O Adonai
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December 18, 2019O Adonai, ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and gave him the law on Sinai, come! Stretch forth your arm to redeem us!
O Adonai
Unsayable, you chose to speak one tongue,
Unseeable, you gave yourself away,
The Adonai, the Tetragrammaton
Grew by a wayside in the light of day.
O you who dared to be a tribal God,
To own a language, people and a place,
Who chose to be exploited and betrayed,
If so you might be met with face to face,
Come to us here, who would not find you there,
Who chose to know the skin and not the pith,
Who heard no more than thunder in the air,
Who marked the mere events and not the myth.
Touch the bare branches of our unbelief
And blaze again like fire in every leaf.
Poem: Malcolm Guite; Image: Adam Boulter
Jesus is Lord of our lives, the Almighty with a human face, a name and a history, who walked our road of mortality to the end. Let us know ourselves led by him in the way of salvation, as we faithfully follow, and so we lead the way for others. Let us know ourselves kindled with the purifying flame of his desire, and so burn as bright beacons of hope for a people in darkness. Let us know ourselves ruled by his law of love, painstakingly discerned according to person and circumstance, and so manifest the mind of Christ. May we experience within that arm of strength guiding us without fail, as “A smoking cloud by day and a light of flaming fire by night” (Is 4:5), as a voice that says: “‘This is the way; walk in it,’ when you would turn to the right or the left” (Is 30:21), and so may we find our way in him who is the Way.