel of John. These letters are read semi-continuously. Each Sunday, we pick up close to where we left off the Sunday before, though some passages are never read.
Later this morning, I hope to be present at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, and this evening I am singing with the choir in the Advent Carol Service at 6 pm.
But, before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.
Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:
1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 1, ‘Amen’:
The song ‘Amen’ is a track from Leonard Cohen’s album, Old Ideas (2012). He recorded an earlier version in 2007.
This song is a prayer in which the singer struggles to keep on believing that there is a loving God despite all the horrors on earth. Like so many of his songs and poems, it can also be heard as a lyrical song about a problematic relationship – the singer desperately trying to receive his lover’s attention and love.
In this eight or nine-minute confessional, a weary Leonard Cohen owns up to his sins and searches for redemption. ‘Tell me again when the angels are panting and scratching at the door to get in,’ he intones.
Throughout his life, Leonard Cohen drew on Jewish religious, cultural and historical imagery, most famously on ‘Hallelujah.’ Although he spent five years in seclusion in a Zen Buddhist centre, he remained an observant Jew who keeps the Sabbath, refusing to give concerts on Friday nights and giving the priestly blessing of a kohen at the end of every concert.
The phrase ‘Eye of the Camp’ works together Biblical references to the ark in the midst of the camp passing through the ‘eye of a needle’ (Matthew 19: 24; Mark 10: 25), and to being ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ with the horrors and slaughters of the concentration camps and the Holocaust. In Christian terms, it is an Advent plea.
The Kabbalah of Rav Yitzhak Luria had a notably strong effect on Cohen. Jewish mysticism as found in Kabbalah teaches that God needs human beings, and that the very purpose of human existence is to fulfil this divine need. Everything we do has an effect, and every person and every human action has the potential to improve or damage God and the fabric of creation. The most concrete physical actions can have the most profound metaphysical effect. God and humanity are interdependent co-creators.
‘Amen’ has been described as his the most harrowing song he ever wrote. It is a deep moan to God, without sentimentality, laying out the worst of this world, begging maybe just to be able to believe that God will put all things to right, and to be aware of God’s love once again. It is a prayer for this age, and in the end it is a prayer for any age. As the album title says, these are ‘Old Ideas.’
Leonard Cohen, Amen:
Tell me again
When I’ve been to the river
And I’ve taken the edge off my thirst
Tell me again
We’re alone and I’m listening
I’m listening so hard that it hurts
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you want me then
Amen …
Tell me again
When the victims are singing
And the Laws of Remorse are restored
Tell me again
That you know what I’m thinking
But vengeance belongs to the Lord
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you love me then
Amen …
Tell me again
When the day has been ransomed
And the night has no right to begin
Try me again
When the angels are panting
And scratching at the door to come in
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you need me then
Amen …
Tell me again
When the filth of the butcher
Is washed in the blood of the lamb
Tell me again
When the rest of the culture
Has passed through the Eye of the Camp
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you love me then
Amen …
Mark 13: 24-37 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 24 ‘But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 ‘Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
28 ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35 Therefore, keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 December 2023, Adent I, Advent Sunday):
The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme is introduced today:
This week we centre our thoughts on hope. It’s an opportunity to remember the hope God offers, through His Son Jesus, to our flawed and fractured world.
Read Galatians 4: 4-8.
Paul, the writer of Galatians, articulates so perfectly the great hope we celebrate at Christmas. Without God’s intervention, we were all bound and condemned by our sinful nature. However, through God’s great love for us, He came down and rescued humanity by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins – so we could be free from the chains that bind us and to have life eternal.
We have seen so many atrocities in 2023 – wars, terrorism, natural disasters, hunger, loss. It is far too easy to look around the world in which we live and see only despair and pain. This week we have an opportunity to remember the hope God has given us through his only son Jesus Christ.
On this first Sunday of Advent, as we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus’ arrival as a gift to all humanity, let’s stir up in our hearts and homes a sense of anticipation.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
O Come, thou dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine Advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.
(Based on the ancient Advent Antiphons).
The Collect:
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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